UH notebook: Rainbow Wahine open in WNIT on Friday

HONOLULU – The University of Hawaii will open play in the Women’s National Invitational (Basketball) Tournament at 4 p.m. (HST) Friday at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga, Calif.

The Rainbow Wahine (23-8) secured the automatic postseason berth by virtue of winning the Big West Conference regular season title, and it came into play when they lost to Cal State Northridge, 67-60, in the Big West Tournament championship game last Saturday.

Saint Mary’s (20-10) finished fourth in the West Coast Conference.

Freshman reserve center Megan Huff led UH in the loss to Northridge with a team-high 16 points and 14 rebounds, to go with three blocked shots in 25 minutes off the bench. Junior wing Destiny King added 13 points, eight rebounds and two blocks.

The Rainbow Wahine shot just 34.4 percent (22 of 64) from the field, including only 28.6 percent (4 of 14) from 3-point range.

Saint Mary’s is coming off a heartbreaking 65-64 loss to Brigham Young in the WCC quarterfinals, in which the Cougars’ Lexi Eaton hit a running jumper for the winning basket with 1.5 seconds remaining.

All-Conference guard Lauren Nicolson led the Gaels with a team-high 23 points, forward Carli Rosenthal added a career-high 14 points plus 12 rebounds, and guard Shannon Mauldin contributed 10 points and six boards.

BASEBALL ’BOWS PLAY HOST TO NEW MEXICO STATE: The UH baseball team will play host to New Mexico State in a four-game nonconference series Thursday through Sunday at Les Murakami Stadium.

First pitch is set for 6:35 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, with a 1:05 start time scheduled for Sunday’s series finale. OCSports channels 16 (SD) and 1016 (HD) will broadcast Friday’s, Saturday’s and Sunday’s games live statewide, and ESPN 1420 AM will carry all four games via KHLO in Hilo and KKON in Kona.

The Rainbow Warriors are 7-13 after dropping three of four home games against Oklahoma.

New Mexico State is 2-15-1 coming off a rare three-game series “split” (one win, one loss and one 11th-inning tie) vs. Cal State Bakersfield. The third game in that series was tied in the 11th inning when it was called due to a travel curfew.

Senior right-hander Matt Loeffler, a Waiakea High graduate from Volcano, leads the Aggies with a 3.70 earned run average.

UH senior center fielder Kaeo Aliviado batted .313 in the series and currently leads the team in batting with a .276 average with four home runs, to go with 12 RBIs and 12 runs scored. Freshman first baseman Eric Ramirez has also been productive with a .271 batting average, 11 RBIs and 110 runs scored.

Junior right-hander Tyler Brashears earned the only victory in the series, improving to 3-2 on the season with a 2.59 ERA after going seven innings with six strikeouts in a 2-0 victory. Junior right-hander LJ Brewster has been effective, leading the staff with 32.1 innings pitched with a team-high 21 strikeouts.

Senior left hander Jarrett Arakawa is slowly but steadily working his back into the starters’ role, pitching five scoreless innings last Sunday, and only two runs scored on two hits. Arakawa sat out the season’s first three weeks while recovering and rehabilitating from a shoulder injury.

RAINBOW WARRIOR SPIKERS RANKED NO. 1: The UH men’s volleyball team climbed three spots to No. 1 in the latest AVCA Top 15 poll.

The Rainbow Warriors improved to 17-3 after snatching a couple of home victories last weekend from visiting Hope International. Hawaii was at No. 4 last year but was able to climb up after weekend losses suffered by previous No. 1 Loyola (Ill.), No. 2 Lewis and No. 3 UC Irvine.

Hawaii will have a bye this weekend and returns to action on March 27 at UC San Diego.

NO. 1 WAHINE UPENDED BY USC: The Rainbow Wahine (4-1) were beaten in five of six flights in sand volleyball in Honolulu, with their only victory coming from Gianna Guinasso and Sydney Shinn, the No. 6 team.