No. 6 Hawaii beats Nebraska, No. 11 Cal to win beach volleyball tourney
Freshman Kylin Loker’s final kill gave No. 6 Hawaii its deciding point and the Rainbow Wahine claimed the title of the Heineken Hawaii Invitational beach volleyball tournament today at Queen’s Beach when holding off No. 11 Cal 3-2.
Loker, named the tournament’s most outstanding player, paired with senior Hi’ilawe Huddleston at Flight 4 to defeat Madison Dueck-Alexia Inman, 21-15, 17-21, 17-15. The SandBows (9-4) also defeated the Golden Bears (9-3) 3-2 in Saturday’s pool play.
In the third-place match, Boise State defeated Nebraska 4-1. The Huskers (10-6) play Hawaii on Monday at the Ching Athletic Complex courts. The match begins at 4 p.m.
Other awards went to Hawaii’s Emily Maglio (best blocker), Cal’s Mima Mirkovic (best attacker), Boise State’s Janell Walley (best defender) and Nebraska’s Kenzie Knuckles (aloha spirit).
In today’s earlier semifinals, Hawaii swept Nebraska 5-0 and Cal swept Boise State 5-0. The No. 5 flight of Ashley Stevens-Sofia Russo rallied to defeat Megan Miller-Callie Swarzenback 17-21, 21-7, 15-12 to secure the sweep of Nebraska.