Hawaii hit the road for the first time this beach volleyball season and the road hit back hard. The third-ranked Rainbow Wahine did manage a split at UCLA’s Sunset Recreation Center courts … but barely.
After falling to the host Bruins 4-1 in Thursday morning’s match, the SandBows needed a victory from their final pairs to pull out a 3-2 win over No. 17 Loyola Marymount. Thanks to Morgan Martin and Lea Monkhouse’s 21-18, 21-11 sweep of Chloe Reinig-Kekai Whitford, Hawaii left Westwood with a 4-2 record and some questions.
“No. 1 is ‘How can we play as good as we do in practice?’” Hawaii coach Jeff Hall said in a telephone call. “We’re not playing in duals like we’ve been practicing.
“It’s up to us as a staff to solve that riddle. We need better from the bottom of the order. Our Nos. 4-5-6 have been struggling.”
The meeting with No. 4 UCLA (6-3) was the third in five matches for Hawaii, and the second consecutive win for the Bruins. The teams had split their duals in Honolulu, with the SandBows taking the first match 5-0, then losing the second 3-2.
Hawaii avoided being swept when Martin-Monkhouse rallied for a 15-21, 21-11, 15-12 victory over Madi Yeomans-Elise Zappia.
Against the Lions (4-3), the SandBows opened with a win at No. 5 as Allyssah Fitterer and Hi’ilawe Huddleston made their competition debut with a sweep. The pair had been at No. 6, which is a noncounting exhibition.
LMU hung tough, tying the dual at 2-2 with a surprising win at No. 2 when Sara Kovac-Jessie Prichard handed Ka’iwi Schucht-Emily Maglio their second loss of the day. Schucht-Maglio had been undefeated prior to Thursday.
It set up a winner-take-all battle at No. 3 and “it was super nail-biting until the second set, when Morgan and Lea steadied out,” Hall said. “That’s a good team (LMU), better than we expected. But we are underachieving. Nothing to panic about, we are not playing to our potential. Ninety-nine percent is on our side of the net.”
The SandBows traveled down the I-405 to Anaheim on Thursday night to support the UH men’s basketball team in the Big West tournament. They were to practice today at Manhattan Beach, site of the East Meets West Invitational on Saturday and Sunday.
