If ever there were an oxymoron it would be “close sweep.”
No. 1 UCLA’s 5-0 victory over No. 5 Hawaii on Sunday morning was just that when three flights went three sets at the Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Classic beach volleyball tournament at Queen’s Beach. Win those three and it’s a 3-2 victory for the Rainbow Wahine instead of merely closer than the score.
As close as it was it also showed how far the SandBows need to go in closing out matches. They learned that opening doors for another team sometimes has those doors being slammed back in their faces.
It happened again later Sunday — although less costly — when, after going up 3-0 to clinch against No. 11 Stanford, the SandBows dropped the last two contests after seemingly being in control at Flights 1 and 2. The 3-2 victory helped salvage the weekend for Hawaii (2-2), which finished third and with a number of question marks.
“We’ve got to play with a little more sense of urgency,” SandBows coach Jeff Hall said. “Sure, I would have liked to do a 5-0 on Stanford, but they have really good athletes and played really well. I’ll take a ‘W’ any time.
“We’re still trying to get some pieces to work and we’ll do some adjustments, play with the flights. In about two to three weeks we’ll know more.”
While Hawaii will continue to tinker, that doesn’t appear to be the case for UCLA, which claimed the championship while giving up just one point in four matches. That came in a 4-1 victory over No. 4 Pepperdine (3-1) in the battle of the two tournament unbeatens, a match that featured one of the best contests of the weekend.
The Bruins avoided giving up a second point at the No. 1 flight when the Waves’ Heidi Dyer-Brook Bauer pairing was three points away from a 2-0 sweep at 22-22 in Set 2 and had three match points in Set 3, the last at 20-19. Twins Megan and Nicole McNamara, who rallied for a three-set win over Hawaii earlier Sunday, hung tough, finally ending it on their seventh match point when Dyer’s tip failed to clear the net.
“They’re just gamers,” UCLA coach Stein Metzger said of his senior All-Americans. “They’re undersized (5 feet 9), but it’s nice to see teams with great ball-control and high volleyball IQ still have success.
“The key for us was staying patient. We were pressed by two great teams in Hawaii and Stanford and I’m proud how we stayed patient and resilient.”
Hawaii had opportunities against the Bruins, particularly at Flight 2, where Emily Maglio and Hi’ilawe Huddleston had two match points in Set 2 but couldn’t finish. UCLA’s Lily Justine and Sarah Sponcil turned a 20-19 deficit into a 22-20 victory to force a third.
Set 3 was tight, tied eight times, including five straight from 8-8 through 12-12. Sponcil put down three straight kills to finish the comeback.
The new partnership of Maglio-Huddleston went 1-3 over the weekend, 1-1 on Saturday when playing at Flight 1 and 0-2 Sunday when moving to Flight 2. Both losses were in three.
Maglio, a two-time All-American, didn’t join the team until January. She spent the fall semester with the Canadian indoor national team.
“I think she ran out of gas a little,” Hall said. “And she didn’t play like she’s practiced.”
The more surprising performance of the weekend may have been that of junior Julia Scoles, who transferred after two indoor seasons at North Carolina. In her first beach tournament, Scoles went 3-1 with senior Ari Homayun and earned the tournament’s best attacker award.
“The difference between indoor and beach is like night and day,” said Scoles, who retired from indoor competition following an injury. “I still feel like a fish out of water and know I can do so much better than I did.
“I think this weekend was definitely a wake-up call, make us hungry. Every single day we’ll have that taste of loss so that when it comes to the national championship we’ll be ready, will want it more.”
Pepperdine (3-1) finished second, with unranked Saint Mary’s (1-3) fourth and Stanford (0-4) fifth. The Gaels picked up their first victory by surprising the Cardinal 5-0 earlier Sunday.
Hawaii next travels to the East Meets West Challenge in Manhattan Beach, Calif., March 9-10. The SandBows will see No. 3 Florida State, No. 7 LSU, No. 10 Florida International and No. 19 TCU.
The next home competition for Hawaii is its Heineken Invitational at Queen’s Beach, March 16-17. In the field are No. 12 Cal, Nebraska and Boise State.
Note
Other tournament awards went to Saint Mary’s Chandler Cowell, a King Kekaulike graduate and younger sister of Rainbow Warriors junior hitter Colton (Aloha Spirit); Stanford’s Courtney Bowen (best blocker), Pepperdine’s Brook Bauer (best defender) and UCLA’s Sarah Sponcil (MVP).
