Hawaii Wahine beach volleyball team moves up to No. 4 in national ranking

Four road victories last week helped Hawaii move up a spot to No. 4 in Monday’s American Volleyball Coaches Association Collegiate Beach Top 20.

The Rainbow Wahine (7-2), running their winning streak to five, went 4-0 at the Bay Area Classic hosted by Stanford. The SandBows traded places with former No. 4 USC (2-2). The Women of Troy splitting their matches at the Hilton Head Island (S.C.) Invitational.

LSU, which won the Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Classic on opening weekend, moved up a spot to No. 1. The Tigers (8-2) received 10 of the 11 first-place votes, replacing UCLA (7-2) in the top spot.

The Bruins, who lost to LSU for the second time in as many duals, fell to No. 2, while Florida State (10-1) remained at No. 3, receiving one vote. The Big West had two other ranked teams: Cal Poly (4-2) moved up two spots to No. 8 and Long Beach State (3-0) slipped two spots to No. 14.

Hawaii is on a bye week before heading to the March 14-15 Stetson Beach Blast in Deland, Fla. Also in the field are No. 3 Florida State, No. 5 USC and No. 10 Stetson (6-3), as well as UAB (4-2).

Two Chaminade players earn honors

Chaminade’s Kendall Small was named the Pacific West Conference men’s basketball Defender of the Week and Isaac Amaral-Artharee was the PacWest Freshman of the Week.

Small nabbed 12 defensive rebounds and five steals in games played between Feb. 24 and March 1.

Amaral-Artharee had a combined 35 points in Chaminade’s wins over Hawaii Pacific and Hilo, allowing the Silverswords to capture the No. 3 seed in the upcoming PacWest Championships in Azusa, Calif.

Chaminade will face sixth-seeded Academy of Art in the quarterfinals on Thursday.

Chaminade softball falls to Concordia, rain

The Chaminade softball team lost 7-2 to 10th-ranked Concordia on Monday at Sand Island Park.

The Eagles scored six runs in the top of the sixth inning, rallying from a 2-1 deficit.

Chaminade trailed 9-2 in the bottom of the seventh when the game was called due to rain. NCAA rules state that called games are reverted back to the last full completed inning, which led to the 7-2 final score.

The Silverswords dropped to 2-4 overall and 0-4 in the PacWest, while Concordia improved to 13-2 and 7-1 in the PacWest.

Two other games that were scheduled as makeup games after Sunday’s rainout were called off.

Chaminade faces Azusa Pacific on Thursday.