When former Hawaii sand volleyball coach Scott Wong left to take the head indoor women’s job at Pepperdine, he left the SandBows with a load of talent and an ambitious schedule for first-year coach Jeff Hall.
New coach, same mission. To be the best, one has to play the best. No. 4 Hawaii will find out quickly where it stands nationally when hosting No. 1 Pepperdine and No. 6 Loyola Marymount in dual competition and the individual pairs tournament this week at Queen’s Beach.
"We’ll definitely see where we’re at," returning senior All-American Brittany Tiegs said. "I’m super excited to play Pepperdine. They won (the national title) last year.
"I think we definitely have a chance to win the championship. Every year we’ve been getting better and stronger, getting stronger recruits and the returning players are better."
Hawaii returns two other AVCA All-Americans in junior Katie Spieler and sophomore Nikki Taylor, but Hall has split up the successful duo of Spieler-Taylor, who were 35-13 at the No. 2 position, and teamed Taylor with Tiegs at No. 1. Speiler is now paired with roommate and best friend Olivia Urban, a senior who mostly played with London Chow at either No. 4 or 5.
Tiegs was 38-6 with graduate-student Karissa Cook, including a second-place finish nationally in last May’s AVCA Pairs Championship. Along the way to the runner-up spot, Cook-Tiegs rallied to defeat the Waves’ No. 2 pair of Lara Dykstra-Becca Strehlow 19-21, 21-15, 15-13 in the quarterfinals.
A day earlier, Dykstra-Strehlow’s 24-22, 21-17 win over Florida State’s Stephanie and Kristina Pellitteri was the clinching point in Pepperdine’s 3-2 victory over the Seminoles, giving the Waves their second national title in three years.
The new Tiegs-Taylor pairing has become a mutual admiration society with complementary play going along with complimentary comments. It will be Tiegs’ third partner in as many seasons; she teamed with Aurora Newguard her All-American freshman year at Florida State.
"Nikki is so good at blocking and is a really great setter, especially for not playing that (position) indoors," the 5-foot-9 Tiegs said of the 6-3 Taylor. "But what it means is I’ll have to be more of a full-time defender, will get served a lot more. It will be different and it will be interesting.
"One of the things about playing on the beach is playing with different partners. It’s part of the game. You just have to be able to adapt and play your game because it’s always changing."
That’s the philosophy with Pepperdine as well. The Waves return 11 from their championship team, including eight of the 10 that regularly made up the top five pairs.
However, coach Nina Matthies, who won the prestigious Manhattan Beach Open seven times professionally, expects to mix things up this week. While All-Americans Kelley Larsen and Kellie Woolever (23-4 at No. 1 last season) will remain together, the All-American tandem Dykstra-Strehlow (23-7 at No. 2) are expected to be split up.
"We’ve got a senior-laden group with experience and new kids who are playing well," said Matthies, who retired after 31 years as the Pepperdine indoor coach following the 2013 season. "I’m still trying to make the best five teams. We’ll see how it goes.
"We’re excited to open here. I’ve always loved playing in Hawaii but this will be the first time we do it on the beach. We’re ready to see someone else on the other side of the net."
Hawaii has yet to win a set against Pepperdine when seeing the Waves on the other side of the net five times, including being swept 5-0 twice last season. The SandBows swept the Lions last season’s second match, running their record against LMU to 3-1.
Tiegs said there is no looking past the Lions Friday to the match with the Waves an hour later.
"LMU is a good team," she said. "We can’t forget about them or it could lead to an upset."
The Lions feature the senior All-American team of Litara Keil and Betsi Metter who reached the semifinals of the national pairs tournament last May. Also paired for a second season are two Hawaii-born players: junior Rachelle Suaava was an OIA all-star at Kapolei High before finishing her high school career at Long Beach (Calif.) Poly, and senior Taylor Akana, a Kamehameha graduate, who was a four-time all-conference selection as an indoor player at Siena.
PROJECTED LINEUP
No. 1: Brittany Tiegs (Sr., 5-9)-Nikki Taylor (So., 6-3).
No. 2: Katie Spieler (Jr., 5-5)-Olivia Urban (Sr., 6-2).
No. 3: Sammie Brown (Sr., 5-10)-Hannah Rooks (So., 6-0)
No. 4: Lara Schreiber (Fr., 6-0)-Mikayla Tucker (So., 5-8)
No. 5: Heather Boyan (Sr., 6-2)-London Chow (So., 5-5)
