Seventh-seeded Hawaii rebounded from its near-upset of UCLA this morning to eliminate Big West rival Cal Poly in today’s elimination dual at the NCAA beach volleyball tournament in Gulf Shores, Ala.

The Rainbow Wahine (27-10) clinched the dual 3-0 with the Mustangs at Flight 2 when Ari Homayun-Julia Scoles defeated Macy Gordon-Emily Sonny, 21-19, 21-17. The SandBows also won at Flights 3 and 4; Flights 1 and 5 both were headed to a third set when the match was clinched and remained unfinished.

Hawaii advances to Saturday’s elimination match with Stetson (9 a.m. Hawaii time). The Hatters upset top-seeded USC 3-1 but then lost to fifth-seeded LSU 3-2 to fall into the losers bracket.

Hawaii was 0-3 against Cal Poly this season, including a 3-2 loss in the Big West tournament April 27. The sixth-seeded Mustangs lost their opener today 3-0 to third-seeded Florida State.

Earlier today, the Women of Troy swept Pepperdine 3-0 in an elimination match. Fourth-seeded Pepperdine lost its opening dual to LSU, 3-0

For Hawaii, the Rainbow Wahine opened the NCAA tournament the same way they ended the 2018 tourney: with a 3-2 loss to UCLA.

The defending national champion Bruins (32-3) needed to come from behind to defeat the SandBows for the fourth time as many NCAA duals, winning at Flights 1 and 3 in three sets. The clinching point came at No. 1 where Hawaii’s Emily Maglio and Amy Ozee had several match points, the last at 18-17.

Twins Megan and Nicole McNamara tied it for the 12th time at 18 and hitting errors by Ozeen and Maglio ended it, 20-22, 21-15, 20-18.

Hawaii and UCLA split the first two flights with the SandBows taking the 2-1 lead win Kylin Loker-Hi’ilawe Huddleston outlasted former UH player Lea Monkhouse and Savvy Simo, 21-16, 12-21, 15-6