Hawaii fell one spot in Monday’s AVCA Division I-II men’s top 15, falling to No. 8 after losing twice to BYU last week.
The Rainbow Warriors (10-9, 5-9 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) have lost their past five and eight of their past nine.
Long Beach State (17-2, 13-2 MPSF) remained at No. 1, receiving all but one of the 20 first-place votes. BYU (16-2, 12-2 MPSF) stayed at No. 2 with the remaining vote.
There was no change in Nos. 3-6, with Stanford (15-2, 13-2 MPSF) followed by UCLA (17-3, 13-3 MPSF), Ohio State (15-3, 9-1 MIVA) and Penn State (12-4, 7-4 EIVA). UC Santa Barbara (13-8, 9-7 MPSF) jumped two spots to No. 7, Pepperdine (8-6, 7-6 MPSF) moved up a spot to No. 9 and Ball State (14-4, 8-1 MIVA) fell two spots to No. 10.
Hawaii is on the road for matches against No. 11 Cal State Northridge (12-7, 5-7) on Friday and Saturday.
First for UH beach volleyball pair
University of Hawaii beach volleyball pair Katie Spieler and Emily Maglio earned the Big West’s first-ever Beach Pairs Team of the Week award following their performance at last week’s Pepperdine Kick-Off Tournament at Zuma Beach, Calif.
Spieler and Maglio teamed on the second day of the event and posted wins over No. 2 Pepperdine and No. 4 Long Beach State. The pair took down Pepperdine’s Kaity Bailey and Delaney Knudsen 21-19, 21-16 at No. 2 in UH’s 4-1 loss to the Waves. They later defeated LBSU’s Rachel Nieto and Kobi Pekich 21-18, 21-13 at No. 1 in UH’s 4-1 win over the Beach.
While playing with a different partner Friday, Maglio recorded a 1-1 mark at No. 3 with a win over UCLA. Maglio finished the weekend with a 3-1 record while Spieler went 2-2.
BYUH sweeps Occidental
Senior outfielder Tiffany Smith drove in six runs in the doubleheader and strong Brigham Young-Hawaii pitching enabled the Seasiders to sweep Occidental, 7-0 and 6-4, at BYUH on Monday.
Smith finished 3-for-7, with a double and a triple. Meghan Wantz (3-7) pitched a three-hit complete-game shutout in the opener and Pitisi Tualau (1-2) pitched five innings in relief for the win in the second game for BYUH (5-13). Alex Battest led the Tigers (5-9), going 6-for-7 with two RBIs.
UHH, Chaminade players earn honors
Hawaii Hilo junior first baseman Cristina Menjivar, who slammed three home runs in a doubleheader split with Dominican last week, was named PacWest Softball Player of the Week.
Also earning an award was Chaminade freshman outfielder Kayla Henmi, who was named the conference’s Newcomer of the Week after she batted 5-for-6 while helping the Silverswords win three of four games last week.