Hawaii headed out on Tuesday with several goals for its first road trip of the young beach volleyball season. Among them for the No. 3 Rainbow Wahine are: to avenge their only loss of the year when facing No. 4 UCLA today and to boost their national profile when helping prove that the West is the best at this weekend’s East Meets West Invitational at Manhattan Beach.

Foremost for the SandBows?

“Our goal is to come home with six wins,” Hawaii coach Jeff Hall said. “Anything short of that and we came up short of our goal.

“I’m looking to the first trip with veterans and three rookies. It should tell us a lot about ourselves.”

Two of the duals take place today at UCLA’s Sunset Canyon Recreation Center courts. The SandBows open with the host Bruins (5-3), who have dropped their last two (4-1 to No. 1 Pepperdine, 3-2 to No. 2 USC) followed by a dual with No. 17 Loyola Marymount (4-2).

Hawaii traveled six competition pairs, including Emily Maglio and Ka’iwi Schucht, who are 4-0 at the No. 2 flight, and Morgan Martin and Lea Monkhouse, whose only loss at No. 3 came in the 3-2 defeat to UCLA on Feb. 25. Monkhouse is one of three rookies on the trip; the others are freshman Paige Dreeuws, 3-1 at No. 5 with Hannah Zalopany; and senior Allyssah Fitterer, a transfer from Michigan State who has teamed with Hi’ilawe Huddleston at the noncounting No. 6 flight.

The East Meets West Invitational is headlined by the “Big Four” from the West: No. 1 Pepperdine, No. 2 USC, No. 3 Hawaii and No. 4 UCLA. The East side of the bracket has No. 5 Florida State, No. 9 LSU, No. 13 Florida International and No. 20 TCU.

“The East-West will help us get a gauge for how good the East is,” Hall said. “The trip should tell us a lot about ourselves.”

Hawaii next hosts its Outrigger Resorts Invitational March 17-18 at Queen’s Beach. The field has two-time defending national beach champion USC, unranked Nebraska (comprised of players from its recent NCAA indoor championship team) and No. 12 Grand Canyon.