The final week of the beach volleyball season marks the start of a new role for University of Hawaii coach Jeff Hall — sort of.
For the past three years, Hall filled dual duties leading the SandBows and as associate coach with the Rainbow Wahine indoor program. With UH separating the positions and announcing Hall as the school’s first full-time beach volleyball coach on Wednesday, he leads the SandBows into the National Collegiate Beach Volleyball Championship with a single objective.
“It’ll be really awesome to be able to focus on one,” Hall said in a phone interview from Gulf Shores, Ala. “It’s a tremendous challenge to be great at both programs as a coach. You’re constantly getting pulled two different directions.
“While I’m here I don’t have to worry about any indoor responsibilities, any recruiting, anything that might come up. It’s my 100 percent focus on trying to win a national championship and bring it home to the islands.”
That quest continues Friday when fifth-seeded UH (26-5) faces No. 4 Florida State (27-7) at 5 a.m. in the opening round of three-day double-elimination NCAA tournament. The winner faces No. 1 USC or No. 8 South Carolina in the second round at 10 a.m. The loser falls into an elimination bracket match at 8 a.m.
On the other side of the eight-team bracket, No. 3 Pepperdine faces Big West runner-up Long Beach State and No. 2 UCLA takes on No. 7 LSU.
Hall said of the teams in Alabama this week, only Long Beach State has a part-time head coach and establishing a full-time position keeps UH “in line with rest of the elite and I think truly if you want to win a national championship you’ve gotta have a coach that’s fully dedicated to only one team.”
The SandBows stayed on the mainland after winning a second straight Big West championship last weekend in California and arrived in Alabama on Tuesday with the momentum of an eight-match winning streak.
UH will face Florida State for the second time this season and the fourth straight year in Gulf Shores. The SandBows and Seminoles split their meetings in the AVCA championship in 2014 and ’15 and Florida State edged UH 3-2 last year in the quarterfinals of the inaugural NCAA tournament.
The ’Noles handed UH its first loss this season with another 3-2 win on March 17 in the Outrigger Hawaii Invitational at Queen’s Beach.
Hall noted Florida State has shuffled three of its pairs since the first meeting. Even so, UH is “super familiar with them and nobody’s going to have any secrets,” Hall said.
“It’s a little different in the sense that we have to scout a little bit differently and just prepare for each individual,” he said. “But it’s the same kids just in different flights.”
UH counters with a No. 1 flight of senior Mikayla Tucker and freshman Morgan Martin (19-12) named the Big West pairs team of the year on Tuesday.
“Morgan is really talented but Mikayla has a ton more experience so it’s been a really fun pairing and Mikayla has worked really hard to get herself in that number one flight,” Hall said.
No. 2 Kaiwi Schucht and Nikki Taylor (24-7) and No. 3 Laurel Weaver and Emily Maglio (28-3) also made the All-Big West first team and No. 4 Ari Homayun and Carli Kan (28-3) have won 13 consecutive matches, one short of the program record.
“That’s a pretty nice piece for us,” Hall said. “The three and four being so solid and dependable all year has helped us win a lot of duals.”
For Taylor, the NCAA tournament will be a final opportunity to compete for UH after four decorated seasons with the indoor program and posting a program record 103 wins on the beach entering the tournament.
“It’s an end of an era,” Hall said. “I think it was just a great thing for her to be able to play for both programs and push both programs and she’s going to be really hard to replace.
“She’s been remarkable. It’s been a pleasure for me to coach her in both the indoor and beach side of things and look forward to seeing how her professional career starts.”
All of the tournament matches will be streamed online at ncaa.com. Selected matches will be televised on truTV and Sunday’s championship will be shown on TBS.
NATIONAL COLLEGIATE BEACH VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIP
At Gulf Shores, Ala.
Friday
>> Match 1: No. 1 USC vs. No. 2 South Carolina, 4 a.m.
>> Match 2: No. 5 Hawaii vs. No. 4 Florida State, 5 a.m.
>> Match 3: No. 7 LSU vs. No. 2 UCLA, 6 a.m.
>> Match 4: No. 3 Pepperdine vs. No. 6 Long Beach State, 7 a.m.
>> Match 5: USC/South Carolina loser vs. Hawai/Florida State loser, 8 a.m.
>> Match 6: Pepperdine/LBSU loser vs. LSU/UCLA loser, 9 a.m. (truTV)
>> Match 7: USC/South Carolina winner vs. Hawai/ Florida State winner, 10 a.m.(truTV)
>> Match 8: Pepperdine/LBSU winner vs. LSU/UCLA winner, 11 a.m. (truTV)
Saturday
>> Match 9: Match 5 winner vs Match 8 loser, 8 a.m. or 9:10 a.m.
>> Match 10: Match 6 winner vs. Match 7 loser, 8 a.m. or 9:10 a.m.
>> Match 11: Match 7 winner vs. Match 8 winner, 10 a.m. (truTV)
>> Match 12: Match 9 winner vs. Match 10 winner, 11 a.m. (truTV)
Sunday
>> Match 13: Match 12 winner vs. Match 11 loser, 5 a.m.
>> Championship: Match 11 winner vs. Match 13 winner, 8 a.m. (TBS)
