Long Beach wins Aloha Invitational pairs
Long Beach State’s No. 1 team of Delainey Aigner-Swesy and Chelsea Cabrajac won the gold bracket Friday in the pairs portion of the inaugural Aloha Invitational college sand volleyball tournament at Queen’s Beach.
The sixth-ranked 49ers swept the three-team competition, also claiming the silver and bronze brackets, in which the finals were one set to 25.
Aigner-Swesy and Cabrajac, both seniors, defeated Saint Mary’s No. 1 team of Dalas Dodd and Alexis Salmons 21-13, 25-16 in the final. Aigner-Swesy stuffed Salmons to complete the sweep for the 49ers (14-5) over the Gaels pair made up of daughters of former Olympians Mike Dodd and Steve Salmons.
Aigner-Swesy did not drop a set in three matches, with a sweep of UCLA-2 Madie Smith-Elise Zappia 21-15, 21-19 in the quarterfinals and a 21-16, 21-11 win over UCLA-3 Karly Drolsan-Rachel Inouye in the semis. Dodd-Salmons held off UCLA-3 Laurel Weaver-Julie Consani 21-17, 18-21, 15-7 in the quarterfinals, then advanced with a semifinal victory over UCLA-1 Kamila Tan-Zoe Nightingale, 21-19, 21-13.
Long Beach State-2 Tyler Jackson-Anete Brinke won the silver bracket over Long Beach State-3 Bre Mackie-Jenelle Hudson, 25-19. The bronze bracket final was won by Long Beach State-4 Andrea McHugh-Ciana Wagner over Saint Mary’s-4 Hannah Liserra-Maegan Conroy, 25-13.
The tournament concludes Saturday with team duals between No. 2 Hawaii (15-1) against No. 8 UCLA (9-4) and No. 6 Long Beach State (13-4) against Saint Mary’s (4-13). Play begins at 10 a.m. on five courts at Queen’s Beach and is expected to finish by 4:30 p.m.
Hawaii falls to CSUN in women’s tennis
Cal State Northridge edged the Hawaii women’s tennis team 4-3 in the quarterfinals of the Big West championship tournament Friday in Indian Wells, Calif.
Cindy Nguyen, the 94th-ranked tennis, helped lead the Rainbow Wahine (10-10, 5-3 Big West) in singles competition by dispatching Mickey Hsu 6-1, 6-1. Teammate Viktoria Malova and Paulina Petriskova also earned singles victories as the squads were tied 3-3 entering doubles action.
Hawaii’s team of Nguyen and Rebecca Faltusz downed Vivian Lin and Kiryang Kim 8-4, but CSUN (14-5, 5-3) claimed the other two doubles contests to advance in the tourney.
