Long-Tucker earn honor, Warriors, SandBows drop in polls

The Hawaii beach volleyball team earned its fifth consecutive Pairs Team of the Week on Monday when Ginger Long and Mikayla Tucker were honored by the Big West.
The duo went 5-0 in last week’s Outrigger Beach Challenge, a tournament that included both pairs and team competition. Long-Tucker won the Makai Bracket for flights 4-6 in Friday’s pairs event and won both matches in Saturday’s duals where Hawaii swept Arizona State 5-0 and lost to UCLA 3-2.
Hawaii has won all five weekly honors given out by the Big West this season.
The loss to the Bruins had the SandBows trading places with UCLA in Monday’s AVCA Collegiate Beach Top 10, Hawaii (10-6) to No. 5 and UCLA (12-4) to No. 4.
Despite losing to UCLA last week, Pepperdine (14-1) remained at No. 1. USC (17-2) and Florida State (16-1) also kept their spots, the Women of Troy at No. 2 and the Seminoles at No. 3.
  

Also Monday, Hawaii men’s volleyball team, losing twice at UC Santa Barbara last week, dropped one place in the AVCA Division I-II Top 15.
The Rainbow Warriors traded places with Ball State, the Cardinals (20-6, 12-2 MIVA) to No. 8 and Hawaii (14-11, 9-11) to No. 9. The Warriors have clinched the seventh seed in next week’s Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament and will travel to the No. 2 seed, the team still to be determined.
BYU (21-3, 17-3 MPSF) replaced UCLA at No. 1 () after the Cougars defeated the Bruins twice last week. Ohio State (22-3, 13-1 MIVA) remained at No. 2 with Stanford ()19-3, 17-3) moving up a spot to No. 3 and UCLA (21-5, 15-5) down three spots to No. 4.
Hawaii concludes the regular season with matches against No. 14 Cal Baptist () Friday and Saturday at the Stan Sheriff Center. Saturday is senior night for outside hitter Siki Zarkovic and libero Kolby Kanetake.


COMMENTS

  1. Maverick April 4, 2016 4:59 pm

    Originally, these were the teams tentatively reported as being on the non-conference tournament schedule: Arizona, Washington, UCLA, Pepperdine, Kansas State, Missouri State, Pacific, North Dakota, and one more unnamed team. Pepperdine was thought to be a tourney team, but now we know they are not. Wisconsin and Utah Valley round out the tourney schedule. No. Illinois replaces North Dakota.

    Seemingly a better RPI schedule than last year with UW and Wisconsin as opposed to Oregon State and Iowa. Helps to have two WCC teams too, even if they were middle of the pack last year. Was an elite RPI conference in 2015. Same can be said of K-state of the Big 12.


  2. blunite April 4, 2016 10:28 pm

    Siki Zarkovic and Kolby Kanetake graduating will be a huge loss. Wondering whether Charlie Wade will also lose his assistant coach (Milan Zarkovic). Anyone know a good assistant coach for the men’s team? Speaking of which the women’s team may also be in a similar situation, except it would be for a HC. (In the memo sent to the season ticket holders Shoji mentions winding down his coaching career.)


  3. empath April 4, 2016 10:44 pm

    Re: #2.

    I think I heard from one of the MVB broadcasts that Siki said that his father would remain on staff as an Assistant Coach, something along the lines that Siki would continue to live here in Hawaii. I’m not sure as to which Volleyball match it was, but it was in the post game interview part.


  4. warriorfan April 5, 2016 12:59 am

    I think Kanetake won’t be hard to replace especially the way he’s been playing lately ( might be because of his back issues) I think Worsley or Namahoe will step in with out much drop off.
    Siki is so up and down, amazing when he’s on like against Ivine, but very bad when he’s off like this past weekend at Santa Barbara. I think Rosenmeier or Tuitela should be able to step in next season.

    I’m very happy with the wahine 2016 schedule, other than Utah Valley, all very tough teams. Pepperdine will surprise a lot of teams next season and be very tall, with the addition of 6’8 Ashley Harris the Arizona transfer. Wisconsin should be a top 5 team and UCLA top 8, and Washington may be top 10.


  5. wow April 5, 2016 7:11 am

    #3, losing a libero ranked #14 in digs per set is not hard to replace ?


  6. Cubicle1126 April 5, 2016 9:30 am

    the middles — frank and mol — will be better next year (what they really were missing is plain old experience). so will the setting, whether worsley or jennings. van tilburg will be better at opp as well.

    i think rosenmeier slides into siki’s slo0t nicely. the question is whether he will be able to terminate at high enough clip to compliment van tilburg’s offensive production. fey can sometimes provide double-digit kills, but the reality is that he’s in there for his passing and defense. or does van tilburg get moved to the left pin, and mckellar inserted as opposite? that could produce some nice offense.

    the big question will be at libero. even when kanetake was sidelined this season, namahoe wasn’t just sent in to replace him, rather he split duties with rosenmeier. kahiau machado is on the roster, but i don’t think he’s played. so at the very least he’s untested. colton cowell has come on as a serving sub, but does he get asked to compete at libero? he’s only 6’1″ so he may be too undersized at OH, and i know he’s a beach player, so he must have sound fundamentals at least. are there any top recruits coming in to compete at libero? hawaii has also sometimes relied on a jc transfer?


  7. Cubicle1126 April 5, 2016 9:39 am

    overall, i like the look of that nonconference schedule for the wahine. with the exception of utah valley (who was 14-14), all those teams had winning records last year, and while that’s no guarantee of the same, it’s a good sign.

    i like the geographic mix too. having teams from the “east” and “midwest” will help with hawaii’s RPI.

    three of those teams (wisconsin, washington, ucla) will likely all be in the top 25 of RPI (maybe even top 15 or top 10). and other teams like kansas st, arizona, pacific and pepperdine may push to be in the top 50 of RPI.

    so on first glance at least, a strong looking nonconference schedule!


  8. Cindy Luis April 5, 2016 10:31 am

    http://hawaiiwarriorworld.com/?p=36695
    new thread up about complete (tentative) schedule
    IMHO Kanetake is a big loss.
    3. Milan is staying on staff, has bought a place near UH.
    Siki is going to pursue his master’s. He will be done with VB after this season.


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