After dropping four matches at the Corban Invitational in Portland, Oregon, the Chaminade beach volleyball team will look to bounce back Thursday through Saturday in the Heineken Queens Cup at Queens Beach, Waikiki.
The team’s first mainland trip since becoming a sport at Chaminade was a challenging one, featuring opponents that included two top-five NAIA schools and two Division I programs. Chaminade was able to get a win in the second flight of the first match, but then got swept the rest of the invitational. The Silverswords aim to learn from these competitive matches and apply what they have learned to this week’s Queens Cup.
“The way they (Division I players) are able to put the ball in the exact spot that they want to go, it’s really eye-opening for our team,” said assistant coach Kolby Kanetake, who filled in for head coach Kahala Kabalis Hoke during the Portland trip. “How crisp and accurate they are is something we want to apply to our game and continue to get better at.”
The Silverswords will start their six-match campaign at the Queens Cup on Queens Beach in Waikiki on Thursday with a double header. At 12:15 p.m., Chaminade will face Concordia University Irvine (CUI), and at 4 p.m., the Silverswords will get another chance against the University of Hawaii, the fellow island school that Chaminade have lost to twice in the last two years. The tournament will continue through Saturday with Chaminade facing four more Division I opponents: North Carolina Wilmington, San Jose State, Saint Mary’s, and Pepperdine.
Chaminade is still in search of its first win over a Division I program since the beach volleyball team started in 2024. The Silverswords were unsuccessful in last year’s Queens Cup, losing all four matchs against four Division I opponents. However, this year, Chaminade’s Queens Cup campaign starts with fellow Division II program CUI. This will be the first time Chaminade faces another Division II program in the tournament. Despite looking for its first Division I win, Chaminade is undefeated against Division II schools since the program’s existence.
One main difference between the Silverswords and the Division I opponents they have played is that the majority of Chaminade’s players play indoor volleyball. Most Division I colleges field completely separate indoor and beach volleyball teams. So, even with Chaminade being a top 25 Division II indoor volleyball team, the players lack the experience of beach volleyball that their opponents have.
“When you’re on the beach, it’s only two of you, so there’s not much hiding, and you have to be able to do everything,” Kanetake said. “Whereas in indoor, we have some players that are three rotations or six rotations, so they’re not necessarily doing everything.”
Since most players compete on both teams and the coaches are the same for both, Chaminade only gets to practice on the beach twice a week. This is a disadvantage, as the teams they are playing practice five to six times a week on the beach.
The score of the last four matches doesn’t show how competitive the Silverswords were in each game. At the Corbine Invitational, 15 of the sets to 21 were decided by 4 points or less.
One duo that the Silverswords will be looking to rely on is senior Kanoelehua Misipeka and junior Leilani Ama. The duo who compete as the first or second flight provided Chaminade with its only flight win in the Corban Invitational and won a set against Portland University’s top duo.
“We’re going in with the mindset to win, but we also understand that growth comes from every match we play,” said Misipeka, who played indoor for Chaminade her first two years and now only plays beach. “That resilience and team-first mindset will be crucial as we compete this week.”