There are streaks and then there are STREAKS.
Ask Carly Kan which is better: eight straight dual match victories or two wins in a row over three-time defending national beach volleyball champion USC.
The Hawaii graduate student didn’t have to choose — the Rainbow Wahine did both when going undefeated in this weekend’s Outrigger Resorts Invitational — but she did have a quick answer.
“Oh, two in a row over SC,” said Kan, who left Queen’s Beach with the Aloha Spirit Award given for best sportsmanship. “I think that this is a very good turning point for us.
“We were struggling with winning against Top-5 teams and I think coming out here and doing it makes a statement that we aren’t messing around this year. Sure, you bested us in the past but we’re back.”
No. 5 Hawaii did something previous SandBow teams had done only once since the program’s 2012 inception: beat the Women of Troy. And the SandBows did it twice in less than 24 hours when holding on for another 3-2 win on Sunday.
Hawaii finished out the tournament with 5-0 victories over No. 12 Grand Canyon and unranked Nebraska. The dual with the Antelopes was closer than the final score with the SandBows needing late rallies in two of the third sets, including at Flight 1 where Emily Maglio-Ka’iwi Schucht trailed 13-10 before pulling off a 19-17 victory.
It was a near repeat of the earlier contest against USC where Maglio-Schucht, down 14-11 and 15-14, held off four match points before topping Tina Graudina-Abril Bustamante, 19-21, 21-14, 18-16. It was the clinching point of the 3-2 victory.
“It was definitely a nerve-wracking game,” Maglio said. “I think we do well under pressure.
“We just really wanted it. It was a good win for us. And for us to beat them twice within 24 hours says a lot about our preparation and conditioning.”
Both duals against GCU (7-7) and Nebraska (3-10) could have been trap games but “you have to push through,” Maglio said. “You don’t want to end on a bad note after you take down a really good opponent.”
For Kan, it was a 1-2-3 weekend where she played at Flight 1 and 2 with Laurel Weaver and, due to a shoulder injury to Weaver, was at Flight 3 with redshirt freshman Chloe Luyties, who made her competition debut. The new pair defeated the Husker duo of Jazz Sweet-Sami Slaughter, 21-13, 21-13.
“She held her own, played amazing,” Kan said of Luyties. “It speaks to the depth of our roster, that we can have anyone play with anyone and still come off on top.
“It would have been easy to have a letdown after we were all excited after the SC win. I think that’s what happened with GCU but we focused, said ‘We’re better than this.’ It shows we’re all fighters.”
Hawaii coach Jeff Hall had flipped his Nos. 1 and 2 in Sunday’s rematch against the Women of Troy (11-6). He said it was a tossup between Maglio-Schucht and Kan-Weaver at Flight 1 and “we wanted to give (Maglio-Schucht) an opportunity to play in the top flight so we can evaluate,” he said. “I think it says that we’re deep and that we’re pretty good.
“I would have liked not to be in that situation (down 14-11 in Set 3). If we play more consistent, we won’t be. It was a critical situation where we would have lost the dual. I’m proud of them.”
Hawaii returns to the Ching Complex campus courts for a 4 p.m. contest with Nebraska on Tuesday.
It is the first televised match of the season with the Spectrum broadcast beginning at 7 p.m. with the Flight 2 match followed by Flight 1 at 8 p.m.
Notes
Hawaii’s Morgan Martin and Lea Monkhouse, who went undefeated in the tournament, were named the best pair. The other awards went to Molly Turner of GCU (best attacker), Kenzie Maloney of Nebraska (best defender) and Tina Graudina of USC (best blocker) … Making her collegiate debut for USC was Peri Green (La Pietra), who teamed with Alexandra Poletto in a 24-22, 21-16 loss to Hawaii’s Paige Dreeuws-Hannah Zalopany on Sunday.
