The struggles have been real for Hawaii’s pair of Paige Dreeuws and Sofia Russo, the youngest duo in the lineup for the No. 6 Rainbow Wahine this beach volleyball season.
Since being teamed together permanently on March 18, sophomore Dreeuws and freshman Russo have gone 12-5 at Flight 5. All five losses have come against ranked opponents, including on Saturday against Paige Painter-Erin Martin of No. 14 Loyola Marymount, 21-12, 21-19.
On Sunday, Dreeuws-Russo not only reversed the outcome, the pair also scored the deciding point in the SandBows’ 3-2 victory over the Lions. The 27-25, 19-21, 15-8 victory also gave Hawaii the championship of the First Foundation Queen’s Cup in its final appearance of the season at Queen’s Beach.
With the match tied at 2-2, the focus — and the crowd — moved to Court 5, where Hawaii held a 9-8 lead in Set 3. Dreeuws’ tip shot gave her the serve at 10-8 and she never lost it with two aces and another kill in the 6-0 closing run.
“I just went for it,” Dreeuws said about her serving. “I stayed calm and felt comfortable.
“We’re the youngest team and we’ve been working really hard. We’ve had some tough losses, especially Cal Poly, but after that one Danny (volunteer coach Alvarez) told us that we’d get a huge win for the team. This was a huge one.”
Two weeks ago at the Big West Challenge at Pismo Beach, Calif., Hawaii lost to Cal Poly 3-2. The dual was decided at No. 5 where Dreeuws-Russo lost to Sam Manley-Delaney Peranich 16-21, 28-26, 15-12.
“I’m really proud of our 5s, they’ve had their ups and downs,” SandBows coach Jeff Hall said. “Coach Evan (assistant Silberstein) and Coach Danny have done a really good job at inspiring them.
“Sometimes our 5s are the show. Everyone wants to play at (Flight) 1 but a lot of times in our history, it’s come down to the 5s. Today four of the duals went three and anyone can win a third set. It’s about defense and pressure, and we won that battle today.”
Losing to LMU (22-10) would not have been a good loss for Hawaii (23-7) as the SandBows look to keep their resume solid for consideration into next month’s NCAA championship tournament.
The dual with the Lions couldn’t have been more dramatic. Moments after Hawaii lost 2-1 at Flight 4 to give LMU a 2-1 lead, senior Ari Homayun and junior Julia Scoles picked up the tying point by rallying past Reka Orsi Toth-Savannah Slattery 18-21, 21-16, 15-10.
“What wins it? To be completely honest, I think we both got mad,” said Homayun, extending her program-best victory total to 112 with a 5-0 run in the Cup. “We didn’t think we played our best, which got us more mad than us losing (Set 1).
“Give credit to LMU. They played well. We knew we needed to match their level.”
The pair picked up the tying point as well as two of the tournament awards: Scoles named most outstanding player and Homayun the Aloha Spirit award.
Other awards went to LMU’s Megan Nash (best attacker), Washington’s Shayne McPherson (best defender) and San Jose State’s Giulia Gavio (best blocker).
In Sunday’s semifinals, Hawaii shut out San Jose State 5-0 and LMU swept Washington 5-0. Washington (8-13) defeated San Jose State (11-12) for third place.
Hawaii closes out its home season at 4 p.m. today against Washington at the Ching Complex campus courts. It is senior night for Homayun, Emily Maglio, Hi‘ilawe Huddleston and Angel Gaskin.
COLLEGIATE BEACH VOLLEYBALL
At Ching Complex campus courts
>> Today, 4 p.m.
>> Washington (8-13) at No. 6 Hawaii (23-7)
>> TV: Spectrum Sports, 7 p.m. (last two flights)
