Hawaii vs. Long Beach State in the Big West volleyball tournament finale.
Critical Saturday match followed by NCAA Selection Sunday.
Sound familiar?
A week ago Saturday at Long Beach State’s Pyramid, the Hawaii men’s team was swept by the host 49ers and, unbeknownst to them at the time, the Rainbow Warriors would be swept out of the NCAA tournament via a committee decision the next day.
Today, it’s a similar scenario with a bit of a role reversal.
For the third year in a row, the Rainbow Wahine defeated the 49ers to earn the conference title in beach volleyball and all but assured themselves of a top-3 seed in the national tournament that begins Friday in Alabama. Saturday’s 4-1 victory over Long Beach State (26-8) was the 30th consecutive win for the SandBows (35-3), capping a day that began with their 5-0 sweep of the 49ers in the winners bracket semifinal.
It is tournament runner-up Long Beach State — as well as third-place finisher Cal Poly — that will be spending some anxious hours during today’s non-counting pairs tournament at Queen’s Beach. Will the 49ers’ two tournament victories over the second-seeded and higher-ranked Mustangs be enough for The Beach to join Hawaii in Gulf Shores, or will it be the Mustangs getting the at-large berth?
The selection show (1 p.m. Hawaii time on ncaa.com) will come around the time of today’s inaugural pairs event semifinals. SandBows coach Jeff Hall is “hoping we can pause to watch somehow. We’ve worked to get the pairs tournament for three years and it’s a big moment for the Big West. I’m all for pausing.”
The 16-team pairs tourney doesn’t count except for pride and bragging rights. There is some motivation for Hawaii’s Flight 1 duo of Emily Maglio and Ka’iwi Schucht, who saw their school-record winning streak snapped at 25 by Long Beach State’s Sasha Karelov and Nele Barber 20-22, 21-11, 16-14 in the final match of the day.
“That was a tough one,” Schucht said after leading at 14-11 and unable to put down four chances at match point. “We need to be more together at the end, needed to stave off that last run they made.
“I’m glad our team pulled through. Tomorrow is another day.”
“That was unfortunate for them, up 14-11,” Hall said, “I think they might have gotten a little passive and Long Beach made a bunch of nice defensive plays. But all streaks must come to an end.
“I feel bummed for Ka’iwi and Mags. But they have an opportunity to write the end of their story the way they want to starting Sunday.”
Hawaii dropped just one set in the morning’s 5-0 sweep of the 49ers, that coming at Flight 5 when Paige Dreeuws and Hannah Zalopany fended off Hannah Matt and Marisa Ramsey, 23-21, 19-21, 15-13. The afternoon match was another matter with four of the five matches going three.
Of note was the comeback of Hawaii’s Flight 4 pair of Ari Homayun and Amy Ozee, who had dropped just one set in winning their previous 23 matches. After dropping Set 1 26-24 to Claire Newlander and Hailey Harward, Homayun-Ozee responded by taking the next two 22-20, 15-9.
Hawaii’s Carly Kan and Laurel Weaver were the only pair to win both matches against The Beach in straight sets, doing so against different 49er pairs at Flight 3. Injuries had Long Beach State juggling its lineup at Flights 3 and 4.
“I felt our team responded well to adversity,” 49ers coach Mike Campbell said. “We pushed Hawaii with an altered lineup and that just speaks to the resiliency and the grit of this team.
“I don’t know what else we could have done to make our case to the committee (for an at-large). We have eight losses, three to Hawaii, two to (No. 1) UCLA, one to (No. 2) Pepperdine, one to (No. 5) USC and one to (No. 4) Cal Poly. We made a pretty strong argument by finishing strong, beating (Cal Poly) twice on a neutral site. We just have to wait and see what happens.”
That the anticipated showdown with Cal Poly didn’t happen was a surprise to Hawaii.
“We kind of expected to see them, but it didn’t matter to us who we played,” Kan said. “It was nice to come out here and make a statement.
“Everyone believed we were the better team and that’s what we proved.”
Eight teams will be selected for the NCAA tournament, three each from the west and east regions, with two at-large selections. It is expected that the west will get both at-large berths with it likely coming down to Long Beach State, Cal Poly and USC. The Women of Troy finished second to top-ranked UCLA in Saturday’s Pac-12 championship.
