Hawaii (17-10) earned two shots at claiming the Big West beach volleyball tournament title with a win over top-seeded Cal Poly on Saturday morning.
But the Mustangs bounced back with two 3-2 wins over the Rainbow Wahine in the afternoon to retain the conference championship at Rosie’s Dog Beach in Long Beach, Calif.
UH opened the double-elimination tournament’s second day with a 3-2 win over Cal Poly in a winner’s bracket match to advance to the final. The BeachBows clinched the win at the No. 1 flight when Amber Igiede and Brooke Van Sickle rallied past Emily Sonny and Macy Gordon 18-21, 21-18, 15-11 for their 11th straight win.
Cal Poly eliminated Long Beach State to join UH in the final and forced a winner-take-all match.
In the third meeting of the day, Cal Poly won in straight sets at the No. 2, 3 and 4 flights to retain the title the Mustangs won in 2019. UH picked up three-set wins at No. 1 and 5 to account for the final margin.
UH closed Angelica Ljungqvist’s first season as head coach at 17-10.
Rainbow Wahine roll to water polo finals
Hawaii set a Big West water polo tournament scoring record in a 16-9 semifinal win over Long Beach State on Saturday in San Diego.
Libby Gault led the Rainbow Wahine with four goals and Lara Luka added three in the rout of The Beach. Emma van Rossum and Lot Stertefeld added two goals each and UH advanced to today’s championship match.
Top-seeded UH (10-1) will face No. 3 seed UC Irvine for the title at 9 a.m. at Canyonview Aquatic Center. UC Irvine (11-7) advanced with a 12-11 win over host UC San Diego.
The Wahine won all four meetings with the Anteaters in the regular season and are aiming for their second straight Big West tournament title and fourth overall.
UH bounced from men’s tennis tourney
A tiebreaker in the final match in contention sent Cal Poly to a 4-3 win over Hawaii in the semifinals of the Big West men’s tennis tournament on Saturday in Irvine, Calif.
No. 4 seed UH earned the doubles point and got a singles win from Andre Ilagan on the No. 1 court for a 2-0 lead in the match. Cal Poly picked up three singles wins and UH’s Lucas Labrunie defeated Noah Berry 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 to knot the match. On the No. 3 court, Cal Poly’s Antoine Noel edged UH’s Blaz Seric 5-7, 6-2, 7-6 (7) to send the top-seeded Mustangs to today’s final against UC Santa Barbara.
HPU sweeps pair against Hilo in baseball
The Hawaii Pacific baseball team earned a pair of 5-4 wins over Hawaii Hilo on Saturday at Les Murakami Stadium.
The Sharks (6-16, 6-12 PacWest) scored the winning run in the second-to-last inning in both games for the doubleheader sweep. The Sharks also managed to stifle the Vulcans (12-9, 12-6) offensively, allowing just seven hits over the two games.
In the first game, Richard Higa doubled and came around to score the go-ahead run via a passed ball and a wild pitch. In the second game, the Sharks rallied with three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning.
