Not again.
That was the mind-set for Hawaii junior Ari Homayun heading into the deciding Set 3 against No. 3 UCLA on Saturday at the Ching Complex beach volleyball courts. Earlier in the day, Homayun and partner Amy Ozee had dropped a 15-21, 23-21, 16-14 heart-breaker to Stanford’s Kate Formico-Courtney Bowen, the only point that the No. 5 Rainbow Wahine lost to the No. 17 Cardinal in the season-opening 4-1 dual victory.
Against the Bruins pair of Izzy Carey-Megan Muret, Homayun-Ozee won the first set 21-17, only to drop the second 21-15.
Deja vu? Not.
“I think we found our energy,” Homayun said. “We knew we had to prove ourselves, get the momentum, and play like our lives were on the line … because they were.”
It was more that their match was on the line. A victory at their No. 4 flight would clinch the dual with UCLA since Hawaii had already won at Nos. 3 and 5.
Homayun-Ozee jumped out 6-2 in Set 3, then hung on for a 15-13 win, giving the SandBows the victory even before the final two pairs played.
Hawaii (2-0) takes an undefeated record into today’s final day of the Rainbow Wahine Classic. UCLA (1-1) takes on Stanford (0-2) at 10 a.m., followed by Hawaii-UCLA at 1 p.m. and Hawaii-Stanford at 4 p.m.
In Saturday’s first match, the Bruins didn’t drop a set in sweeping the Cardinal 5-0.
“I’m really happy how Ari and I reset after that loss, and it was a hard loss,” Ozee said. “We shook it off and came back.
“You can’t control everything, but the dream is to take care of business early (so the match is clinched before the last two pairs play).”
But it did happen. Hawaii picked up its first point with a 21-15, 24-22 win at No. 5 by senior Hannah Zalopany and freshman Paige Dreeuws over sophomores Savvy Simo and Chanti Holroyd, 21-15, 24-22. The SandBows quickly made it 2-0 with a 21-7, 21-11 win by sophomore Morgan Martin and freshman Lea Monkhouse over senior Elise Zappia and sophomore Madi Yeomans.
“You never expect 5-0,” Hawaii coach Jeff Hall said. “But it’s nice to walk with that. We still have a lot of work to do.
“We still have tomorrow.”
Hall said he was happy how Homayun and Ozee were able to turn it around.
“That team doesn’t lack confidence normally, so that (loss) was a bit out of character,” he said. “That set the stage for us to kind of roll from then on.
“We may have won the dual (after first three flights), but to those kids playing at flights 1 and 2, it matters to them to win that matchup. It sets a precedent for tomorrow. It only takes three wins and it doesn’t matter where those (three) points come from.”
It may have mattered most to senior Laurel Weaver, who transferred from UCLA. She and graduate student Carly Kan capped the night with a win over Canadian twins Nicole and Megan McNamara at No. 1, 20-22, 21-15, 15-10.
Set 3 wasn’t close, with the SandBows taking leads of 10-5 and 14-9. Weaver put down Hawaii’s second attempt at match point with a hard shot that landed inside the left baseline.
“That was super fun,” said Weaver, who played two seasons for the Bruins. “Carly and I just started playing together two weeks ago, and from the first day we knew we would play well together. We have the same mind-set. She delivered all match.
“Our mentality is to stay hungry. If we win one set, we tell each other to play like we just lost. That’s taken us to some new heights, being dialed in and working for every single point.”
