Big West honors for BeachBows

Hawaii’s Amber Igiede was named the Big West beach volleyball Freshman of the Year on Monday and four Rainbow Wahine pairs earned all-conference recognition.

In her first season playing beach volleyball, Igiede teamed with junior Brooke Van Sickle to win 12 of her last 13 matches and finished at 16-7. With Igiede’s selection, UH has claimed the past five Big West Freshman of the Year awards.

Igiede and Van Sickle — also teammates on the UH indoor team — played 13 matches as UH’s No. 1 flight and were named to the All-Big West first team. UH’s duo of sophomore Pani Napoleon and freshman Jaime Santer also made the first team, as did the team of freshman Ilihia Huddleston and freshman Kaylee Glagau. UH’s No. 5 flight of freshman Anna Maidment and sophomore Sofia Russo made the honorable mention list.

Cal Poly’s Amy Ozee, a Seabury Hall graduate and former UH standout, made the first team with Jayelin Lombard.

PWC softball weekly honors for Gonzales

Hawaii Hilo pitcher Leah Gonzales was named PacWest Conference Pitcher of the Week, the conference announced Monday.

The senior from Wilmington, Calif., earned two wins last week to move her season record to 7-1 and lowered her earned-run average to 1.28, a conference best among starting pitchers. She pitched 11 innings last week, giving up nine hits and allowing two earned runs. For her career, Gonzales is 35-19.

Gonzales and the rest of Vulcans (16-8) head to San Rafael, Calif., to take part in this week’s PacWest AQ Pod Series on Wednesday and Thursday. On Wednesday, UHH faces SoCal Pod winner and No. 12 Concordia at 8 a.m., followed by NorCal Pod winner and host Dominican at 10 a.m.

Thursday sees the Vulcans facing Concordia at 8 a.m. and Dominican at noon.

The team with the best record after two days will be declared the PacWest automatic qualifier and will advance to the NCAA West Region tournament hosted by Concordia, May 19-21 in Irvine, Calif.