BeachBows return to home sand to finish season

Hawaii’s lone opportunity to play on campus this season offers yet another chance for the Rainbow Wahine to test themselves against teams ahead of them in the national beach volleyball poll.

Coming off a two-week road trip that featured seven matchups with opponents ranked in the AVCA Collegiate Beach VB Poll, the BeachBows play host to No. 6 Loyola Marymount and No. 7 Grand Canyon today and Sunday at the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletic Complex.

“We’ve been knocking on the door with the top five and this is really our opportunity to barge down that door,” UH coach Evan Silberstein said.

The BeachBows (17-10) moved up a spot to No. 8 in this week’s poll after a trip that included 3-2 losses to No. 2 TCU and No. 5 LSU. They also faced USC, which moved up to No. 1 this week, and No. 3 UCLA.

The BeachBows held their first two home events of the season at Queen’s Beach in Waikiki and begin their final homestand of the season by taking on Grand Canyon (16-4) today at 8:30 a.m. and Loyola Marymount (19-3) at 2:30 p.m. in Manoa.

Sunday’s senior day schedule will have a UH-LMU rematch at 1 p.m. followed by the BeachBows taking on GCU at 5 p.m. in a televised dual.

“It’s amazing to be on campus. It’s a nice complement to being on the beach,” Silberstein said. “It’s neat to be at UH and able to do it with fans again and have people down there in support of the athletes.”

The Wahine will honor two graduate transfers in the senior ceremony following Sunday’s matches: Hali Galloway and Sarah Penner.

Galloway transferred to UH after playing four years at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, Calif., and has seen action in exhibition matches in her lone season at UH.

“Hali is someone I actually watched in the junior circuits before she went over to indoors so I thought it was a really great opportunity for her to come back into the beach volleyball fold,” Silberstein said. “She just puts her best effort forward and comes to practice every day with a smile.”

Penner was an indoor standout at Gonzaga and earned All-West Coast Conference second-team honors in the 2020-21 season that was moved to the spring due to the pandemic. The 6-foot outside hitter closed her Gonzaga career sixth in program history with 1,292 career kills.

She enrolled at UH in the fall with the skills inherent in playing six rotations indoors and went to work adapting her game to the beach environment.

“It definitely was a little bit of a struggle at first but now after having a full fall season I’m getting more comfortable,” Penner said. “Especially playing such high-level competition, I’m coming into my own now. It’s taken a while, but I’ve been patient with myself to let it slowly develop.”

Penner is 12-14 so far, starting the season paired with Ilihia Huddleston and playing the past 10 matches with Kylin Loker at UH’s No. 2 and 3 flights. Penner said she’s looking forward to making her lone appearances at the Ching Complex, where the sand is more compacted compared to Queen’s and better suits a converted indoor player.

“It’s not easy to make that transition from indoor,” Silberstein said. “We see her as a beach volleyball player now. Someone who can come in and play really anywhere in the lineup and be a big factor at the net.”