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Esene, Law get PacWest's top honors

Hawaii-Hilo's Skip Esene was named the Pacific West Conference Player of the Year yesterday, while coach Jeff Law earned the league's coach of the year honor.

Esene, a senior forward, averaged a league-best 21.3 points per game to lead the Vulcans to a 24-3 regular-season record.

The Vulcans also placed guard Alex Cabagnot on the all-conference first team. Cabagnot was the first in the conference in assist-turnover ratio. He also averaged 14.4 points.

League runner-up Brigham Young-Hawaii also had two first-team selections, both repeat choices.

Jack Chrisman, last year's player of the year, was second in this year's voting. He was second in the PacWest in scoring at 20.7 ppg.

Austin Smylie is the Seasiders' other first-teamer. He averaged 17 points and 6.9 rebounds.

Chaminade's Zach Whiting (14.5 ppg, 6.78 assists per game) also made the first team.

Hawaii Pacific's Dante Sykes (15.6 ppg, 6.0 rebounds per game) was a second-team selection, along with Chaminade's Chris Reaves (16.4 ppg).

Possible lineup change for No. 3 Warriors

The Hawaii volleyball team began yesterday's practice with a new ranking and lineup.

The Warriors slipped a spot to No. 3 and also penciled in freshman Jake Schkud at starting outside hitter for this week's matches against unranked Ball State. Schkud, who has been a backup middle blocker, earned the outside spot based on his performance in practice, according to Hawaii coach Mike Wilton.

The one outside spot has been troublesome for Hawaii, which dropped both matches to Pepperdine last week. The Warriors have alternately used juniors Jose Delgado and Matt Carere and first-year sophomore Lauri Hakala.

Schkud redshirted last season at UC Santa Barbara and was a high school teammate of Warrior sophomore setter Brian Beckwith.

In yesterday's poll, UCLA (16-2) remained ranked No. 1, receiving 10 first-place votes. Pepperdine (12-1) traded spots with Hawaii, moving up to No. 2 with the remaining six votes.

Tickets for Hawaii-Nebraska volleyball on sale

Tickets for the March 18 spring women's volleyball match between Hawaii and Nebraska are on sale. Prices range from $3 to $10.

A year ago, the Rainbow Wahine finished 30-1, losing in the NCAA regional semifinal to Wisconsin. They return all seven starters and 14 of 17 letterwinners. The Cornhuskers also return all of their starters from a team that went 30-2 and lost in the regional final to USC.

Fisher, Luzano take tow-in surf contest

Eric Fisher and 17-year-old Matt Luzano teamed up to win the first North Shore Tow-in Surfing championships at the outer reef spot in Haleiwa called Avalanche.

The contest was held in perfect 8-to-12 foot waves with occasional 15 footers.

Eight teams competed.

Rainbow Wahine golfers in 12th

The Hawaii women's golf team is in 12th place heading into today's final round of the 54-hole Spartan Invitational at Salinas, Calif.

The Rainbow Wahine had a team aggregate 611, 32 strokes behind leader UCLA's 579 in the 15-team field. UH's Sara Odelius is in a three-way tie for seventh after posting a 72--145 at the Corral de Tierra Country Club golf course.

Mullen, Abe capture Aloha Section four ball

Jerry Mullen and Shane Abe won the Aloha Section PGA Assitants Four Ball Championship today at Honolulu Country Club.

They combined to win $810 for their two-round total of 132, which was five shots better than Joey Tadao and Kevin Kashiwai.

Brigham Young-Hawaii golfers post first win

The Brigham Young-Hawaii golf team posted its first win Monday, defeating Hawaii Pacific and Chaminade in a tri-match at Mililani Golf Club.

The Seasiders won with a 310, seven strokes better than the Sea Warriors.

BYU-Hawaii's Mark Neider was the medalist with a 76.

UH indoor track season ends

The Hawaii women's indoor track and field season ended yesterday when the distance medley relay team failed to qualify for the NCAA Championships at the University of Washington's Last Chance Meet in Seattle.

However, the distance medley team posted the best time in school history (indoor and outdoor) by a considerable margin.

After Idaho and Portland pulled their teams, the Rainbow Wahine squad ran solo and posted a time of 11 minutes, 37.59 seconds, missing the NCAA standard, which is 11:28.

Hawaii coed sailors place seventh

The Hawaii coed sailing team finished in seventh place after going 3-6 at the McIntyre Team Race hosted by Stanford last weekend at Redwood City, Calif.

Hawaii, ranked sixth, finished behind USC, Stanford, Yale, South Florida, St. Mary's and UC Irvine.

Sea Warriors open at Aloha Stadium

The Hawaii Pacific baseball team plays its first game of the season at Aloha Stadium tonight at 7 against No. 3 Florida State.

The Sea Warriors also have seven-inning doubleheaders against Lander University on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Tickets, available on game day at Aloha Stadium, range from $1 to $5.

Seasiders sweep Huskies in tennis

The top-ranked Brigham Young-Hawaii women's tennis team won its 109th straight match yesterday, 9-0 over Bloomsburg (Pa.) in Laie.

Adrienn Hegedus, Jing Jing Liu, Tetyana Bula, Gurianna Korinihona, Trisha Piercy and Crystal Schwenke all captured both singles and doubles matches for the Seasiders (8-0).

» The Seasiders men's team (8-1) topped Bloomsburg 5-0 in a weather-shortened match. On Monday, the Brigham Young-Hawaii men defeated Hawaii-Hilo 7-2, while the women stopped the Vulcans 9-0.

Kennesaw State takes 2 from BYUH

Kennesaw State (Georgia) defeated Brigham Young-Hawaii on both ends of a nonconference softball doubleheader, 4-3 and 8-3, on Monday. The Seasiders dropped to 4-10, while the Fighting Owls improved to 20-4.