Wahine fall to Loyola Marymount in opening round of beach volleyball championship

CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / MARCH 10
Hawaii’s Kaylee Glagau, right, set the ball for Brooke Van Sickle during their match in March against Cal at the Outrigger Queen’s Classic tournament in Waikiki.

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CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / MARCH 10

Hawaii’s Kaylee Glagau, right, set the ball for Brooke Van Sickle during their match in March against Cal at the Outrigger Queen’s Classic tournament in Waikiki.

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Loyola Marymount’s fast start led to an quick end to Hawaii’s stay in the National Collegiate Beach Volleyball Championship.

The fourth-seeded Lions won the opening set at all five flights on their way to a 3-0 win over the No. 13-seeded Rainbow Wahine in the single-elimination opening round of the NCAA tournament in Gulf Shores, Ala.

“We knew they were going to be good, we knew it was going to be tough all over, and they just kind of jumped out on us in a way they we never got back all the way into it,” UH interim head coach Evan Silberstein said in a phone interview.

Loyola Marymount advanced to the double-elimination bracket and will next face No. 5 Florida State, which survived a 3-2 duel with No. 12 seed and Big West champion Cal Poly.

The BeachBows closed the season at 24-17 after finishing second at the Big West championship last week in San Luis Obispo, Calif., and extending the trip to Alabama thanks to an at-large berth into the expanded 16-team NCAA tournament bracket.

UH and LMU split their regular-season meetings on April 9 and 10 in Manoa, each pulling out a 3-2 victory at the Ching Complex. LMU took command early in the third meeting, winning the first sets by five to nine points on all five courts.

LMU’s No. 1 flight of Reka Orsi Toth and Megan Rice earned the first point with a 21-12, 21-13 win over UH’s Brooke Van Sickle and Kaylee Glagau in a matchup of first-team All-America pairs. Van Sickle and Glagau, the Big West Pair of the Year, won both matchups with Orsi Toth and Rice in Honolulu but closed the season at 30-9.

The Lions went up 2-0 when Selina Marolf and Abbey Thorup closed out a 21-15, 21-12 win over Anna Maidment and Sofia Russo at the No. 4 flight.

Momentum looked to be turning on the three remaining courts, but LMU’s No. 5 flight of Isabelle Reffel and Jacinda Ramirez held off UH’s Ilihia Huddleston and Riley Wagoner 21-13, 22-20 to clinch the dual for the Lions.

UH’s Sarah Penner and Megan Widener had forced a third set at the No. 3 court and Kylin Loker and Jaime Santer were leading in the second set at No. 2 when LMU clinched.

“(The Lions) have good serving discipline, they serve with toughness,” Silberstein said. “I think they did a better job getting us out of system and getting their blockers involved and making good moves and dives to get points. We didn’t do enough at the service line to really interrupt their side-out game.”

UH entered the tournament with just two players — Loker and Russo — who were on the team for the BeachBows’ previous trip to Gulf Shores in 2019. Of the starters on Wednesday, all but Penner are slated to return next season.

“We have a lot of the group coming back so we’re excited to look ahead for now, be proud of what they’ve been able to accomplish and take this step and get ourselves back into the national tournament,” Silberstein said. “Hopefully we can take advantage of that moving into future years.”

Silberstein said he has had “preliminary conversations” with UH athletic director David Matlin about remaining with the program as the full-time coach. Silberstein had served as an assistant for seven years before moving into the head coaching role this season following Angelica Ljungqvist’s departure last summer.

“My interest is to stay and continue to lead the program and I’m hopeful our interests can align and we can make it work,” said Silberstein, the Big West co-Coach of the Year.

“I’m proud to lead the program. I’m excited about the future of the program. I trust in the athletes and what we’ve been able to create and want to continue to build that and get us back at the level of success I think we’re capable of.”