Hawaii’s Katie Speiler and partner Emily Maglio were one of eight pairs selected to the AVCA’s All-America first team, joining pairs from national champion USC, runner-up Florida State, UCLA, Pepperdine, Arizona, Stetson and Grand Canyon. Spieler also was named an All-American in 2014 with partner Nikki Taylor; USC’s Sara Hughes and Jace Pardon of Florida State earned their third honor.
Spieler, the first SandBow to win 100 matches (102-42), and Maglio were 21-5 playing mostly at No. 1 this season, and helped Hawaii (18-10) to a fourth-place finish at last week’s NCAA championship. Spieler also earned the NCAA Elite 90 Award given to the player with the highest GPA at a national championship — she has a 4.0 — as well as named Hawaii’s female student-athlete of the year and the Jack Bonham Award winner for overall excellence on and off the court.
Spieler-Maglio also were named the Big West’s Pairs Team of the Year last week and Maglio the Freshman of the Year. Maglio, considered a redshirt freshman for beach classification, was an all-conference middle blocker for the Rainbow Wahine indoor team as a sophomore last fall.
Penn gets new opponent for UFC 199
Hilo’s B.J. Penn will fight Cole Miller, who replaces an injured Dennis Siver, in a televised preliminary fight on June 4 at UFC 199 the organization announced Wednesday.
Miller (21-9, 10-7 UFC) lost a unanimous decision to Waianae’s Max Holloway in February 2015 and was a participant on the Ultimate Fighter reality show in the same season Penn (16-10-2, 12-9-2) coached against Jens Pulver.
Siver was forced to pull out of the fight on Tuesday with an injury.
Penn has not fought in two years and hasn’t won a fight since knocking out Matt Hughes in November 2010.
Penn’s fight will be televised on Fox Sports 1. Holloway will fight Ricardo Lamas on the pay-per-view portion of the event held at The Forum in Los Angeles.
Moore still alive at Oi Rio Pro
Hawaii’s Carissa Moore posted a strong performance in round three of the Oi Rio Pro in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday, but came up just short of winning her heat.
Moore, the reigning three-time WSL champion, came up just 0.27 points short of Australia’s Stephanie Gilmore. Gilmore, a six-time WSL champion, will advance automatically to the quarterfinals, while Moore will surf again today in round four for a chance to advance. She will be matched up against Australia’s Bronte Macaulay.
