The University of Hawaii beach volleyball season came to an end early Saturday when in a 3-1 loss to No. 6 Loyola Marymount in the NCAA Tournament in Gulf Shores, Ala.
The match started at 3 a.m. Hawaii time after it was postponed a day because of weather. The BeachBows’ season finished at 27-9 following their sixth NCAA bid. Two-time defending champion and No. 3 USC beat LMU 3-1 in the next round. The Trojans will meet cross-town rival UCLA for the title today.
LMU took a 2-0 lead by winning at No. 4 and No. 5 flights in straight-set wins.
The BeachBows got their strongest performance from the No. 2 pair of Kylin Loker and Riley Wagoner, who rolled past Abbey Thorup and Kristine Garder 21-17, 21-14.
The match would be decided at the No. 1 and No. 3 flights, where the teams engaged in three-set battles. The No. 1 court was a matchup of first-team All-Americans as Brooke Van Sickle and Kaylee Glagau went back-and-forth with LMU’s Melanie Paul and Vilhelmiina Prihti. The close contest, however, went unfinished as the pair of Jacinda Ramirez and Isabelle Raffel ultimately clinched the dual for the Lions with a 19-21, 21-18, 15-8 win over Ilihia Huddleston and Jaime Santer at the No. 3 court.
Glagau and Van Sickle closed another stellar season with a 29-3 record. Aside from All-America honors, the duo was also named the Big West Pair of the Year and earned AVCA Top Flight Honors.
Titans sweep doubleheader with Hawaii
The University of Hawaii softball team dropped both games in its doubleheader with Cal State Fullerton, falling 5-1 and 3-0 on Saturday in Fullerton, Calif.
In the first game, Hawaii (29-21, 12-12) fell in an early 2-0 hole after the first inning, and after getting back one run in the third, the Titans (33-16, 20-4) scored two more runs in the fourth, chasing UH starter Key-annah Campbell-Pua, who took the loss, allowing seven hits and five runs. Hawaii managed just four hits, with Maycen Gibbs hitting a solo home run for the lone Rainbow Wahine run.
In the second game, the Titans again got ahead early, scoring two runs in the opening frame and another in the second. Hawaii starter Brianna Lopez limited the damage after that, keeping the Titans off the board the rest of the way. But Hawaii could only manage five hits against Myka Sutherlin, who tossed a one-hitter against the Wahine on Friday.
This is the first time Hawaii has been swept in a conference series this season.
Gordon finishes sixth in heptathlon
Hawaii’s Sammie Gordon finished in sixth at the heptathlon event of the Big West Championships in Fullerton, Calif., leading three Rainbow Wahine in the top 10.
Gordon’s best performance came in the 800m, where she finished second with a time of 2:22.18, and added a fifth-place finish in the javelin throw. She finished with a total of 4,778 points, the sixth-best total in UH program history. Anna Marx finished just behind Gordon in eighth with 4,695, good for eighth-best all-time for Hawaii. Catherine Touchette joined Gordon and Marx in the event’s top 10, finishing with 4,492 points. Jolie Robinson of UC Irvine was the winner with 5,343 points.
The Big West Championships will restart on May 12, as Hawaii sits in fourth place with four points.
