{"id":220028,"date":"2025-08-11T13:16:28","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T23:16:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=220028"},"modified":"2025-08-11T13:16:28","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T23:16:28","slug":"soccer-player-midfielders-to-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/08\/11\/soccer-player-midfielders-to-watch\/","title":{"rendered":"Wahine soccer player named to National Midfielders to Watch list"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> &lt; 1<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minute<\/span><\/span><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/manoa-soccer-midfielder.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-220033\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/manoa-soccer-midfielder.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/manoa-soccer-midfielder-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/manoa-soccer-midfielder-130x73.jpg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa <a href=\"https:\/\/hawaiiathletics.com\/sports\/womens-soccer\">women\u2019s soccer<\/a> midfielder Nalani Damacion was named to the United Soccer Coaches National Midfielders to Watch list after a record-setting freshman season in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Damacion, the 2024 Big West Midfielder of the Year, led the Rainbow Wahine with seven game-winning goals last season, the most by any <abbr title=\"National Collegiate Athletic Association\">NCAA<\/abbr> freshman since 2015. Damacion tied for third nationally and first among freshmen in game-winning goals.<\/p>\n<p>Her seven game-winners also matched the <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> single-season record, tying Natasha Kai (2004) and Tiana Fujimoto (2013).<\/p>\n<p>Damacion became the first player in conference history to earn Big West Freshman of the Week honors five times in one season, and also earned first-team All-Big West, Big West All-Freshman and United Soccer Coaches All-West Region honors.<\/p>\n<p>The Rainbow Wahine will start the season on August 14 at Long Beach State. The home opener at <span aria-label=\"Waipio\">Waipi&#699;o<\/span> Peninsula Soccer Stadium is set for August 21 against Central Arkansas.<\/p>\n<p>Read more at <a href=\"https:\/\/hawaiiathletics.com\/news\/2025\/8\/8\/womens-soccer-damacion-selected-to-national-midfielder-watch-list.aspx\">Hawaiiathletics.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nalani Damacion was named to the list after a record freshman season. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":220033,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1362],"tags":[58,1556,714,9,550],"class_list":["post-220028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics","tag-athletics","tag-soccer","tag-student-athlete","tag-uh-manoa","tag-manoa-athletics","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/manoa-soccer-midfielder.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220028"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":220030,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220028\/revisions\/220030"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}