A day at the beach was anything but for the No. 2 Hawaii sand volleyball team Friday.
The Rainbow Wahine dug themselves into a deep hole by losing their opener at the AVCA Collegiate Championships, then had the tough task of fighting out of the losers bracket to keep their team title hopes alive. The surface at Gulf Shores, Ala., felt more like quicksand with Hawaii eliminated by defending champion Pepperdine 3-2 in a loser-out contest.
All three of Friday’s matches were tight: a 3-1 defeat to seventh-seeded Long Beach State in the opener (flight 4 went unfinished after the 49ers clinched), a 3-2 victory over No. 6 seed Florida State in the losers bracket, and the so-close-and-yet-so-far loss to the Waves, where the final three flights all went to three sets. The SandBows finish the season at 18-3, losing more duals Friday (two) than they had all year (one).
"It was a tale of our season," first-year Hawaii coach Jeff Hall said. "We just didn’t have enough consistency. Pepperdine was super close, it’s what makes it exciting. It would have been nicer if it had gone our way.
"Coming out the losers bracket is always a long journey. There are no excuses. I’m really proud of the team and the season we had. It was just a disappointing finish."
Hawaii sends its No. 1 team of Brittany Tiegs and Nikki Taylor to Sunday’s pairs championship. Both earned All-America honors last season by finishing in the top eight, Taylor with Spieler when advancing to the quarterfinals, and Tiegs with Karissa Cook when finishing second.
Had the format not been changed this season, the SandBows would have had their No. 2 pair of Spieler and Olivia Urban also qualify. Hall said the new format dictated that he could not choose which of his top two pairs advanced, that it had to be No. 1.
Tiegs-Taylor went 1-2 Friday, both losses coming in three sets. The duo couldn’t hold on against the 49ers’ Delainey Aigner-Swesy and Chelsea Cabrajac, falling 21-17, 19-21, 15-12, but came back with a fairly easy sweep of the Seminoles’ Taylor Nyquist-Melanie Pavels.
The dual with the Waves was tied at 1-1 after the teams split wins at Nos. 3 and 4. Tiegs-Taylor rallied after dropping Set 1 21-12 to Kellie Woolever-Kelley Larsen to take Set 2 22-20. It fell apart after that, with the Waves opening up a 9-0 lead in Set 3 and "it’s pretty hard to come back from that in a short set to 15," Hall said.
About the same time, Spieler and Urban were also losing in three, 19-21, 21-13, 15-9, to Lara Dykstra-Becca Strehlow, which clinched the victory for the Waves. Hawaii picked up its final point of the season at No. 5 when Lara Schreiber-Heather Boyan rallied past Samantha Cash-Corinne Quibble, 12-21, 21-16, 15-10.
USC (26-0) and Long Beach State (16-5) remained unbeaten with two wins in the main draw Friday. They play each other Saturday. Pepperdine (12-5) faces Florida International (20-2) also Saturday, the winner taking on the loser of USC-Long Beach State in another elimination match.
"I’m glad we are getting a chance to redeem ourselves against some of the teams we lost to earlier this year," Pepperdine coach Nina Mattheis said.
The SandBows edged the then-No. 1 Waves 3-2 on March 6 at Queen’s Beach, the first win over Pepperdine in six meetings.
"Hats off to Pepperdine, they were the better team today," Hall said. "It was just one of those situations where anything can happen.
"We needed to play better and I need to coach better. We were the better team against Florida State, which was our first win over them ever. And we lost to teams that were better than us today."
