2 SandBows pairs come up aces on all-Big West team

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WALLY NELL / SPECIAL TO THE STAR-ADVERTISER

Amy Ozee, left, lunged in an attempt to pass the ball while pairs teammate Emily Maglio closed in during a match against USC at the NCAA tournament in Gulf Shores, Ala., on Saturday. USC won the match.

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CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARADVERTISER.COM

Julia Scoles, above, passed the ball to Ari Homayun during a match against Loyola Marymount during the Queen’s Cup tournament on April 14. Scoles and Homayun, along with Amy Ozee and Emily Maglio were named to the Big West first team.

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The Hawaii beach volleyball team had quite the welcome-home present on Monday when it returned from its final road trip.

All five of the Rainbow Wahine’s regular-season competition pairs earned All-Big West honors, and for the fourth consecutive season a Wahine is freshman of the year.

The SandBows’ Nos. 1 and 2 flights of Emily Maglio-Amy Ozee and Ari Homayun-Julia Scoles were named to the six-team first team. Flight 3’s Morgan Martin-Pani Napoleon was named to the five-team second team, with Flight 4’s Hi’ilawe Huddleston-Kylin Loker and Flight 5’s Paige Dreeuws-Sofia Russo earning honorable mention along with five other pairs.

Former Rainbow Wahine indoor setter Kendra Koelsch, playing for Long Beach State, was on the second team.

Napoleon follows Maglio (2016), Martin (2017) and Lea Monkhouse (2018) as the top freshman. She was 30-9 overall, 25-2 with Martin at Flight 2; the pair also played a couple of matches at Flight 4.

Huddleston-Loker also were named to the NCAA all-tournament team after going 3-1 in the event, their lone loss coming to USC in Saturday’s match that eliminated Hawaii.

Coach of the year went to Cal Poly’s Todd Rogers for the first time. The Mustangs also had the pairs team of the year for the first time in Crissy Jones-Tia Miric, who were 28-8 at Flight 1.

Monday’s final AVCA Coaches Top 20 mirrored last weekend’s NCAA championship outcome when it came to the top eight finishers.

UCLA (35-3), which repeated as national champion on Sunday, ended the same way it began the first poll: as a unanimous No. 1. Behind the Bruins were NCAA runner-up USC (32-6), third-place LSU (31-8) and fourth-place Florida State (29-7).

Hawaii (28-11), picked No. 5 in the preseason poll, finished fifth in Monday’s rankings as well as at the national event. Big West champion Cal Poly (25-12), which made its first NCAA appearance last week, finished at No. 8 and Long Beach State (21-11), third in the conference was at No. 12.

Several SandBows are expected to earn All-America honors later this week.

Hawaii loses three seniors who finished their careers at Gulf Shores, Ala., in Homayun, Huddleston and Maglio. Homayun leaves as the program’s all-time wins leader (118) and Maglio second (112).

The SandBows signed three freshmen for next season in Maia Hannemann, daughter of former Rainbow Warriors setter Albert, from Florida; Sabrina Hardisty from San Diego and Canadian Anna Maidment. Joining Hawaii as a graduate student is former Pepperdine setter Blossom Sato, cousin of incoming junior hitter Jolie Rasmussen, who transferred from Oregon to play indoor for the Wahine this fall.