For the third straight year, the Hawaii beach volleyball team met its postseason match in Loyola Marymount University.
Eighth-seeded LMU defeated ninth-seeded UH, 3-1, in the NCAA Tournament first round to bring UH’s season to an end in Gulf Shores, Ala., on Friday.
The senior pair of Kaylee Glagau and Pani Napoleon got UH (24-12) on the board first with a win at the No. 2 court, 21-17, 21-13 over Isabelle Reffel and Alisha Stevens.
But coach Evan Silberstein was worried about the matchups at three courts – 1, 3 and 5 – and those went decisively to the Lions (28-13) on a gusty day.
Silberstein told UH Athletics that he observed his players not doing enough damage in seven-point rotation turns on the “good” side of the courts with the wind in UH’s favor, while LMU took better advantage of its turns on that side.
“I thought yesterday in these conditions we did a really, really nice job with our service,” Silberstein said. “We really ramped up our service pressure in the walkthrough yesterday. So I think we could’ve served a little tougher. … They had a little distance on us in service pressure.”
LMU’s clinching flight for the dual match was at No. 1, where Vilhelmiina Prihti and Michelle Shaffer dispatched Jaime Santer and Alana Embry, 21-18, 21-11.
Earlier, Anna Maidment and Sydney Miller fell to Anna Pelloia and Jacinda Ramirez, 21-16, 21-15 at No. 3 and Sarah Burton and Julia Thelle lost to Madi Firnett and Abbey Thorup at No. 5, 21-10, 21-15.
LMU advanced to face defending champion and top-seeded USC in the quarterfinals.
It was the final career match for seniors Glagau, Napoleon, Santer, Maidment and Riley Wagoner.
Napoleon, of Bonita, Calif., came back to UH to end her seven-year college career after two years at UCLA.
“After winning Big West, we had so much confidence and I think we didn’t lose that,” Napoleon told UH Athletics. “We may have played our best, but LMU just played better. All we can ask of each other is if we played to the best of our ability, and I think that we did that, and did that this entire season.”
Said Silberstein, “We’re happy Pani came back. It was a really cool story for her to return … great for her to end her career on that winning note. Proud of her.”
Glagau, Maidment and Wagoner spoke to Spectrum News after their final home matches against Grand Canyon on April 14.
Said Maidment, who has moved to Hawaii permanently with her parents from Winnipeg, Canada, “Being able to support my teammates and just honor the work that everyone before me has done is just such a blessing because everybody here works so hard in this program. To experience it myself, with my family here all the way from Canada is just a feeling better than I’ve ever experienced.”
Said Wagoner, a veteran UH indoor player from Dublin, Ohio, who helped UH win the Big West championship with freshman partner Sydney Amiatu, “The rest of the seniors are awesome. They all have unique qualities and that kind of shows on the court. What we bring is different and I think it’s a really unique class. There’s a lot of us, so we get to share our experience with the younger girls and we are trying to do our best to lead any way we can and finding our ways to let our personalities shine.”
Said Glagau, an All-American from Toronto, “(I’ll remember) looking out into the crowd and seeing all the people who love me for who I am, and love me no matter what, not because of how good I am at volleyball or how well I play. They’ll be there no matter what. Just feeling really loved and grateful.”
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.
