Think campfire but without the marshmallows.
Definitely no marshmallows.
This weekend’s Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Beach Classic features three teams in the top five of the national collegiate beach volleyball poll, including two-time defending NCAA champion UCLA, as well as emerging beach power Stanford at No. 19. Add in No. 3 LSU and fifth-ranked Hawaii and the heat is on for early bragging rights in the opening week of the season.
“We have to bring our ‘A’ game,” Rainbow Wahine senior Morgan Martin said. “These are all quality programs we are playing.
“We open with UCLA, two-time champions, and this team is ready for the challenge.”
This is the third consecutive year that the Bruins and Cardinal have been in Honolulu for the first tournament of the year. No. 1 UCLA (1-0), which swept Loyola Marymount on Thursday in Los Angeles, went 4-0 in this event last February when it was a straight round-robin format.
This year, all four teams play each other on Saturday, with results determining the seeds for Sunday’s semifinals. The third-place match is at 1:30 p.m., followed by the 3 p.m. championship.
Hawaii has a couple of advantages heading into its opener with UCLA. The SandBows tracked Thursday’s scoring between the Bruins and the Lions, getting some idea of who might comprise UCLA’s pairs for Saturday morning.
The Bruins will have little scouting data on Hawaii, other than the results from last November’s exhibitions between UH and No. 4 USC. The SandBows defeated the Women of Troy 4-2 and had a 3-3 split in dual play before dominating the pairs tournament, with three duos finishing in the top four.
Since then Hawaii has added six crossovers from the Wahine indoor team and Harlee Kekauoha, who played indoor for UC Irvine last fall and is playing at UH as a graduate student this spring. SandBows coach Jeff Hall didn’t want to release his lineup, but did say the indoor crossovers were going to contribute this season, including three who have extensive beach experience in juniors Brooke Van Sickle and Jolie Rasmussen and freshman Hanna Hellvig.
“I’m anxious to get started and am excited about the weekend,” said Hall, beginning his sixth season (129-36). “We have a good team. There are no pukas. We’re deeper than we’ve been in a while.
“The key is to manage the talent. And it’s nice to have a lot of talent.”
One pair all but guaranteed to be among the starting five on Saturday is senior Morgan Martin and sophomore Pani Napoleon. The two went 25-5 last season, including 25-3 at Flight 3, and won their first 20 matches together, setting a program record of 40 consecutive sets won.
“I rarely have pairs together for a second season, but those guys seem destined to play together,” Hall said. “They work really hard for each other and they’re really good together.”
The duo won the fall exhibition pairs final over teammates Julia Scoles, a senior, and freshman Ilihia Huddleston, 21-17, 25-23. Hall said he wasn’t going to determine which pairs were in which flight until after today’s practice.
Hawaii’s last meetings with the rest of the field all went five last season. The SandBows defeated Stanford 3-2 in this event, lost 3-2 to LSU in the East Meets West Challenge and 3-2 to UCLA in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
That last match with the Bruins was tied 2-2, with the McNamara twins — Megan and Nicole — outlasting Emily Maglio and Amy Ozee 22-20, 15-21, 20-18 for the deciding point. It was the fifth straight time UCLA defeated Hawaii, and sixth in seven to lead the series 8-6.
In Thursday’s match with LMU, UCLA won three of the five matches in three sets. That included former SandBow Lea Monkhouse teaming with Lily Justine to win at No. 2, 14-21, 21-17, 15-11.
