The Rainbow Wahine beach volleyball team was pegged at N0. in Tuesday’s 2022 AVCA collegiate beach volleyball preseason poll. Defending NCAA Champion USC is the preseason favorite.

The abbreviated 2021 season saw UH finish 17-10 overall and ranked No. 13 in the final 2021 AVCA poll. Hawaii returns more than a dozen players from last year’s squad, including all-conference players Brooke Van Sickle, Jaime Santer, Kaylee Glagau and Ilihia Huddleston.

Interim head coach Evan Silberstein is set to open his first campaign as the UH head coach after serving as an assistant for the past seven seasons in Manoa. The Wahine will open the season at home, hosting UCLA, Stanford and Saint Mary’s in the Heineken Duke Kahanamoku Beach Classic on Feb. 25-26 at Queen’s Beach.

Local surfers advance at Sunset Beach

Six surfers hailing from Hawaii advanced following Tuesday’s opening and elimination rounds of the Hurley Pro Sunset Beach on Oahu’s North Shore.

Barron Mamiya (11.40), Ezekiel Lau (12.43), Imaikalani deVault (14.76) and John John Florence (12.83) won their respective heats to advance to the round of 32. Billy Kemper (9.86) finished third behind Lau, while World No. 2 Seth Moniz (7.97) stumbled to a third-place finish in his heat.

Moniz bounced back in the elimination round, improving on his score with a 9.26 to take a second-place finish and punch his ticket to the next round. Kemper (11.66) topped his elimination heat. Koa Smith, who replaced injured Hawaii surfer Kai Lenny, is out of the competition after finishing last in his elimination heat despite a sparkling 12.77 score.

Mamiya, Lau, deVault, Florence, Moniz and Kemper are competing in separate heats in the round of 32 and won’t have a chance to face off with each other until at least the round of 16.

Vulcans bounce back with win over Hawks

The Hawaii Hilo women’s basketball team got back in the win column with a 78-47 victory over Holy Names on Tuesday night in Tobin Gymnasium.

The Vulcans (10-8, 7-7 PacWest) moved up a spot in the Pacific West Conference standings to sixth place, a crucial seeding move in the conference’s eight-team championship. The Hawks fall to 0-19 and 0-11 in the PacWest.

Heaven Samayoa-Mathis led UHH in scoring, tying her career high with 15 points. She was followed by Mandi Kawaha and Nikki Miller with 12 apiece, and Bree Olson at 10 points.

Hawaii Hilo and Holy names will go at it again today at 3:30 p.m. in Tobin Gymnasium.

>> The Hawaii Pacific women’s basketball team (6-15, 3-11) fell 78-69 to Dominican (15-9, 12-5) in the opening game of its Northern California road trip on Tuesday at the Conlan Center.

>> The Chaminade women’s basketball team (1-17, 0-14) lost in its final home game of the season, 62-46 to Fresno Pacific (7-11, 4-9) at McCabe Gym.

Hawaii Pacific downs Dominican

Elijah Martinez’s late triple and Jakob Kimura’s last-second block lifted the Hawaii Pacific men’s basketball team past Dominican 75-72 on Tuesday at the Conlan Center.

The Sharks (5-18, 2-14 PacWest) handed the Penguins (7-17, 3-13) their fourth straight loss.

Kimura led HPU with 20 points, including five 3-pointers. Jackson Young scored 13 off the bench, and Trey Chapman barely missed a double-double with 12 points and a game-best nine boards.

The Sharks take on Academy of Art on Thursday at Gleason Gym. Tip-off is set for 5 p.m.

>>The Chaminade men’s basketball team (8-16, 6-12) dropped a 65-60 contest against Fresno Pacific (16-7, 10-6) in its home finale.