University of Hawai'i women's soccer head coach Pinsoom Tenzing considers this year's senior class a luxury.

The seniors — Tehane Higa, Taryn Fukuroku, Kelli-Anne Chang, Alexis Choi, Kori Lu and Kristen Oshiro — are such well-rounded scholar-athletes it allowed him to focus on the field instead of what was happening off of it.

This group helped the Rainbow Wahine win their first Western Athletic Conference Tournament championship in 2007 and gain an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament. Yet Tenzing is quick to point out their accomplishments in the classroom.

"As a group, this has to be the strongest," academically, he said. "I have very few problems to manage.

"It's been a profound honor to coach them. They take care of school and take care of business on the field. We haven't been as successful win-losswise this year, but I can't remember any team that outplayed us."

The seniors play their final two home games this weekend against WAC members Utah State and Louisiana Tech.

"It went by so fast," said Higa, the team's co-captain.

This year the Rainbow Wahine (5-5-4, 1-1-1 WAC) are facing opponents that are "playing us with 11 people in their half of the field, and that's a conundrum quite difficult to solve, even for professional teams," Tenzing said. "Because (the Rainbow Wahine) haven't seen situations like this, they perceive that everything is so easy and they get careless on defense.

"With the leadership we have of the six seniors, we'll solve that problem."

The senior class started with 10 freshmen, but was whittled down to the current six. Fukuroku, a co-captain with Higa, believes the group lasted because "we just had the same mentality: that we are really competitive and we weren't going to give up and we're really hard working."

Lu, who started in goal since her freshman year, said they all matured together over the years.

"Like, Tehane, Taryn and (Oshiro) having injuries, but coming back and still being leaders and being strong on the field for us," she said.

Tenzing credits this group with helping to ingrain a strong work ethic.

"(Jessica Domingo's) class started it, working super hard and believing we could do better," Fukuroku said. "We're still trying to instill in the younger players that if you work hard, you can do good things."

That meant unofficial morning workouts when it was still dark outside and organizing pick-up games in the summer.

"This is the lot that changed the character of the team," Tenzing said. "They've done that by doing work when they were not accountable for it — well, they were accountable but no one was seeing if they were doing it or not, and they did it. In the summer when everyone was having a great time going to the beach, they were out there running on Cooke Field, and that's what makes for a team that really can play with anybody."