Merely having a good time is no longer sufficient for the Kalani girls soccer team.

"At the beginning of the season we set goals," senior captain Alyson Suehiro said. "The past two years our goals have been to win a lot, (as opposed to the) previous years it was just to have fun."

This season, after years of toiling in the bottom half of the league, Kalani won the O'ahu Interscholastic Association Eastern Division title for the first time.

A youthful squad with three seniors — Marcy Fujimoto, Suehiro and Lyndsee Sugano, who along with junior Kyla Tamayori captain the team — the Falcons continued the Cinderella season it experienced late last season.

"It's really exciting to win (the East). We're all really happy about it," Suehiro said.

Sugano said claiming the East title hasn't "sunk in yet, because we've never had it before."

The Falcons are one of six teams from the East in this week's OIA tournament. Six teams also qualified from the West, led by West champ Mililani (9-0-3). Kalani (9-2-1), Mililani, and runners-up Kaiser (6-3-1) and Pearl City (9-1-2) all received first-round byes.

On the boys side, Leilehua (9-1-0) captured the boys West title, and Roosevelt (7-1-2) won the East. Moanalua (6-1-3) and 'Aiea (8-2-0) finished second in the division to join Leilehua and Roosevelt in earning first-round byes.

"All the teams that make it into the OIA tournament are great teams and they earned their way into the tournament," Kalani coach Ryan Shinkawa said. "We know you can't take anyone lightly. At this point every team has talent."

In previous years, Kalani had trouble even qualifying for the OIA tournament. When it defeated Kahuku, 2-1, in its final game of the 2006 regular-season to finish in sixth place in the East, it was the first time since 2001 it played in a postseason game.

"No matter if we were the first or last seed, we approach it the same," Shinkawa said. "We just focus on ourselves and do what we can to take care of business."

Last year, the Kalani girls soccer team was excited simply to earn a spot in the OIA Tournament. Its goals are much loftier now.

"Last year, it was 'Wow, we made it to playoffs,' " Fujimoto said. "It kind of was like, go with the flow. We wanted to win, but if we didn't win it was OK. This year everybody wants to win because we know we can go farther than we did."

Although Kalani lost to Mililani in the OIA championship game, 1-0, it earned its first berth in the state tournament in program history.

This year, the Falcons are wary of all competition, especially because they were the team to pull off the upsets last year.

As the sixth seed in 2006, the Falcons blew through the tournament field, upsetting third-seeded Kapolei, second-seeded Kaiser and top-seeded Pearl City.

"It helped to build confidence in our team," said Shinkawa, who guided the growth spurt of the program since taking over two years ago.

"It got our team believing in what they could do. They are a talented group to begin with, but just the power of believing is really important in their success."

Tani Costa, who transferred from Sacred Hearts and played for Pac-Five her freshman year, didn't know about Kalani's history of finishing in the bottom-half of the league year after year. She says her new teammates have a "passion" for the game.

Costa leads the East with 12 goals and said, "Kalani is like ... " then put her two thumbs up.

She scored the game-winner in a 1-0 win over Kaiser in Kalani's final game of the season to help the Falcons clinch the East title.

"I was so stoked. I was like, we have to win," Costa said.

Costa said she is "confident" in the team's ability to better last season. Her teammates share her optimistic outlook.

"We had a lot more confidence coming into this year," Suehiro said. "And other teams knew we were coming out strong, so it made us want to go harder too, because they are expecting us to."

STATE BERTHS

With the introduction of Division II soccer for girls, the number of berths each league receives for the state tournament changed slightly.

For Division I, or Red Division girls, the OIA receives six berths, the Interscholastic League of Honolulu one, the Big Island Interscholastic Federation three, Maui Interscholastic League two, and the Kaua'i Interscholastic Federation none.

For Division II, or White Division girls, the OIA gets four, BIIF four, ILH one, MIL one, and KIF one. The ILH and MIL play off on Maui for the 12th berth.

For boys, there is also a slight change from last year. The ILH and MIL each receive one automatic berth, but must play each other for another berth. The OIA receives five, BIIF three, and the KIF one.

The HHSAA/Meadow Gold Dairies Girls State Soccer Championships for Division I and II are from Feb. 7 to 10 at the Waipi'o Peninsula Soccer Park. The boys state championships are Feb. 14 to 17 at the Waipi'o Peninsula Soccer Park.

Reach Leila Wai at lwai@honoluluadvertiser.com.