SandBows to NorCal

Photo Credit: Hawaii Athletics

Hawaii Preview

The 2nd ranked Hawaii sand volleyball team will head to Northern California where they will face the 10th ranked Pacific Tigers and participate in the Santa Cruz Collegiate Challenge hosted by Santa Clara.

Thursdays match against Pacific (March 26, 1:00 PM) will be the first meeting between the two teams on the sand courts. The Tigers are currently 7-4 on the season. They opened the season at the NorCal Invitational with victories over California, St. Mary's, and Stanford. The match-up between the Tigers and the Rainbow Wahine will be streamed live on two courts through Youtube. (Note: Both matches will be archived at the links below for those who want to rewatch or are unable to see it live)

Court 1 Stream | Court 2 Stream | Pacific Preview

The Santa Cruz Collegiate Challenge hosted by the Santa Clara Broncos will take place at Main Beach in Santa Cruz. Teams like San Francisco, Cal Poly, California, Cal State Bakersfield, and Santa Clara are featured in this tournament.

On Saturday (March 28th), each team will play two dual matches with Hawaii facing San Francisco (6:00 AM H.T.) and Cal State Bakersfield (10:00 AM). Pairs 3-5 will play the first hour while Pairs 1, 2, and 6 will play the next. Once pool play is over, the teams will play for their deciding place (1st, 3rd, or 5th).

The next day will be a pairs tournament with three tournaments in it self going on throughout the days starting at 06:00 AM. First up are the No.1 and 2's tournament followed by the No.3 and 4's tournament than the No.5's tournament.

Saturday Schedule | Sunday Schedule | Santa Clara Preview

Jeff Hall mentions that this weekend will be about experiment with the line-ups after being swept by the now No.1 ranked USC. Pairs No.1-3 will remain the same while 4-6 will be changed starting with the match against Pacific.

Main Beach in Santa Cruz

Wahine Going Up + Pacific Mens Volleyball

Hawaii in the Polls

With the release of the polls today, the Wahine have gone up in all of them. In the AVCA and RichKern poll, they are ranked 9th but in the Pablo Rankings, they are at 10th. Some coaches may have not stayed up to find the results of the San Diego match before turning in their ballots which may be why the Wahine up. But San Diego was the biggest leap in the polls going from receiving points to 14th. Texas went from #1 to #6.

Hawaii's futures opponents that were ranked this week were UCLA (#10) and Creighton (#19) with Long Beach State, Wichita State, and Cal State Northridge receiving points.

Hartong is Big West POW

 

Hawaii Release | Big West Release

Senior outside hitter Emily Hartong has received this weeks Big West Player of the Week. This is the fifth time in her career that she has received this award and first time this season. She earned this award after having an outstanding weekend with 62 kills while hitting .356. She was named Chevron Rainbow Wahine Invitational Most Outstanding Player while her team went 2-1 upsetting #1 Texas but was upset by unranked San Diego.

Congrats to Emily and what a great performance she has had this weekend and can't wait to see her play the rest of the season!

Next Match: Thursday vs New Mexico State

Help University of Pacific

The University of Pacific Mens Volleyball team is in trouble right now. Their athletic director has considered dropping the program for financial purposes. But fans have created an online petition to send to the athletic director in order to save the program. Please help by signing. Pacific has been a great opponent for the University of Hawaii and their existence helps expand the mens volleyball world. So please click this link in order to sign the petition. Spread the word!