The sixth-ranked Hawaii beach volleyball team concluded the Arizona State Invitational on Saturday with a split, losing to No. 2 USC 4-1 and topping the host Sun Devils 4-1 at the PERA Club in Tempe, Ariz.
The Rainbow Wahine (13-6) went 3-2 on the road trip and next compete at the Big West Challenge next weekend at Pismo Beach, Calif. Hawaii faces Cal State Northridge, Cal State Bakersfield and UC Davis on Saturday and No. 9 Long Beach State, Sacramento State and No. 7 Cal Poly on Sunday.
“It’s been a long trip and we’ll be home briefly,” Hawaii coach Jeff Hall said, his team flying back to Honolulu today and back to California on Thursday. “I’m really proud of our players, it was hot and they gutted it out.
“SC’s a really good team. It showed we have some holes in our lineup. That flight 1 was probably the best volleyball I’ve seen in five years. We played well, they played flawless with six errors in the two sets.”
In the morning dual with USC (15-2), the match Hall referred to was Tina Graudina-April Bustamante’s 21-16, 21-12 sweep of Emily Maglio-Amy Ozee.
The SandBows won at No. 3 when Morgan Martin-Pani Napoleon held off Haley Hallgren-Alexandra Poletto 25-23, 28-26. Hawaii had a chance at another point at No. 2 only to have Ari Homayun-Julia Scoles fall to Terese Cannon-Sammy Slater, 22-20, 20-22, 15-8.
UH, which defeated USC twice last year, trails the series with the Women of Troy 3-13.
The SandBows ran their record to 6-0 against ASU in the afternoon match, losing at No. 4 in a reversal of Friday’s outcome that also went three. Katie Baldwin-Samantha Plaster avenged the previous day’s loss to Kylin Loker-Hi’ilawe Huddleton, 20-22, 21-19,
15-12.
