SandBows upset Pepperdine, move on to winners bracket
The No. 3-seeded Hawaii beach volleyball team extended its program-record winning streak to 32 today, upsetting second-seeded Pepperdine 3-2 in a winners-bracket match at the NCAA championship tournament in Gulf Shores, Ala.
The Rainbow Wahine (37-3) saw the winning point come in the final dual of the day when Paige Dreeuws and Hannah Zalopany defeated Maddie Dilfer-Nikki Lyins, 21-19, 18-21, 15-13. The SandBows also won at Flights 1 (Emily Maglio-Ka’iwi Schucht) and 3 (Carly Kan-Laurel Weaver).
Hawaii next faces fourth-seeded Florida State (32-6) on Saturday at 10 a.m. Hawaii time, with the winner of that match moving into Sunday’s championship final.
The Seminoles upset top-seeded UCLA 3-1 earlier today, sending the Bruins (36-4) into an elimination match Saturday against LSU (27-13).
Florida State is the last team to defeat Hawaii, doing so 4-1 at the East Meets West Challenge on March 10 at Huntington Beach, Calif.
The Waves (25-4) will face two-time defending national champion USC (26-13) in an elimination match on Saturday. The two elimination winners then play each other, the loser out and the winner taking on the loser of the Hawaii-FSU match.
Earlier today, Hawaii gave coach Jeff Hall his 100th career victory when opening the tournament with a 3-0 win over South Carolina.
In the match against Pepperdine, Ari Homayun and Amy Ozee saw their winning streak snapped at 25 when falling to Alexis Filippone-Skylar Caputo, 21-15, 19-21, 15-12.