From staff and wire reports
The Hawaii sand volleyball team returns from the AVCA Collegiate Sand Volleyball Championships Monday minus the titles it had hoped to bring back from Gulf Shores, Ala. But the Rainbow Wahine did produce two repeat All-Americans in senior Brittany Tiegs and sophomore Nikki Taylor, who advanced to the quarterfinals of Sunday’s pairs tournament as the SandBows’ lone representatives on the final day of competition.
Sixth-seeded Tiegs-Taylor, playing together at No. 1 most of the season, lost the quarterfinal match to Grand Canyon-1 Shannon Dugan-Kenzie Phelps 21-12, 21-16. Taylor had 15 kills and Tiegs 10 digs against the Antelopes’ pair, who came out of Saturday’s brutal "Best of the Rest" single-elimination bracket to finish tied for third.
Tiegs ended her stellar career as just the second player in the four-year history of the sport to earn All-America honors three times. She did so when, at Florida State in 2012, she finished third with Aurora Newgard; after sitting out a transfer year, she placed second last season with Karissa Cook.
It is the second All-America honor for Taylor in as many years. All eight pairs who reach the quarterfinals are named All-Americans.
"She is an amazing individual and it’s a huge accomplishment to get three," Taylor said of Tiegs during a phone call from Alabama. "People don’t really understand how hard it is just to get one.
"We had Saturday off and felt rested and ready to go today. Grand Canyon played really well, they sided out extremely efficiently. We needed to side-out better, make more runs, and we couldn’t."
Hall, in his first year as the SandBows’ coach, said he was happy for his No. 1 pair.
"It’s a great accomplishment for them," he said. "It took a lot of hard work for them and they earned (All-America). It’s something they will have for the rest of their lives and it helps our progress continue to evolve as one of the premier sand programs in the country.
"It also was nice that they were able to eliminate a Long Beach team and doing it the way that they did it. Played pretty well in the first, dropped a little in the second and handled it in the third."
After not advancing to the final four of the team competition Saturday, Hawaii could send its No. 1 duo to Sunday’s play. Tiegs-Taylor opened with a first-round victory over 11th-seeded Tyler Jackson and Anete Brinke of Long Beach State, 21-16, 15-21, 17-15. Taylor had 18 kills and Tiegs finished with a double-double (15 kills, 10 digs), hitting .536.
The 49ers defeated Hawaii in Friday’s team opener, sending the SandBows into the losers bracket, where they were eliminated two matches later by Pepperdine. Long Beach State went on to lose to top-seeded USC for the team championship Saturday.
The Women of Troy (28-0) also took home the pairs championship for the third consecutive year. Top-seeded Kelly Claes-Sara Hughes swept Loyola Marymount’s Betsi Metter-Sarah Sponcil, 21-12, 21-18 Sunday.
Sunday’s quarterfinal was the third time that UH-1 played GCU-1 this season. Tiegs-Taylor topped Dugan-Phelps 21-12, 21-19 in the March 14 USAV Collegiate Challenge in Chula Vista, Calif. The ‘Lopes pair defeated Tiegs and Sammie Brown — who replaced an injured Taylor — 21-19, 21-18 during an April 19 dual at the Clarence T.C. Ching Complex. "Britt and Nik really stepped it up against Long Beach," first-year UH assistant Evan Silberstein said. "They played well. And to put a Long Beach team out of the tournament … we’ve been so close with them all year (3-2 win, 4-1 win, 3-2 loss in duals) that it was nice to win that last meeting of the season against them.
"It’s pretty impressive to be back-to-back All-Americans. For Britt, it’s a great way to end her career and separates her as one of the great players in the sport."
Hawaii (18-3) loses Tiegs, Brown and Olivia Urban — who paired with Katie Spieler at No. 2 — from the squad that held its first No. 1 ranking for two weeks.
Hall will be leaving the team, changing flights in Dallas. He will join the Rainbow Warriors on Monday in Stanford, Calif., where the Hawaii men face Penn State in Tuesday’s play-in match of the NCAA championship tournament. Hall was the Rainbow Warriors’ associate head coach for the past four seasons, taking over as head sand coach and associate women’s indoor coach in January.
