SandBows replace Waves at No. 1 spot

Courtesy of its upset victory last week over previous No. 1-ranked Pepperdine, the Hawaii sand volleyball team moved up three spots to replace the Waves atop Tuesday’s AVCA Collegiate Sand Top 10.

The Rainbow Wahine (2-0), who tied for third nationally last season, are No. 1 for the first time in the four-year history of the program. The loss dropped two-time national champion Pepperdine (1-1) to second, followed by USC (0-0) and last year’s national runner-up, Florida State (1-1).

Hawaii, No. 5 Long Beach State (0-0), No. 9 UCLA (1-0) and unranked St. Mary’s (1-2) will compete in the Aloha Invitational on April 24-25 at Queen’s Beach, portions of which will be televised nationally by CBS Sports Network. The tournament falls the week before the AVCA National Championships on May 1-3 in Gulf Shores, Ala., the final championship before sand volleyball becomes sanctioned as the 90th NCAA sport.

Sand volleyball event honors its birthplace

UCLA, USC, Oregon, CSUN, Oregon State and Chaminade will compete in the inaugural Hawaii Sand Volleyball Festival on March 21-22 at Queen’s Beach, the acknowledged birthplace of the sport first played 100 years ago.

The event includes collegiate competition and the Dad Center Foundation Cup, with collegiate teams and teams from USA Volleyball’s Aloha Region junior divisions.

Play is from 8:30 a.m. until 2 p.m both days. Championship will be crowned in the collegiate division as well as 12 through under-18 age divisions.

The festival also includes this Friday’s Canadian Cup, with more than 16 teams from Canada competing in pool play and single-elimination tournament.

Historical documents point to 1915 as the year sand volleyball was first played. George "Dad" Center, the 1920 U.S. Olympic Swimming Team coach and Outrigger Canoe Club coach, brought a net and volleyballs to near where Queen’s Beach is now and played with Olympic great Duke Kahanamoku on a calm day in Waikiki when there was no surf.

Schwitters named to ITA Hall of Fame

Former University of Hawaii tennis coach Jim Schwitters will be inducted to the ITA Men’s Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame, it was announced Tuesday. Schwitters retired as the winningest coach in NCAA history with a combined men’s and women’s record of 1,327-610-15 from 1966 to 2004.

He will be honored on May 20 at the NCAA Division I Men’s & Women’s Tennis Championships in Waco, Texas.

Leung leads Hawaii golfers at invitational

Isabella Leung shot a 69 and remains in fourth place at 3 under par to lead the University of Hawaii women’s golf team at the Dr. Donnis Thompson Invitational on Tuesday at Kaneohe Klipper Golf Course.

The Rainbow Wahine are in sixth place with a score of 605, while Oklahoma State leads the 15-team field at 10 under par (566). The final round begins at 8 a.m. Wednesday.

HPU acrobatics and tumbling wins meet

The Hawaii Pacific acrobatics and tumbling team swept a tri-meet with Quinnipiac and Alderson Broaddus on Tuesday in Hamden, Conn. HPU scored 275.590 to beat QU’s 274.700 and AB’s 256.710.

Amara Poquette, Nicole Saiki, Lexi Vincent, Joely Smith, and Melanie Hew led the Sharks to a perfect 10 score in Heat 2, marking the first 10 of the season and the second in program history.

Big West honors two UH scholar-athletes

Nils Schuhmann and Alex Porlier Langlois represented Hawaii as its Big West male and female scholar-athletes of the year announced Tuesday.

Schuhmann earned first team Big West tennis honors in men’s doubles, while Porlier Langlois has UH’s second all-time highest mark in the shot put.