Hawaii heads back to its roots — and to the roots of the sport itself — when hosting the Outrigger Resorts Invitational beach volleyball tournament this weekend at Queen’s Beach.
For the first time this season, the Rainbow Wahine (7-3) are at Waikiki, where the first beach volleyball match is documented to have been played in 1915. The more recent history of the sport is in the field with three-time defending national champion USC the highest of the three ranked teams.
The Women of Troy (8-4) are having a down year by their standards, having already lost more matches than in the previous three years combined. Still …
“Maybe they aren’t at their best this year and Anna (USC coach Collier) is being welcomed back to the rest of the world,” SandBows coach Jeff Hall said. “But you can never look past them.
“They have some young kids learning to play at the NCAA level. They have had some lineup changes (10 in 12 matches) so you don’t know who you’re going to face. But I feel we’re a better team when we’re at Queen’s, we’re in our comfort zone and we’ll use that to our advantage.”
Hawaii is one of just six programs that have knocked off USC since the sport’s inception in 2012. LSU became the sixth last Saturday with a 4-1 victory in the East Meets West Challenge at Manhattan Beach, Calif.
Both the SandBows and Women of Troy went 3-1 in the event that saw the West dominate the East. Pepperdine and UCLA went 4-0 against the field that also had Florida State, Florida International and TCU. All eight teams were ranked in the Top 20.
USC has defeated Hawaii eight straight, including a sweep in the inaugural NCAA championship last May. The lone win by the SandBows came at the 2012 AVCA national championship.
Throw out the 1-12 record against USC and Hawaii is 11-0 against the rest of the field: 6-0 versus Nebraska and 5-0 against Grand Canyon.
Personally, Hall is 0-6 against the Women of Troy after taking over the SandBows in 2015. He said he didn’t anticipate any major shakeup in his lineup, although he may again move Emily Maglio-Ka‘iwi Schucht up to No. 1; the pair had played their previous 11 matches before switching with Laurel Weaver-Carly Kan in Sunday’s 4-1 victory over LSU.
Expected to remain at No. 3 are the reigning Big West pairs of the week Morgan Martin-Lea Monkhouse. They went 5-1 on Hawaii’s first road trip last week.
The SandBows finish out their homestand against unranked Nebraska on Tuesday at 4 p.m. at the Ching Complex, the first televised dual of the season. The Huskers’ roster is comprised of players from the 2017 NCAA indoor championship team.
