Alex Ching shot a 5-under-par 67 in the second round of the 63rd Mid-Pacific Open on Friday and enters the weekend tied with Jared Sawada atop the leaderboard at 4 under midway through the four-day event.
Ching opened the tournament with a 73 on Thursday and climbed the professional flight standings with seven birdies on Friday. Sawada opened with a 68 and held his ground with an even par 72. Tyler Ota finished the day one shot behind the leaders after a round of 71. Ota is the lone pro to shoot under par in both rounds. Dean Wilson shot a 74 on Friday to move to 1 under for the tournament and alone in fourth place.
Matthew Ma shot a 71 in the second round and leads the championship flight at even par 144 for the tournament. Ma is two shots ahead Alika Bell, who carded his second straight round of 73 on Friday.
Wahine rally for water polo win
Hawaii scored three unanswered goals in the fourth quarter to rally past UC Davis in a 7-5 Big West water polo victory on Friday at the Duke Kahanamoku Aquatic Complex.
Lara Luka scored three goals to lead the Rainbow Wahine (8-1, 3-1 Big West) in the opener of a two-match series.
UC Davis took a 5-4 lead into the final period and Lucia Gomez de la Puente scored the tying goal 29 seconds into the fourth quarter. Carmen Baringo gave the Rainbow Wahine the lead at the 6:43 mark with her second goal of the match and Lot Stertefeld added another goal with 5:05 left. UH’s Molly DiLalla finished with 10 saves. The Wahine and Aggies meet again today at noon in UH’s regular-season finale.
Vulcans fall in five-set battle
The battle between top teams went in favor of Alaska Anchorage as the Seawolves edged Hawaii Hilo 25-23, 25-23, 21-25, 26-28, 16-14 Friday at Vulcan Gymnasium.
The loss snapped a nine-match win streak for the 11-2 UH Hilo. Alaska Anchorage moved ahead to 10-1 on the spring season.
The Vulcans took early leads in each of the first two sets, before the Seawolves came back to win both sets. UH Hilo kept the match alive with a set 3 victory that saw the Vulcans keep Alaska Anchorage at arms length throughout.
UHH then withstood three Seawolves match points in set 4, surviving with a 28-26 win and sending the match to a fifth set. After giving up an early lead, the Vulcans twice came back to tie set 5 at 10-10, and then 14-14, but Alaska Anchorage wrapped up the marathon match with the final two points to win 16-14.
Bria Beale led the Vulcans with 20 kills, while also picking up 18 digs and five service aces.
