It’s as much about this week as it is about this season. It’s also about two years from now and beyond.

The goals of the Hawaii sand volleyball program are both short- and long-term. The SandBows are off to an impressive start, going 3-0 in last Friday’s dual tournament and taking the Wahine Invitational pairs event with an all-Hawaii final, three teams in the semifinals and five of their six teams advancing to the quarters.

No. 5 Hawaii heads to this weekend’s USAV Beach Collegiate Challenge in Chula Vista, Calif., packing a mixed bag of confidence and curiosity. The SandBows open Saturday with No. 1 Pepperdine, which cruised through last weekend’s dual competition with 9-0 wins over No. 2 USC and unranked Cal State Northridge, winning all but one match in straight sets.

This weekend’s competition also includes dual matches with CSUN and Cal State Bakersfield on Saturday. Sunday’s pairs tournament also includes Grand Canyon, which won’t face Hawaii in a dual match.

Hawaii’s success reached the mainland quickly, with the SandBows’ win over defending national champion Long Beach State raising a few eyebrows. Pepperdine coach Nina Matthies knew about it before boarding a plane Sunday for Portland, where she and husband Dan met their second grandchild, born Saturday.

"It looks like Hawaii is playing really, really well," said Matthies, who retired last season after 31 years with the Waves’ indoor team and now only coaches sand. "We’re looking forward to playing them. They have some new faces and some really good transfers we expected to do well.

"Pepperdine is playing well, too, and we are looking forward to seeing Hawaii."

The transfers Matthies referred to were Brittany Tiegs, a 2012 AVCA sand All-American at Florida State, and Stanford graduate and former Cardinal setter Karissa Cook, who is playing for UH as a graduate student. The two teamed to win Saturday’s pairs event, a run that included a 27-25, 25-21 victory over Long Beach State’s Janisa Johnson and Tyler Jackson, who were 25-0 playing as a team last season.

"We’re excited about this weekend, excited to play some good teams and one really good team in Pepperdine," Hawaii coach Scott Wong said. "Pepperdine and Florida State have been good from the beginning (2012), spending all kinds of money, with full-time coaches and a different level of commitment.

"Nina (one of the world’s top beach players with 43 titles) saw this coming. She pushed for the sport. She had a lot of vision and her passion has made her program big-time from the start."

Wong’s vision is equally ambitious. He has begun work on a proposal that would make Hawaii the permanent home of the NCAA women’s sand championship. The sport is still in its "emerging sport" stage and Gulf Shores, Ala., is locked in as host until the NCAA fully sanctions it as a championship sport, likely in 2016.

"Other sports have permanent sites baseball in Omaha (Neb.), softball in Oklahoma City," Wong said. "I’m 100 percent committed to having Hawaii as the permanent site for sand volleyball.

"We’d need 10 courts and likely would have to split the venue between Queen’s and our (campus) courts. But we have shown that we can help teams come here. We’ve gone from one team coming the past two years to having six this season. There’s lots of ways to do it as long as we can get through the red tape."

The SandBows raised about $70,000 last year that helped defray expenses this season, which includes hosting two events with mainland schools and their own travel to four mainland events. This weekend’s tournament will be followed by appearances in the March 29-30 Stanford Invitational, the April 23-13 USA Beach Collegiate Championship in Hermosa Beach, Calif., and the inaugural Big West Challenge, April 18-19 in Huntington Beach, Calif.

"We’ve had great community support so far, but we have to raise money to make it happen," Wong said of potential NCAA championship host duties. "One of the things that will help is if we maintain being a top-tier program. It will help the community interest grow and help get businesses and the Hawaii Tourism Authority to buy into our program."

As for this weekend, Wong said that it will be another good measuring stick as the season progresses. Pepperdine won the inaugural sand championship in 2012 and lost its only match in two years by falling to Long Beach State 3-2 in last year’s title match. The Waves (36-1 in two seasons) lost their top player, Kim Hill, to injury prior to the championship tournament, then had to forfeit at No. 1 when Jasmine Orozco suffered a concussion in the semifinals and was not cleared to play in the final.

Orozco has graduated, but the Waves return plenty, with eight sand-only players and 11 crossing over from their indoor team. The roster includes former UCLA setter Becca Strehlow, one of the crossovers, and Lara Dykstra, a 2013 USAV sand All-American who played two indoor seasons at Nebraska.

Hawaii will travel 12 this weekend. Wong said the team was healthy and would keep the same pairs as last week, although he might change the order. Last week’s teams were: Tiegs and Cook; Katie Spieler and Nikki Taylor; Ali Longo and Ginger Long; London Chow and Olivia Urban; Kaylee Riggs and Hannah Rooks; and Tayler Higgins and Mikayla Tucker.