Strong Waves wash away SandBows

No. 5 Hawaii managed to do something that the past eight beach volleyball teams playing No. 2 Pepperdine hadn’t been able to do: take a flight off the Waves.

The Rainbow Wahine won two flights on Wednesday, ending the Waves’ string of dual sweeps at eight, but fell short for the eighth time time in nine meetings with Pepperdine. The Waves clinched the dual when Brittany Howard and Corinne Quibble rallied past Nikki Taylor and Ka‘iwi Schucht, 14-21, 21-14, 15-9, at Flight 2 in a 3-2 victory.

Hawaii (15-3) picked up wins at Nos. 5 and 1, the latter when Morgan Martin and Mikayla Tucker held off Delaney Knudsen and Madalyn Roh, 26-24, 21-12, 15-11 minutes after Pepperdine (13-1) had earned the clinching point. Martin-Tucker, the reigning Big West pairs team of the week, improved to 13-5 with their 10th victory in the past 12 matches.

“It was tough loss,” Hawaii coach Jeff Hall said in a telephone call. “(Pepperdine) is a really good team. It was their home beach, one of the historic venues for beach volleyball, and they stepped up. They were the better team than we were today.

“They have to travel to us and we look forward to playing them twice.”

The SandBows will host the Waves on April 7 and 8 at the Ching Complex campus courts. Prior to those duals, Hawaii finishes out its nine-matches-in-eight-days trip with the Big West Challenge on Saturday and Sunday at Huntington Beach.

The SandBows open the Challenge with No. 6 Long Beach State (11-2). The 49ers were the last team to take flights off of Pepperdine, also losing to the Waves 3-2.

COLLEGIATE BEACH VOLLEYBALL

At Zuma Beach, Calif.

No. 2 Pepperdine 3, No. 5 Hawaii 2

No. 1 flight: Morgan Martin/Mikayla Tucker (UH) def. Delaney Knudsen/Madalyn Roh (Pep) 26-24, 12-21, 15-11

No. 2: Brittany Howard/Corinne Quiggle (Pep) def. Nikki Taylor/Ka’iwi Schucht (UH) 14-21, 21-14, 15-9

No. 3: SkylarCaputo/Heidi Dyer (Pep) def. Emily Maglio/Laurel Weaver (UH) 21-15, 21-16

No. 4: Anika Wilson/DeahnaKraft (Pep) def. Ari Homayun/Carly Kan (UH) 21-11, 21-19

No. 5: Norene Iosia/Hannah Zalopany (UH) def. Gigi Hernadez/KaityBailey (Pep) 21-19, 28-30, 15-11