Redshirt, 3, 2, 1 … the launch of Emily Maglio’s beach volleyball career has been nothing short of meteoric. The 6-foot-3 middle on Hawaii’s indoor team had an impressive debut at last weekend’s Pepperdine Kickoff Tournament on Zuma Beach, Calif., going 3-1 with two different partners at three different flights.

Maglio’s best results came with All-American Katie Spieler on Sunday, when the duo went 2-0, picking up the Rainbow Wahine’s lone win over then-No. 2 Pepperdine at the No. 2 flight, then moving up to No. 1 and helping the SandBows to a 4-1 victory over Long Beach State.

“As a coaching staff, we’ve talked about her at No. 1,” UH coach Jeff Hall said of Maglio. “We were thinking maybe next year, but, hey, why not now? Katie’s embraced it. Em’s embraced it. It’s not a done deal, but we’d like to try it for a while.

“I think this spring is going to be a coming-out party for Em that will carry over to the fall. She’s phenomenal every day in practice. This is a chance for her to get better with all of her ball skills. She’s going to be one of the go-to players indoor for sure.”

Hall, also the associate coach for the Wahine indoor team, was high on Maglio when he took over the beach team last season. Although Maglio redshirted as a true freshman, Hall already was envisioning her making the Olympic beach team for her native Canada as early as 2020.

“She’s that good,” he said. “We had no problem putting her at the No. 1 spot.”

For Spieler, playing as a graduate student, Maglio was her second partner of last weekend and the fifth of her four-year career. The 5-5 Spieler had played mostly at No. 2 the past three seasons and was at that flight Saturday with sophomore Lara Schreiber, losing tight matches to defending national champion USC and UCLA.

On Sunday, Spieler-Maglio opened with a 21-19, 21-16 sweep of Pepperdine’s Kaity Bailey-Delaney Knudsen at No. 2, then traded places with Mikayla Tucker-Nikki Taylor at No. 1, sweeping Long Beach State’s Rachel Nieto-Kobi Pekich 21-18, 21-13.

It earned Spieler-Maglio the inaugural Big West Pair of the Week accolade on Monday.

“It was really fun playing together,” Spieler said. “I love that Emily is super hardworking, has a lot of ball control for a big player. It’s fun to battle out there knowing we’ll work hard every moment.

“What might surprise people is her awesome ball control. She’s receiving serves, passing perfect. You are seeing aspects of her game that you don’t get a chance to see much when she’s indoors.”

The soft-spoken Maglio would rather have her game do the talking. She did concede that it was a “big jump” going from redshirting to No. 1 last weekend.

“But it was fun,” she said. “(Spieler) is so good, it makes it easy. It’s a good combination.”

It will likely be the pairing that No. 5 Hawaii uses Saturday in its home opener at Queen’s Beach. The SandBows face Hawaii Pacific at 9 a.m. and TCU at noon in dual competition.

But the pairings could change when Hawaii hosts No. 2 USC on Tuesday at the T.C. Ching Complex courts on campus. It’s part of the regrouping process the SandBows were forced to deal with after the loss of senior Heather Boyan following a hiking accident on Feb. 27. Boyan remains hospitalized at The Queen’s Medical Center but is expected to be released soon.

Donations to Boyan’s recovery fund have surpassed the initial goal of $21,700 and “it’s been cool to see how the community here, the volleyball community here and nationally, have come together,” Hall said. “Our colleagues have given money, someone on Pepperdine’s team donated privately. SC said they were going to donate. Everyone last weekend felt bad for us, felt for what we had to deal with.

“We’re all competitive, but when it comes down to it, something like this puts things in perspective. Life is precious. For our team, still getting to play volleyball has been very therapeutic.”

Donations are being accepted at GoFundMe.com/HeatherBoyan.