Hawaii gets rematch with Stanford on Sunday

Same time, different place. See you soon.

That was the message the beach volleyball coaches from Hawaii and Stanford exchanged after the Rainbow Wahine’s 5-0 victory over the Cardinal on Sunday at Queen’s Beach. A week after No. 5 Hawaii (3-2) defeated No. 20 Stanford (0-4) for third place in the Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Beach Classic, the teams meet again at Stanford Beach Volleyball Stadium for the Bay Area Classic co-hosted by No. 11 Cal across the bay in Berkeley.

It is the SandBows’ first visit to Stanford and “they are staying at ‘our house’ the whole time,” Cardinal coach Andrew Fuller said. “It will be great to have Hawaii come to us, be in our new facility. It’s really nice. As college facilities go, it’s unbelievable.

“We both have a lot of information on each other and both teams will make adjustments. I don’t expect to see the same lineups at every flight. We’re looking forward to continuing our tradition when playing them again.”

The third meeting in nine days between Hawaii and Stanford won’t happen until Sunday’s tournament finale. Prior to that, the SandBows see Saint Mary’s (0-2) and No. 19 Arizona State (2-0) on Saturday, and take on Utah on Sunday morning.

The Gaels opened the season last week being swept by then-No. 11 Cal 5-0 and losing 3-2 to then-No. 14 Grand Canyon. The Sun Devils defeated San Francisco 5-0 and Boise State 4-1 in last weekend’s Cactus Classic hosted by Arizona.

The Utes have two players with Hawaii ties on their roster. Playing as graduate students for Utah are former Rainbow Wahine indoor player McKenna Granato, a two-time All-Big West outside hitter, and Kamehameha product Tiyana Hallums, who played four seasons at Gonzaga, finishing as the program’s all-time leader in digs (1,369).

The biggest obstacle to overcome, according to Hawaii coach Jeff Hall, may be the weather. Temperatures are expected to drop into the mid-40s overnight and not break 60 during the day.

“Cold is one of our nemeses,” Hall said. “But we get to go on the road, learn all those things that come with travel.

“It’s all part of the process for our team that is continuing to grow after the influx of indoor players. We are taking a blue-collar mentality and continue to work at things. We have options for the first time in a long time. We have a lot of pieces and a lot of great players on the sidelines. We’ve got to figure out a way to plug them in.”

The SandBows welcomed seven Wahine from their indoor team as well as Harlee Kekauoha, a transfer from UC Irvine who is playing as a graduate student. Four of the eight played: senior Norene Iosia and Kekauoha won Kekauoha’s only match and Iosia also went 1-3 with Kylin Loker; junior Brooke Van Sickle was 3-2 with Amy Ozee; and freshman Hanna Hellvig was 4-1 with Ilihia Huddleston.

The Hellvig-Huddleston pairing was as successful as it was surprising. The duo’s lone loss came against LSU’s Kelli Agnew and Taryn Kloth; Agnew-Kloth went 5-0 last weekend with the 6-foot-4 Kloth, an indoor All-American at Creighton, being named Best Blocker.

“They play a beautiful game,” Hall said of Hellvig and Huddleston. “Both their games are really smooth, they flow together nicely and they’ve built a nice bond early.”

“I love playing with her,” Huddleston said of her partner. “She has so much experience, played on the Swedish national team, and is so easy to talk to. We understand each other and are always on the same page.

“It’s a beautiful partnership.”

Hellvig, the Big West Freshman of the Year in indoor, agreed.

“We’re very new to each other, but we have a lot of potential,” Hellvig said of Huddleston. “We complement each other. She’s a really good defender and I feel confident with her behind me when I’m up blocking.

“I’m super excited for our first road trip. It’s been a long time since I was on the mainland. It will be fun to see what their campus looks like and trying out new courts.”

There are beaches close to the Stanford campus, but those are on the San Francisco Bay side. To get to a beach on the Pacific Ocean would be about 20 miles and 35 minutes away.

To give its courts more of a “beach feeling,” Stanford replanted 10 Phoenix palm trees that are over 100 years old to circle the facility.

Hawaii is traveling 12 on its first road trip, with its top four pairs remaining intact: Morgan Martin-Pani Napoleon (1), Maia Hannemann-Julia Scoles (2), Van Sickle-Ozee (3) and Hellvig-Huddleston (4). While Hall said likely there will be movement up or down within the top four flights, it was the partnerships at Flights 5 and 6 he would tinker with, taking along Iosia, Kekauoha and Loker — all of whom played last weekend — with Anna Maidment making her debut.