No. 2 Hawai'i 3, No. 1 Long Beach State 0

Box score | UH presser | LBSU presser
HONOLULU - In a total and thrilling showcase for the sport in front of a raucous crowd of 6,636, host Hawai’i defeated Long Beach State to win the 2022 OUTRIGGER Big West Men’s Volleyball Championship, presented by The Hawaiian Islands inside SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center on Saturday night. Set scores were 27-25, 28-26 and 25-23.

Fourth-ranked and second-seeded Hawai’i picked up its sixth straight victory to improve to 24-5 and finish a perfect 18-0 at home this season. No. 3 Long Beach State, the top seed as The Big West regular-season champion, had its string of three wins in a row snapped and fell to 20-5.

It was in effect a rubber match, with the teams having split the first two editions of the Big West Championship. Long Beach State swept Hawai’i at home inside the Walter Pyramid for the inaugural trophy back in 2018, and the Rainbow Warriors took a five-setter on O’ahu in 2019. Hawai’i is the The Big West’s first two-time tourney champion.

The Beach had swept this year’s regular-season series, winning a pair of four-set affairs in Long Beach to begin this month.

As The Big West’s automatic qualifier for the seven-team 2022 National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Championship, Hawai’i learns its path to defend its national title during a live selection show on NCAA.com at 10 a.m. PT on Sunday, April 24. Long Beach State will await its fate and hope that its resume to date is strong enough to warrant one of two at-large berths into the tournament that will take place at Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom in Los Angeles with UCLA serving as the host, May 1-7.

On Saturday night, the sweep was far from indicative of the competitiveness within a rivalry that only seems to be getting bigger. Hawai’i simply made more plays at the end of all three close sets.

Long Beach State got off to a fast start with two Alex Nikolov kills around a Shane Holdaway ace. No team would lead by as many as three points again for the remainder of the frame. A triple block by Chaz Galloway, Cole Hogland and Dimitrios Mouchlias tied the score at 4-4, and UH took its first lead on an ensuing Mouchlias kill. The tight set was tied at every point from 4-4 to 10-10, and again at 13-13 and 14-14, before a Galloway kill gave UH the 15-14 edge at the media break.

Later, UH staved off two set points and a call of attack error was reversed by a review to give Spyros Chakas the kill and UH its first set point as LBSU used its final timeout. Jakob Thelle’s serve put the Beach out of system and they were forced to free pass it over, and UH’s third All-Big West first-teamer, middle blocker Guilherme Voss, notched the decisive kill. The set featured 16 tie scores and five lead changes in all.

In the second, a combo block by Nikolov and Marc Moody on Mouchlias, and a Nikolov kill, punctuated a 6-1 run as the Beach took a 9-4 lead and Hawai’i called a timeout. UH immediately answered with the next three points. LBSU maintained an edge until Mouchlias caught the end line with his serve to knot the score again at 15-15. Though it was tied seven more times from there to 24-24, UH was not able to wrestle away the lead. A clever Thelle kill is what got them to 24-24 on the first set point saved, and LBSU used its second timeout.

Hawai’i dispatched a two more set points, the latter via Mouchlias kill for 26-26, ahead of a stuff block by the opposite from Greece and fellow sophomore Voss on Spencer Olivier. Thelle produced a huge serve to get the Beach out of system and upon getting the ball back on their side, the Rainbow Warriors got an 11th kill from Mouchlias to go up 2-0. At 27-26, it was UH’s first lead in the frame since 2-1.

The home side tallied the final three points in each of the first two sets.

Long Beach State grabbed the early advantage in the third as well, getting out to a four-point lead at 9-5. Once again, Hawai’i caught up, at 11-11 on a Galloway kill, and went ahead for the first time in the set on a short Nikolov attack into the tape. It became a 5-0 run in all, the largest of the night, around the Beach’s first timeout, to suddenly give the hosts a 14-11 edge before Nikolov finally stopped the bleeding. Hogland handled the overpass moments later to grow the lead to four at 17-13.

Back-to-back kills by Chakas and Mouchlias really put Long Beach State in desperation mode, using its final timeout as it trailed 19-15. Nikolov, a true freshman outside hitter from Bulgaria, was not done, however, as a huge kill and a solo block on Thelle halved the deficit. The Beach got back within a point four times late, but Hawai’i notched the next point each time, finally getting a perfect pass, set and Chakas kill on its second match point to send SimpliFi Arena into euphoria.

Thelle was brilliant, posting his second double-double with match highs of 43 assists and 11 digs, to go along with two kills and a block assist. The fourth-year junior setter from Tonsberg, Norway, was chosen as the Big West Championship Most Valuable Player. His only other double-double this season was also against the Beach, on April 1.

Chakas and Mouchlias finished with 16 kills apiece, with Chakas hitting .483 (16-2-29). Mouchlias totaled five blocks, including UH’s lone solo stuff, and had one ace. Galloway and Voss each contributed seven kills, with Voss sharing the match high with Mouchlias in blocks.

Nikolov led all players for the second straight night with his 19 kills, adding four total blocks (one solo), five digs and a match-high two aces. Setter Aidan Knipe had 33 assists and a team-high eight digs. Olivier came up with eight kills.

In all, the match had 33 tie scores and eight lead changes. UH is 5-2 all-time at the Big West Championship, with LBSU now 5-3.