Play the best to become the best. That was the mind-set of Hawaii’s Hannah Zalopany and Lara Schreiber when facing defending national collegiate champions Kelly Claes and Sara Hughes from USC on Friday night in a Pac Rim Beach Volleyball Championships match.

Although Zalopany-Schreiber lost 21-16, 21-14 on the T.C. Ching Athletics Complex courts at UH, the SandBows pair considered it a “celebration” on many levels.

“It was our first time playing a match together and it showed all our hard work,” sophomore Schreiber said. “It was super exciting to play against the best team.”

Claes-Hughes won the pairs portion of May’s AVCA Collegiate Sand Volleyball National Championships and helped the Women of Troy to their first national championship. The veteran pair also took gold at the Bibione Volleyball Marathon in May, June’s NORCECA Qualifier and last month’s Endless Summer Volleyball Tour at Huntington Beach, Calif.

“It was such a good experience for us,” Zalopany said. “Our goal was to play to our full potential. Considering this was our first time together, I thought we did pretty well.”

The Hawaii pair hung tough against Claes-Hughes, as well as against the challenging elements of swirling winds and intermittent showers. The highlight may have been the 5-foot-9 Zalopany’s block of the 6-2 Claes that pulled UH to within 8-6 in Set 2.

But as happened in Set 1, Claes-Hughes were able to pull away with strong, aggressive serving runs en route to the sweep.

“It’s awesome to be part of this,” said Hughes, who teamed with Claes to win the 2014 FIVB U21 World Championships. “First we get to represent the U.S. and (Saturday) we get to represent USC.”

Friday’s portion of the event was designated the International Competition, with teams representing Hawaii, the U.S., Canada and Japan. Claes-Hughes also swept UH’s Ginger Long-Mikayla Tucker 21-14, 21-17.

Twin sisters Megan and Nicole McNamara from UCLA, representing their native Canada, defeated Hawaii’s Heather Boyan-Katie Spieler 17-21, 21-14, 15-13, as well as Zalopany and Ari Homayun 21-18, 21-18.

Miki Ishii and Megumi Murakami of Japan split their matches against UH, sweeping cousins Ka’iwi Schucht-Hi’ilawe Huddleston 21-13, 21-11, and falling to Boyan-Spieler 21-17, 23-21.

The 16-team collegiate pair tournament begins Saturday at Queen’s Beach with duos from Hawaii, USC, UCLA, Arizona, Chaminade, Hawaii Pacific and Japan, concluding Sunday. Running concurrently are junior tournaments for boys and girls.