Urban-Spieler 2nd at Queen of the Beach; BYU drops 2
IN MVB, Pepperdine takes both from BYU Fri-Sat.
At the moment standings look like this:
Hawaii 12-2, UCI 12-3, Pepperdine 12-4, BYU and USC 10-6
As has been discussed Hawaii’s trip to end the season to Provo likely to decide who hosts the MPSF tournament. UCI goes to BYU for 2 this week.
Hawaii tough road trip coming up, 4 in 5 days. AT UCSD 0-15 and UCLA 6-8.
As for the SandBows
Dual play Sunday starts at 2 p.m. involving Hawaii, Cal and Nebraska. they’re supposed to be on all four courts, the 2 new ones at the Ching Complex, other 2 at the old practice courts near the pool.
TV has 2 matches Sunday night. UH will be playing in both, No. 2 pair vs. C-2 at 7 p.m. No. 1 pair vs. Nebraska-1 at 8 p.m.
Link below gets you to results from Saturday
http://www.hawaiiathletics.com/documents/2015/3/21//Queen_of_the_Beach_Challenge_Championship_Day.pdf?id=3450
SandBows Katie Spieler-Olivia Urban lost to USC’s Kelly Claes and Sara Hughes 21-19, 21-13 in the championship match of the Queen of the Beach Challenge on Saturday at the T.C. Ching Complex.
Lara Schreiber and Heather Boyan won the bronze bracket championship with an exciting 21-15, 18-21, 15-10 win over Cal’s Emily Lunt and Sarah Cole.
It was the second runner-up finish for Spieler-Urban, UH’s No. 2 pair also fell in the final of the Rainbow Wahine Invitational earlier this month.
London Chow and Hannah Zalopany advanced to the silver bracket semifinal before falling to Justine Wong-Orantes and Alicia Ostrander of Nebraska.
Tournament Awards
Best Offense: Kelly Claes (USC)
Best Defense: Alexa Ethridge (NEB)
Best Blocker: Heather Boyan (UH)
Aloha Spirit: Sammy Furlan (CAL)/Kaiwi Schucht (UH)*
Interesting to see that Spieler/Urban defeated Taylor/Tiegs to advance to the finals.
1 I was there during the match the first set was really close. If i remember it correctly it was 27-25 in the second set team OK ( olivia and Katie ) started with a 4-0 run TnT (Tiegs and Taylor ) tried to come back but fall short. they are serving Taylor maybe tried to take advantage that she’s been playing all week long already Tiegs tried to put the ball on second touch but Spieler was just really all over the court and making good decisions where to put the ball on her touches.
IMO who ever Spieler partner is. She always make it look a better player because of her plays.
Thank you for the color, 2: R.M.!
I watched the replay of Wed’s USC #2 vs UH #2. USC kept serving to Spieler, which left Urban to set Spieler. Spieler has really good placement of her lobs, but her height disadvantage doesn’t allow for the kinds of scoring available to a taller Nikki or Urban. If USC #1 beat UH #2 on Saturday using the same tactic, I wonder if Urban could do more second touch scoring (like a good indoors setter)?
Starting to think maybe Spieler/Tiegs would have made good pairing, they don’t have size but they make all the intangible plays that others just do not.
2. nikki taylor did say in the post game show after the ucla match last season when she was congratulated for making all-american in sandbows that it was all katie.
spieler maybe small but she is the most mobile. no surprise there.
3. that is the usual strategy, to serve Spieler because it then forces her to hit. and she is pretty small. Last season, teams served Taylor to start because they didn’t think she could pass as well as she ended up doing.
4. the thinking is not to put two ‘smalls’ together. not when the other ‘small’ (Spieler) is so small. she works so hard but does get tired from having to hit against bigger blocks. She is a very smart player tho.
HAWAII leading CAL (3-0) thus far. Win flights 1, 3, & 4
Spieler could have been a very good defensive specialist in indoor volleyball. Too bad she only spent one year with the team.
Spieler still has eligibility, maybe we can see her on indoor for one last year.
Spieler won’t be playing indoor. she is strictly sand. if you remember she was injured that fall, in a walking boot for a lot of that first year.
HAWAII & NEBRASKA TIED (2 – 2) Nebraska win flights 4 & 5 and HAWAII win flights 2 & 3. Decisive flight to be played tonight.
11. UH’s 4/5 have been struggling lately. Not sure the chow/zalopany and Schrieber/Boyan pairings are working out. Hope Tucker comes back soon.
http://hawaiiwarriorworld.com/?p=29278
link up for Sunday sand. with results through the final two matches
12. btw, Tucker played in the non counting No. 6 match vs. Schucht.