What’s not to dig?

By Cindy Luis

cluis@staradvertiser.com

The growth of women’s collegiate sand volleyball is mirrored by that of Hawaii’s program.

Scholarships have increased from three in the inaugural season of 2012 to five currently, with a cap of six next year. The Rainbow Wahine also have been able to increase the number of off-island teams brought in from one in each of the previous two years to six this season, including defending national champion Long Beach State.

The SandBows, as the team calls itself, will find out how good they are quickly. Hawaii, ranked fifth in the preseason poll, opens Friday with dual matches against No. 3 Long Beach State, No. 10 Stanford and unranked Loyola Marymount. The Rainbow Wahine Invitational follows Saturday, with all four teams competing in pairs bracket play.

“We’ve had a couple of focuses,” Hawaii coach Scott Wong said. “One was to play in Hawaii more. We haven’t had the money before, but thanks to the tremendous community support, we’re able to do that this year with six great teams. That was not a fluke, that was intentional. We were able to raise $70,000 to make it happen, thanks to the community.

“Team-wise, we have the talent. The focus has been on toughness. Figuring out teams has a lot of dynamics that go into it: individual skill sets, skill sets that complement a playing partner, and chemistry. We’re pretty set with our first four teams. There isn’t a huge difference between our remaining players. We’re still moving around the order. Just because you’re at No. 3 Friday doesn’t mean you’re at No. 3 all weekend.”

Hawaii has 16 players on the roster, including freshman Hannah Zalopany, who will redshirt. As Wong moves closer to his goal of having only sand-dedicated players, just five players from the Wahine indoor team are playing sand this year — Tayler Higgins, Ginger Long, Ali Longo, Sarah Mendoza and Nikki Taylor.

Four teams are pretty much set in Long-Longo, Taylor-Katie Spieler, Olivia Urban-London Chow and perhaps the most anticipated pairing — transfers Brittany Tiegs-Karissa Cook.

Cook played four years indoors as a setter at Stanford. Tiegs came in from Florida State, where she was an AVCA All-American in 2012. Tiegs transferred to Hawaii last season but redshirted after FSU refused to release her from her scholarship.

“I’m so excited about being able to play again,” said Tiegs, who played her freshman year indoors at Palm Beach (Fla.) State College. “It was hard to sit out last year, but at least I was in a good spot (Hawaii).

“I’m super excited for this year. We have a bunch of new players and the girls who were with us last year all have really stepped up their game. I’m happy about all our home matches, too. It’s nice to be able to host more than we did last year.”

Tiegs said coming to Hawaii from her native Florida wasn’t a huge adjustment. The hard part was sitting out, especially after being so successful in 2012 (50-7-1 with partner Aurora Newgard, seeded No. 1 in the inaugural AVCA sand pairs championship, finishing third nationally).

“Not getting to play … I got bored sometimes, questioned what I was doing,” she said. “But I had to look at the bigger picture. The coaches were really good, kept me engaged with the team.

“Getting to play with Karissa is good, too. She’s a transfer, played on the beach before and we’re both older. We know the game. It’s been really good so far.”

Tiegs said she prefers the sand game — which requires well-roundedness — to the indoor game. She said she did a lot of second-ball setting at FSU because opponents would target Newgard with their serves.

It’s a good pairing of two players of similar skill sets and size (Cook listed at 5 feet 11, Tiegs at 5-9). It’s one of the traditional pairings — split-blocking — used in sand competition, Wong said.

The other traditional pairing is big-small, which is what has occurred with the team of Spieler, at 5-5, and the 6-3 Taylor.

With the campus courts construction behind schedule, the SandBows again will be at Queen’s Beach.

“You can’t beat Queen’s. the teams coming over are excited about playing in Waikiki,” Wong said. “The downside is we can’t sell tickets, which we will be able to do once we’re on campus. It does take it away from the UH fans, but the tradeoff is we’ll be drawing the common spectator who’ll be walking by and stays to watch.”

No Wahine spring game

The Hawaii indoor team will not hold a spring game. Coach Dave Shoji said a couple of factors dictated the decision, one being down to one middle blocker in Jade Vorster. Junior middle Kalei Adolpho is playing on the Wahine basketball team and it’s uncertain when that season might be over.