HERMOSA BEACH, Calif. » No one was enjoying this day at the beach.

The conditions for Saturday’s USAV Collegiate Challenge were, to put it mildly, brutal. And there was nothing mild about temperatures that never got above 60 degrees with icy winds of 20 mph that only the hang-gliding seagulls and pelicans appeared to enjoy.

Much like the waves that crashed against the Hermosa Beach pier, Hawaii’s hopes to qualify for the inaugural AVCA Collegiate Sand Volleyball Championships later this month also crashed along the shore. The Rainbow Wahine went 1-3 in Saturday’s dual matches and "we’re out of it," UH coach Scott Wong said of qualifying for the national event. "Pretty much knew when we lost to USC (3-2 in Saturday’s opener) we knew it wasn’t going to happen."

Although Hawaii won’t be among the four squads competing for the team title in Gulf Shores, Ala., — Pepperdine and USC likely will be the two from the West — the Wahine have a chance to qualify two at-large pairs for the doubles titles.

UH’s Nos. 1, 2 and 3 teams all moved into today’s gold bracket, a single-elimination competition for 16 pairs. Pepperdine (5-0), USC (4-1), Long Beach State (2-2), Hawaii (1-3) and Loyola Marymount (0-4) all have three teams in the gold bracket with Pepperdine’s fourth pair qualifying as an at-large.

Qualifying for today’s gold bracket are the teams of Jane Croson-Ashley Lee, Elizabeth Ka‘aihue Stoltzman-Emily Hartong and Larissa Nordyke-Jade Vorster.

Croson and Lee went 1-3, losing the final match of the day to Loyola Marymount’s Felicia Arriola and Caitlin DeWitt, 21-18, 7-21, 17-15. Croson-Lee held off two match points in Set 3, tying at 15, but the Lions answered with two points, the last on a match-ending ace by Arriola.

"It was really windy today, definitely different than what we played in last week," said Lee, alluding to last Saturday’s matches at Queen’s Beach in Waikiki. "We were expecting wind, but not like this. It was like a tornado."

The gusting winds forced Croson to jettison her high-toss serve and go with a more conservative floater.

"It was hard, I basically can’t jump-serve," Croson said. "You have to go with the float and try to keep it in."

Even the floaters were fickle.

"You’d toss the ball and it would move away before you could make contact," said Hartong, who went 2-2 with Stoltzman. "It wasn’t the cold, it was the wind, and it took a while to adapt to it.

"It becomes more about ball control, keeping the sets lower and passing well. That’s what we need to do tomorrow. And hopefully the wind settles down tomorrow."

Organizers had to cancel Friday’s USAV High Performance tryouts due to the conditions and considered postponing Saturday’s event until today with a shortened format. But the vote was to play as scheduled.

"Conditions were brutal, but everyone had the same wind, the same sand in their eyes," Wong said. "It is what it is. It’s a part of beach volleyball.

"We had to grind it out, but they (the other teams) were better in the wind than we were."

The pairs of Stoltzman-Hartong and Croson-Lee have been together for most of the season. Wong used different combinations for the other three pairs in each dual match Saturday, giving the other 11 players experience.

Hawaii also has two dual matches down the coast Monday in Long Beach — against Long Beach State and Loyola Marymount — to complete its inaugural sand season.