SandBows look to use momentum against St. Mary’s

The sports adage is that a team learns more from losing than winning.

While No. 5 Hawaii buys somewhat into that, the Rainbow Wahine beach volleyball team also learned a lot from its upset victory over No. 2 Pepperdine last Saturday.

“Pepperdine is the best defend chase team we’ve faced,” Hawaii coach Jeff Hall said as the SandBows prepared for their final home duals against Saint Mary’s. “They pursue balls so well.

“Monday and Tuesday we borrowed a page from their book and worked on pursuit and chase. I’m not too proud to borrow and steal from teams that do well, and that’s one of their signatures.”

Hawaii (21-5) hopes to ride the momentum of its signature win over Pepperdine against the Gaels (16-6) in the First Foundation Bank Easter Classic. Friday’s dual is at 2 p.m. at the Ching Complex courts and Saturday’s home finale is at 9 a.m. at Queen’s.

The SandBows’ only loss to the Waves came at No. 1, where Mikayla Tucker and Morgan Martin couldn’t hold on against Delaney Knudsen and Madelyn Roh, 19-21, 21-18, 15-10. Had Tucker-Martin won, it would have been the first time the Waves had lost a dual 5-0 in their program’s six-year history. (Pepperdine did lose 3-0 to USC in last year’s NCAA championship tournament, a match that was halted after the Women of Troy earned the clinching point).

“What we’ve talked about is keeping momentum and not letting the other team gain it,” Tucker said on Wednesday. “What it showed is we can compete with the top teams, that we have the ability, we just have to all show up.”

Tucker-Martin are scheduled to face the Gaels’ Lindsey Knudsen and Payton Rund, who are coming off a huge upset win on Saturday at the USAV Beach Collegiate Challenge. Knudsen-Rund handed USC’s Kelly Claes and Sarah Hughes their first loss in almost two years, their 13-21, 21-18, 17-15 victory snapping the Claes-Hughes’ winning streak at 103.

After this week, Hawaii will head to Pismo Beach, Calif., to defend its Big West title at the conference tournament April 28-29.

“We want to make it a yearly thing, just like how the Wahine indoor team does,” Hall said of winning the Big West championship. “It’s not so much that it’s the goal as we want it to be the norm.”