Two Big West seasons.
Two Big West championships.
And, now, two Big West pairs teams of the year.
No. 5 Hawaii dominated the all-conference awards that were announced Tuesday, highlighted by freshman Morgan Martin and senior Mikayla Tucker being named the top duo. Martin also was named freshman of the year.
The Rainbow Wahine (26-5) also had two other pairs named to the first team in Emily Maglio-Laurel Weaver and Nikki Taylor-Ka‘iwi Schucht. Named to the second team was Ari Homayun-Carly Kan.
Last year, Maglio and Katie Spieler were honored as the top pair.
Martin-Tucker is 19-12 at Flight 1, Taylor-Schucht is 24-7 at Flight 2 and Maglio-Weaver 28-3 at Flight 3. Homayun-Kan, 28-3 playing at Flight 4, are riding a school-record dual-match win streak of 13 heading into this week’s NCAA championship tournament at Gulf Shores, Ala.
“I’m happy for all our players, it’s well-deserved,” SandBows coach Jeff Hall said. “I think the Big West got it right.
“With Ari and Carly … I think they put much more weight on the higher flights, but for sure they are the best four in the country in my eyes. I’m happy they got recognized.”
Hawaii spent the past few days “unplugged” in Santa Barbara, Calif., at the 1,000-acre Circle Bar B Guest Ranch owned by the family of former player Sammi Brown since 1937.
“It was the perfect way to relax and unwind after a stressful couple of weeks,” Hall said. “We ended it with a two-hour horseback ride along the trail through the ranch.”
Hawaii, seeded fifth in the NCAA tournament, left Tuesday for Alabama. The SandBows will open against No. 4 seed Florida State (27-7) on Friday at 5 a.m. All matches are streamed live at NCAA.com.