HONOLULU -- The No. 8 University of Hawai'i women's beach volleyball team takes aim at a tournament title when it hosts the 2023 Big West Beach Volleyball Championship, April 21-22, at Queen's Beach in Waikiki. 

The Rainbow Wahine seek their fourth conference title and first since 2018 when they take on a field of six other squads in the double-elimination tournament. UH (26-6), which has gone a combined 10-0 this year versus Big West squads, is the top seed and receives a first-round bye. The BeachBows will play its first match on Friday at 11:45 a.m. against the winner of the No. 4 CSU Bakersfield-No. 5 Cal Poly matchup. Long Beach State holds the No. 2 seed in the tournament. 
 

2023 Big West Beach Volleyball Championship
Who				No. 1 Hawai'i, No. 2 Long Beach State, No. 3 UC Davis, No. 4 CSU Bakersfield, No. 5 Cal Poly, No. 6 CSUN, No. 7 Sacramento State
Date | Time				Friday, April 21, first serve at 8:00 a.m. HT  |  Saturday, April 22, first serve at 9:00 a.m. HT
Location				Honolulu, O'ahu — Queen's Beach
Admission				Free
Tournament Central				Bracket | Live Scoring | Tournament History
Social Media				@UHBeachVolley  | #HawaiiBVB #BeachBows23 | @uhbeachvolleyball  | Facebook

UH In the Big West Championship: UH is 17-6 all-time in the tournament and claimed the tournament crown in its first three years of existence (2016, '17, '18)...all six of UH's losses have come to Cal Poly…the Mustangs have claimed the last three tournament titles (2019, '21, '22), defeating Hawai'i in the title match all three years…UH's last tournament title came in the last year UH hosted the event at Queen's in 2018…the 'Bows rolled past CSU Bakersfield and Long Beach State (twice) en route to the crown.  

What's At Stake: This year marks the second year the tournament winner gains an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, which has expanded to 17 teams in 2023…there are nine automatic bids and eight at-large bids up for grabs this year…two Big West teams - No. 8 Hawai'i and No. 11 Long Beach State are currently ranked in the AVCA Poll…the 2023 NCAA Championship will be held in Gulf Shores, Ala., May 5-7. 

Big West Review: All seven conference teams converged for the Big West Challenge in San Luis Obispo, March 25-26, with UH going a perfect 6-0 on the weekend….the BeachBows also played Cal Poly and Long Beach State in double round-robin at the Best in the West tournament in Laguna Beach March 4-5…UH won all four matches during that weekend. 
  
A Rainbow Wahine Reunion: Former Rainbow Wahine player Amy Ozee recently re-joined her old program as a volunteer coach at UH…Ozee was an honorable mention All-American in 2019...another former BeachBow will be on the opposing side as UH's all-time wins leader Ari Homayun brings CSUN to Queen's Beach…Homayun currently is the associate head coach for the Matador's indoor and beach squads...Homayun and Ozee were teammates on three straight NCAA Tournament squads (2017-19). 

'Bow Bits: The Rainbow Wahine have played 10 straight matches against ranked opponents...UH has gone 7-3 in those matches with wins in six of its last seven…the duos of Kaylee Glagau-Brooke Van Sickle and Ilihia Huddleston-Jaime Santer have won a combined 92 percent of their matches this year (46-4)...Glagau and Van Sickle have gone 27-2 while playing all but three of their matches at the top of the order…Huddleston and Santer are 19-2 overall, including 7-0 at the No. 3 flight and 12-1 at the No. 4 flight.

All-Time Records vs the Field: The 'Bows are 9-0 against both CSUN and CSU Bakersfield…the 'Bows are 5-0 against Sacramento State...UH is 8-1 against UC Davis…the lone loss to the Aggies came in last year's Big West Challenge at  Rosie's Dog Beach in Long Beach...that loss to UCD snapped UH's 105-match win streak against unranked opponents that stretched for nearly 10 years…UH is 23-8 all-time against LBSU, including three close 3-2 wins this year…the 'Bows have defeated the Beach seven straight times and in 15 of the last 17 meetings…UH is 14-10 all-time against Cal Poly, including 3-0 this year.