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The difference between Nos. 4 and 5 in the collegiate beach volleyball poll was as slim as the outcome when the two programs met on Friday. No. 4 Florida State edged No. 5 Hawaii 3-2 in the final match of the opening day of the Outrigger Hawaii Invitational at Queen’s Beach.
The Rainbow Wahine (9-1) saw their program-best start ended by the Seminoles (7-3). FSU also defeated the SandBows 3-2 last May in the second round of the NCAA championship.
Hawaii swept Nebraska in its opening match, while Florida State defeated Utah 4-1 and held on against No. 7 Arizona 3-2.
“I think we played not to lose instead of playing to win,” Hawaii coach Jeff Hall said in a postmatch phone call. “All the matches were tight and (the Seminoles) had a little more at the end than we did.
“FSU got pushed to the edge (against Arizona). I would love to have another shot at them, hopefully in the NCAA tournament.”
Several of the Hawaii pairs saw their winning streaks ended as well. Ari Homayun and Carly Kan dropped their first match of the season, falling to Francesa Goncalves-Katie Horton at No. 4, 21-12, 11-21, 15-12, and Laurel Weaver-Emily Maglio saw their streak of 18 straight sets won disappear when they were swept by Macy Jerger-Victoria Paranagua at No. 3, 21-16, 21-13.
Both Maglio and freshman setter Norene Iosia played in Hawaii’s indoor exhibition loss to Minnesota on Thursday. On Friday, Iosia and Hannah Zalopany were swept at No. 5 by Hailey Luke-Ali Eager, 21-11, 22-20.
The SandBows went down 2-0 against the ’Noles but closed the gap with a win at No. 2 by Nikki Taylor-Ka’iwi Schucht. FSU clinched the dual with the victory at No. 4 minutes before Hawaii picked up the win at No. 1 with Morgan Martin and Mikayla Tucker holding off Vanessa Freire-Brooke Kuhlman, 21-17, 18-21, 16-14.
Hall said he was particularly pleased with how Martin-Tucker finished out the win after Freire-Kuhlman tied Set 3 at 14.
“It came down to deuce (14-14) and they made some nice plays to pull that out,” he said. “We played really well earlier in the day, too, and were able to sweep across the board.”
Hall said he wasn’t expecting to change his pairs for today’s three matches but would mix up his exhibition pairs at Nos. 6 and 7. Hawaii plays Utah (1-6) at 10:30 a.m., Arizona (5-3) at 1 p.m. and USC (8-0) at 4:45 p.m.
Today’s eight-match schedule opens with Utah against Nebraska (1-4) at 8 a.m.
The Women of Troy, the defending national champions, swept Nebraska on Friday but went 4-1 against Utah. Although USC’s No. 1 pair Kelly Claes-Sara Hughes didn’t lose, one of the most dominating pairs in the history of the collegiate sport was pushed to three by Dani Barton and Kahuku High graduate Adora Anae, the Utes pair winning Set 1 21-12.
“That got everyone’s attention,” Hall said.
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