Past, present and future collide on the Queen’s Beach sand courts this morning, with No. 5 Hawaii playing not just No. 1 USC in the winners bracket semifinal of the Outrigger Resorts Invitational but with the Rainbow Wahine also looking ahead to the next two weeks.

Hawaii tinkered with its pairs Friday in defeating defending champion Long Beach State 4-1, and plans to use the same pairs today, as well as in next week’s Big West tournament and the inaugural NCAA championship the following week.

As for the past, the SandBows (12-6) want to improve on their previous meetings with the Women of Troy (24-2). Hawaii lost to USC 4-1 on March 15 at the Ching Complex and 3-2 on March 19 in the Hawaii Invitational at Queen’s Beach.

“We’ve improved each time we’ve played them,” Hawaii captain Katie Spieler said. “We have nothing to lose.

“We just want to go out and keep improving, and hopefully that leads to a win.”

A victory against the Women of Troy has been hard to come by for any opponent. USC won its 20th straight on Friday, shutting out Grand Canyon 5-0, and also had its top two duos win their respective flights in the pairs championship.

Hawaii coach Jeff Hall said he was unsure if he would keep Spieler and partner Emily Maglio at No. 1 or drop them to No. 2 and move up Friday’s No. 2 team of Nikki Taylor and Ka’iwi Schucht to No. 1. Spieler-Maglio suffered the SandBows’ only loss, falling to the 49ers duo of Rachel Nieto-Nele Barber, 21-15, 16-21, 15-13, while Taylor-Schucht — in their first match together this season — swept the Beach’s Jenelle Hudson-Zoi Konstantopolou 21-12, 21-19.

Whichever team UH puts in at No. 1, the SandBows will have to face All-American Sara Hughes and Kelly Claes. The USC pair ran its dual record to 27-0 with a 21-16, 21-14 win over Grand Canyon’s Shannon Dugan-Mackenzie Phelps but also remained undefeated in pairs play by beating Dugan-Phelps 21-17, 21-11 in the Flight 1 championship of the companion pairs tournament.

“They’re an unbelievable team, very special,” Hall said of Hughes-Claes. “We won’t decide until the morning who we’ll put in, but we’ll put who we think is our No. 1 in front of them and see if they can beat them.

“We did flop a few pairings today, and that’s a little scary because you don’t know how they’ll perform. And I’m really proud of Katie and Emily for the way they battled in their third set.”

Spieler-Maglio trailed 7-3 in the deciding set but went up 13-12 on a kill by Maglio. The 49ers tied it when Rachel Nieto’s shot hit the tape and trickled over, then closed it out on a kill by Nieto and an error by Maglio.

Still, Hawaii finished with the team victory, something that didn’t happen in this event last year. The SandBows won the dual with the 49ers 4-1 but, because organizers decided at the last minute to give 5 points to the winner of the No. 1 flight, the made-for-TV result was 6-4 in favor of The Beach.

“We did joke about that,” UH’s Hannah Zalopany said after her new pairing with Lara Schreiber was successful at No. 3. “We didn’t want to lose to them for real this time.”

While Schreiber moved to No. 3 with Zalopany, Schucht moved to No. 2 to team with Taylor for the first time this season. Taylor-Schreiber were 8-7 this season.

“Ka’iwi and I have had great practices the last two weeks, she’s been playing impeccable,” Taylor said. “Heading into the Big West (tournament), it would have a been a bad loss if we had lost today (to Long Beach State).

“We’re looking forward to seeing USC again. We know what we need to do and we’re excited about the opportunity.”