Rainbow Wahine rise in softball polls

The University of Hawaii softball team moved up in both national polls after closing last week’s play at 24-2 overall.

The Rainbow Wahine rose a spot into a tie with Oregon for 17th in the USA Today/NFCA coaches poll. UH is also 17th in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25, moving up from a tie for 19th in last week’s poll.

California (25-1), which was first in last week’s ESPN.com/USA Softball ranking, is second in both polls after losing its first game of the season to UH last Thursday. Alabama (25-0) is first in both polls.

UH opens the Western Athletic Conference season against San Jose State (16-16) at 6 p.m. Friday at Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium.

Chang on another All-America team

Brigham Young-Hawaii’s Jet Chang was picked to the Daktronics All-America second team for NCAA Division II basketball.

Chang, a senior from Taiwan, led the Pacific West Conference in scoring with 17.8 points per game.

Earlier this week, Chang was picked to the Basketball Times All-America first team for D-II.

He also was previously selected to the Daktronics West Region first team and the NABC West Region first team.

Kovalyov and Pinterova earn WAC honors

Hawaii’s Dmytro Kovalyov and Barbara Pinterova are the men’s and women’s Western Athletic Conference tennis players of the week.

Kovalyov, a junior from Ukraine, went 2-0 in singles, helping the Warriors go 2-0 last week. He was also 1-1 in doubles.

Pinterova, a senior from Slovakia, went 3-1 in both No. 1 singles and No. 1 doubles.

Grand Canyon sweeps UHH in softball

Kelsey Barak hit a three-run homer and Kiley Raica pitched a complete-game victory to lead Grand Canyon past Hawaii-Hilo 7-5 in the first game of a softball doubleheader sweep Tuesday in Phoenix.

Aisha Sueda homered for the Vulcans (12-5, 7-4 Pacific West Conference) in the opener.

Haley Walker hit a two-run homer for the Antelopes (14-8, 5-1) in a 7-4 win in the second game.

UHH’s Sueda and Gerika Pantohan had two hits each in the second game.