Hawaii water polo: Big West tournament inspiration
Members of the Hawaii water polo team witnessed what it was like for a Manoa sport to win a Big West championship last weekend.
The fifth-ranked Rainbow Wahine look to take the fond memories of UH men’s volleyball’s epic five-setter against Long Beach State and put their own twist on it in their sport’s Big West championships this weekend at Long Beach, Calif.
Wahine senior Femke Aan was still a little hoarse from contributing her vocals to the rowdy sellout in the Stan Sheriff Center on Saturday.
“They’ve been talking about leaving a legacy and that’s really what it is,” said Aan, who recorded a hat trick in UH’s last match, a 15-9 win over UC Santa Barbara on senior night April 13. “Leaving something behind.”
#HawaiiWWP senior Femke Aan was inspired watching #HawaiiMVB capture the Big West tournament title over the weekend and hopes to do the same for her sport this weekend at Long Beach.
The Rainbow Wahine (16-5, 4-1 BWC) are the No. 2 seed and received a bye to the semifinals. pic.twitter.com/BU3qkspNoV
— Brian McInnis (@Brian_McInnis) April 24, 2019
UH (16-5, 4-1 Big West) tied with UC Irvine — last season’s tournament champion thanks to a double-overtime win over the Wahine — for the 2019 regular-season title. The Anteaters earned the top seed thanks to their 7-6 win over UH in Irvine on April 5.
Both UH and UCI received byes to the semifinals, however. UH awaits the winner of UC Davis and Cal State Northridge in a noon (HST) matchup on Saturday. During the regular season, UH won 13-9 at Davis and 15-2 at home over CSUN.
DESTINATION: Long Beach
MISSION: #LeaveALegacy6 teams. 1 dream. Who will #PlayBig and take home the hardware at the Big West Women's Water Polo Tournament? Tag your squad and bring the noise. pic.twitter.com/ioXuv9Oqzl
— Big West WWP (@BigWestWWP) April 22, 2019
“I think there’ll be a lot of fans. There always are,” coach Maureen Cole said. “We don’t match up with Long Beach (right away), but their crowd can always be a ruckus. If we end up matching up with them along the way, I think that will be a really loud match. Irvine’s around the corner (geographically) if we end up matching up with them. So it’s a fun environment. It’s loud. The bleachers are really close, so the crowd is really right in there. It’ll be fun.”
Irvine has won seven of 10 Big West tourney championships. UH prevailed in 2013 and 2015. No Wahine players are left from the 2015 squad.
All-American Irene Gonzalez has enjoyed a prolific senior year in a prolific career. She’s got 229 career goals, 11 short of matching the Big West record. In the UH books, only Monika Eggens (247) and Kelly Mason (238) remain ahead of her.
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