Summing up Hawaii’s sand volleyball season requires only simple addition. Four All-Americans, a third-place team award and a second-place finish in pairs equaled one great season and a promising future.

That’s how Rainbow Wahine coach Scott Wong saw the outcome on the sands of Gulf Shores, Ala. On Saturday, fourth-seeded Hawaii shared third in the AVCA Collegiate Sand Volleyball National Championships team event with top-seeded USC, with the title going to the only team to defeat the SandBows twice this season in second-seeded Pepperdine.

On Sunday, junior Brittany Tiegs and senior Karissa Cook reached the pairs championship match, falling to USC’s Kirby Burnham and Sara Hughes. Hours earlier, Tiegs and Cook were joined by sophomore Katie Spieler and freshman Nikki Cook on the 16-member All-America team, with Hawaii and Pepperdine the only schools to have four players selected based on advancing to the quarterfinals of the pairs event.

"Of course you always want to win that last match, but overall, it was a really good weekend for us as a team and a great season," Wong said of Hawaii’s third year in the sport. "I think Britt and Karissa expended a lot of energy in their early matches and kind of ran out of gas.

"But a lot of milestones we wanted to achieve this season were checked off."

Tiegs-Cook, playing at No. 1 all season, finished 38-6. Of Sunday’s four matches, the first two went three, with emotional wins over pairs from Long Beach State in the first round and Pepperdine in the quarters. In the semifinals, UH faced Florida State, Tiegs’ former team and the school that defeated the SandBows 4-1 in Saturday’s team semifinal. The third-seeded Tiegs-Cook won the rematch with second-seeded Jace Pardon and Aurora Davis 21-18, 21-16.

"They got the best of us (Saturday) and we got the best of them (today)," said Tiegs, who sat out last season after transferring when FSU did not give her a release. "It was nice to come back and beat them in two. In the final, they (Burnham-Hughes) played out of their minds."

It was the fourth time the two pairs had met and the second time in three days. Tiegs-Cook won Friday’s dual match 23-21, 22-20 as the SandBows upset No. 1 USC.

"Things that we were able to shut them down on (Friday), they adjusted to," said Cook, who transferred from Stanford for this one season. "They played very solid, executed well.

"This whole experience was awesome. This year was about playing volleyball and why I love the game. We got here, we knocked off the No. 1 team, we almost made the (team) finals … I’m excited for the future."

Cook was the team’s lone senior. Also expected to be done is Ali Longo, who has used up her four years of indoor eligibility but has one more season remaining to play sand. Longo teamed with junior Ginger Long at No. 3 this season.

Longo has indicated that she won’t return but "you never know," Wong said. "We’d love to have her back. If not, then it means we lose two who will go down as two of the best SandBows in our program. We’ll miss them for all their volleyball stuff, but also for their leadership on and off the court.

"We were 14 deep this season with other players who didn’t even get to play. We have some good recruits coming in, still looking for more. We have three All-Americans back; we took a silver and a bronze our first time here, so I’m excited about where we’re at."

Two of the key returnees will be Spieler, a dedicated sand player, and Taylor, an indoor performer in her first sand season. That they were named All-Americans was icing on the season, they said.

"Being named All-American is pretty unreal, but it was bonus," said Spieler, going 35-13 with Taylor this season. "It was about playing with Nikki and winning it for the team.

"We gave it our all today. We wanted to make the most of our last day together. I’m really happy with our season."

Sunday’s highlight may have been the opening round’s 21-9, 21-12 sweep of fifth-seeded Taylor Jackson-Janisa Johnson of Long Beach State. Spieler-Taylor, seeded 12th, then fell to Burnham-Hughes 21-19, 21-12.

"Against Long Beach State we were seeking a little bit of revenge," Taylor said, referring to the 2-1 loss to the 49ers team in the Big West Challenge pairs semifinal on April 19. "We got that out of our system.

"This was a great way to start off my beach career at UH. I couldn’t get (All-America) without Katie. It was a blast to get it with her as a team and bring it back to the school."

Out of the four team semifinalists, Hawaii was the only one making its debut in the national event. Pepperdine and Florida State qualified for all three tournaments, while USC was in its second straight.

Wong said he hopes that the format of the team championship will change; Friday’s opening day was double elimination, while Saturday was single elimination.

"It was a weird format and that will be one of my feedback to the committee," Wong said. "Florida State almost won a national title after losing (Friday) against Pepperdine, which hadn’t lost."

Only six schools advance to the team portion, with three each from the west and east regions. For the tournament to expand to eight, for example, 56 schools would have to offer the emerging sport (one qualifying team for every seven schools competing); this season, 40 schools fielded a sand volleyball team.

The sport, in its third year, is sponsored by the American Volleyball Coaches Association. It is on track to become an NCAA championship sport in 2016.

CBS Sports Network will televise portions of the competition on a delayed basis. The two-hour special will air May 26 and 30 and June 2.