The Hawaii soccer team continued its best start in Big West play with a 2-0 road victory against UC Riverside on Friday night.
UH (5-6-1 overall) is 3-0 in conference play for the first time since the WAC championship season of 2007.
After a scoreless first half, the Rainbow Wahine got goals from two freshmen: Kelci Sumida in the 55th minute and Eliza Ammendolia in the 88th. They were assisted by Elena Palacios and Daelenn Tokunaga, respectively.
It was the team-high-tying third goal of the season for Sumida, a Moanalua alumna, and the first career for Ammendolia, an Australian.
The Wahine meet Cal State Fullerton (10-2-2, 3-0-1) at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Titans’ field in a battle of conference leaders.
UC Riverside dropped to 2-11-1 and 0-4. It was UH’s first win on the Highlanders’ turf field in four attempts as a Big West member.
Wahine alums help U.S. win volleyball gold
Former Hawaii All-Americans Emily Hartong, Katie Spieler and Karissa Cook helped the U.S. women win gold and Punahou grads Trevor Crabb and Maddison and Riley McKibbin the men’s gold Wednesday at the ANOC World Beach Games in Doha, Qatar.
In the women’s 4×4 final, Cook had five kills and five blocks, and Hartong six kills and four blocks in the 21-16, 21-9 sweep of Brazil. Hartong was an indoor All-American for the Rainbow Wahine and Cook was a beach All-American for the SandBows.
The women’s team was comprised of Spieler, also a former UH beach All-American, Geena Urango, Kelly Reeves and Allie Wheeler. The Americans fell to Brazil 21-13, 21-21 in pool play but came back to defeat Vanuatu in the quarterfinals and Canada in the semis to earn the rematch with Brazil.
In the men’s final, Crabb had 11 kills and a block, and Maddison McKibbin five kills and four blocks in the 21-18, 26-24 win over Qatar. Riley McKibbin and Brian Cook made up the four-man team in the gold-medal match.
The men’s team also included Troy Field and Casey Patterson. The Americans lost to Qatar in pool play, 16-21, 21-10, 15-10, then came back to down Mozambique in the quarters and Indonesia in the semis, earning the rematch with the host country for this Association of National Olympic Committees event.
Chaminade wins 12th consecutive match
Rachel Reedy had 16 kills and Emma Tecklenburg added 14 as Chaminade beat Dominican 29-27, 25-19, 25-16 on Friday at McCabe Gym.
Annah Rivera finished with 12 kills for the Silverswords (17-2, 11-0 PacWest), who have won 12 consecutive matches.
Rebecca Smith had eight kills for the Penguins (1-15, 1-10).
