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Streaks are meant to be broken. But not on Saturday, not for No. 3 Hawaii.
The Rainbow Wahine beach volleyball team (26-3) extended its program-record winning skein to 21 and Emily Maglio and Ka‘iwi Schucht rallied to keep their pairs record alive at 17 in a row at the Queen’s Cup at Queen’s Beach.
The SandBows swept Utah and No. 16 Loyola Marymount 5-0, then defeated Washington 4-1 to take the top seed into today’s championship semifinals. LMU (15-10) takes on Washington (6-7) at 8:30 a.m. Hawaii goes against Utah (0-3) at 10 a.m. The losers meet for third place at 11:30 a.m. with the final at 1 p.m.
The SandBows dropped just four sets on Saturday, the first coming in the opener against Utah when Maglio-Schucht held off Dani Barton and Kahuku graduate Adora Anae at Flight 1, 21-19, 23-25, 17-15. The victory gave Maglio-Schucht the program record for consecutive victories at 15.
The duo extended the mark to 16 with a straight-sets win over LMU’s McKayla Ferris-Savannah Slattery, then used an impressive rally for No. 17. UW’s Jordan Anderson-Kimmy Gardiner had match points at 14-12 and 14-13 in Set 3 only to have Maglio-Schucht hold off both attempts while scoring four straight to prevail 15-21, 21-17, 16-14.
“For the first time, I was worried about their record,” Hawaii coach Jeff Hall said. “They were way behind and I didn’t think they would do it. But Mags and Ka‘iwi were razor-sharp in their focus and did a great job at the end.
“We’re favored (to win the Cup title), but we know we’ll have to play better Sunday. I like our chances. We need to play like we practice.”
Maglio and Schucht weren’t the only SandBows to keep a streak alive. Ari Homayun and Amy Ozee, playing at Flight 4, ran their winning streak to 15 straight with victories over the Utes, Lions and Huskies. They have dropped just one set during their run.
The SandBows gave up one point for the day, that coming against the Huskies. Carly Kan and Laurel Weaver lost at Flight 3 to Carly DeHoog-Shayne McPherson, 11-21, 21-10, 21-19.
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