Good, not great. But good was good enough for the Hawaii women’s teams Friday at the AVCA Collegiate Sand Volleyball Championships at Gulf Shores, Ala.
Both Rainbow Wahine pairs went 1-2 Friday, but because of set differential (4-4), both pairs advanced to Sunday’s championship as top-eight seeds.
Jane Croson and Ashley Lee, as well as Elizabeth Ka’aihue Stoltzman and Emily Hartong, went 1-2 in Friday’s pool play. All four of the losses came in three sets.
"The first goal of the day was to play well, get a rhythm and get comfortable," UH coach Scott Wong said. "The second was to be top-two in the pools, which we did also.
"We had some close games that could have gone either way, that went to deuce. I’m happy about where we’re at going into Sunday."
Croson and Lee are seeded seventh in Sunday’s single-elimination pairs championship bracket. Stoltzman are Hartong are seeded seventh.
"We’ve got the Nos. 7 and 8, coming out of the tougher pools," Wong said.
"It was a matter of points in those losses.
"There’s not one thing that stood out. Jane and Ashley missed a few serves at the end (of their match with top seeded Aurora Newgard-Brittany Tiegs of Florida State). And there are a few things we want to correct from today. But we didn’t need to be great today. We want to be great Sunday."
Hawaii has the advantage over the Florida State pairs, who will be involved in today’s team championship. FSU, Pepperdine, Long Beach State and the College of Charleston are involved in the inaugural team title chase.
That means that both of the FSU pairs will be playing today and won’t have the rest that the Rainbow Wahine pairs will have.
"There’s an advantage and not an advantage," Wong said. "You get to rest, but the other teams get the experience of playing together in this venue."
No. 8 seed Croson-Lee beat Emily Shelton-Kelly Kolich of College of Charleston 2-0, but lost to Long Beach State and Florida State 2-1. In the 2-1 loss to Newgard-Tiegs, the Wahine were up 13-9 in Set 3 but were outscored 7-1 at the end.
The 12th-seeded Stoltzman-Hartong also had a hard-luck loss against FSU’s Jace Pardon-Jekaterina Stepanova. Hawaii led 13-11 in Set 3, only to give up the last four points.
Sunday, Stoltzman-Hartong will play Long Beach State’s Haleigh Hampson-Chelsea Cabrajac in the round of eight. In the lower bracket, seventh-seeded Croson-Lee meets USC’s Geena Urango-Sara Shaw.