Sand kicked up from the court and blew away into the breeze as Long Beach State sand volleyball senior Bre Mackie and sophomore Jenelle Hudson defeated Hawaii in two sets Saturday afternoon at the USA Volleyball Beach Collegiate Challenge.
The 49ers (10-4) sent five groups of two to the tournament. Three of their five dual teams lost to Hawaii (12-1) before all five trounced the University of San Francisco.
Mackie said the success for her pair in the tournament was about being able to adapt to the weather conditions, which allowed them to put the Rainbow Wahine away.
“I think we just needed to adjust a little faster to keep the side out,” Mackie said. “We needed to stay level headed and just play our game.”
Mackie and Hudson took their match against Hawaii after Mackie slammed down a kill to end both sets and bring the pair a win to start off the weekend.
“Playing Hawaii, I thought we did a really good job,” LBSU head coach Mike Campbell said. “It was a tough loss but it puts us in a good spot for the Championships. When we played USF I though it was good for us recovering after an emotional loss, but I thought we did a really good job refocusing.”
Three pairs advanced to individual play for LBSU as they took on No. 4 Pepperdine (7-4) Sunday. Mackie, Hudson and freshmen Rachel Nieto and Samee Thomas were ultimately eliminated, leaving the pair of senior Tyler Jackson and freshman Anete Brinke as the lone duo for the 49ers.
“[Mackie and Hudson] feel like that match was all their fault and I just try to let them know that was a battle,” Campbell said. “It’s a tough loss but at the same time it’s an opportunity to think. There’s a lesson there so they don’t just pout. I told them it’s going to be a bad taste in the mouth for a little bit but I think they recovered pretty well.”
Jackson and Brinke continued their winning streak, taking down Hawaii in two sets. Jackson said that she and her partner learned from past matches to help cut down on errors, especially when they were competing in a weekend long tournament playing back-to-back matches.
“I think by learning from other matches that we’ve lost, we usually start off really strong and then slow down and we don’t ever finish and pull a win towards the end,” Jackson said. “[We have to] worry about our side, we always tend to worry about what the other players are doing so if we worry about ourselves it helps us out.”
Jackson and Brinke were unable to continue to the semi-finals after they lost a three-set thriller to No. 1 USC (15-0).
The 49ers return to league play when they travel to Los Angeles to take on UCLA April 15 starting at 1 p.m.
