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LOS ANGELES — Top-ranked Hawai’i completed its quest for a repeat Saturday night, taking the all-Big West title match of the 2022 National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Championship in straight sets over rival Long Beach State inside Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom. Scores were 25-22, 25-21 and 25-20.

Hawai’i, the Big West Championship victor and thus an automatic qualifier, finishes its 2022 campaign at 27-5 with a second nine-match win streak. Second-ranked Big West regular-season champion and No. 1 national seed Long Beach State, an at-large entrant, ends up 21-6.

Both Big West foes were coming off thrilling, come-from-behind, five-set triumphs in Thursday’s national semifinals, LBSU from 2-0 down against third-ranked host UCLA, and UH from 2-1 back versus fourth-ranked No. 2 national seed Ball State. Those results assured The Big West of going a perfect four-for-four with national champions in men’s volleyball since the conference began its sponsorship of the sport ahead of the 2018 season. Long Beach State lifted the trophy in 2018 and 2019, and now Hawai’i has likewise achieved the feat in back-to-back years.

Saturday marked this season’s fourth meeting between the sides. Long Beach State took a pair of regular-season four-set victories at home at the Walter Pyramid in early April, with the Rainbow Warriors also sweeping the Beach in the final of the OUTRIGGER Big West Championship on O’ahu on April 23. It was also the rematch of the 2019 national championship match, which went to LBSU in four frames in Long Beach as the Beach put the finishing touches on their repeat.

Set One            
The match began with something of a familiar scene from the semifinal round, as Simon Torwie served a Beach ace. American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Player of the Year Alex Nikolov got involved early with a thunderous kill for 2-1, and his lone ace for 4-2. He later had three more kills over a six-point span, but a Dimitrios Mouchlias kill gave the edge to UH at 14-13. It was 15-14 Hawai’i at the media stoppage.

A 5-1 run put Hawai’i up 17-14 and forced the Beach into their first timeout of the evening. The Rainbow Warriors got a setter dump and an ace off the tape from Big West Player of the Year Jakob Thelle en route to a 20-17 advantage as LBSU used its second timeout. A huge combination block by Mouchlias and Guilherme Voss made it 21-18, and a wide attack put UH in command at 22-18. After two straight Beach points necessitated a first Hawai’i timeout, Spyros Chakas came up with a big kill, and another loud spike by Cole Hogland down the middle created a first set point. The Rainbow Warriors converted the second one on another back-row kill from Chakas, to take the first.

Set Two            
Long Beach State trotted out to a 4-1 advantage in the second. A UH attack error into the net made it 9-4 in the Beach’s favor as Big West Co-Coach of the Year Charlie Wade used his first timeout. A huge solo denial by Voss on LBSU setter Aidan Knipe and a second Thelle ace bookended a 3-0 UH run that caused a Beach timeout at 10-8. The spurt grew to 5-0 as an attack fell short and Chakas put one down after a big Thelle dig kept a long and exciting rally alive, to level it at 10-10.

The set remained tight, and UH took a 17-15 lead when Voss handled the overpass and LBSU called its final timeout. A solo Torwie block, the only one by the Beach in the match, closed them to within one again at 18-17. Hogland and Thelle teamed up to deny Spencer Olivier on their right side for 23-20. On set point, it was Mouchlias with the kill after Nikolov had kept the point alive with a big dig in the back row, and Hawai’i was up 2-0.

Set Three          
The third set began with a service error wide by Nikolov. Chaz Galloway expertly handled the overpass after an incredible dig by libero Brett Sheward for 6-3, but LBSU caught up at 8-8. Though the next two points went to UH, it was tied again at 11-11. An Olivier kill down the middle finally put the Beach up 14-13. They were up 15-14 at the media break. Back-to-back combo stuffs by Thelle and Voss on Olivier, and then Chakas and Voss on Nikolov, gave UH the 17-16 edge as 19th-year LBSU head coach Alan Knipe used his first timeout.

Following a lengthy stoppage and an important replay reversal to give Hawai’i the point for 18-16, another big Nikolov dig and Olivier kill from the left side kept Beach hopes alive. A Mouchlias kill and Chakas ace put the Rainbow Warriors on the brink at 20-17, and Long Beach State used its final timeout. Coming out of that, Clarke Godbold hit it out. A Mouchlias kill, Beach service into the net and another Mouchlias kill off a great Galloway pass and Thelle set, got it to match point. On the first one of those, Chakas handled the overpass as LBSU was in the net, to give Hawai’i the title.

Match Stats        

• Chakas, chosen the National Collegiate Championship Most Outstanding Player, provided 14 kills on .333 (14-4-30) hitting, with four digs, three blocks, two assists and an ace. Thelle finished with 31 assists, four digs, three blocks, two kills and a team-high two aces. The fourth-year junior from Tonsberg, Norway, set UH to a .434 (44-8-83) hitting percentage. Mouchlias added 11 kills without an error on 22 swings for a .500 percentage. Voss contributed a match-best five total blocks (one solo), and five kills on seven attacks without an error (.714). Sheward collected a team-high six digs and four assists. Galloway added eight kills. Hogland was a perfect 4-for-4 on attacks, with three blocks.
• Nikolov put down a match-high 20 kills at a .405 (20-5-37) attack rate. He had exactly that many in Thursday’s semifinal as well, and finished his incredible freshman campaign by reaching double figures in each of his last 17 contests. It was his eighth 20-kill effort. The outside hitter from Sofia, Bulgaria, added four digs, two assists and one ace.
• Olivier posted his third double-double with 11 kills on .368 (11-4-19) hitting and a match-high 10 digs. Torwie, who had four aces against UCLA, all in the third and fifth sets, including on match point, added three on Saturday to again lead all players. Knipe dished out 33 assists to go with three digs and an ace. Godbold had six kills and four digs.
• Hawai’i out-blocked Long Beach State, 8.0-1.0. LBSU hit .304.

Big West Bits: Hawai’i (2021-22) remarkably is the fifth straight back-to-back national champion, following in the footsteps of Long Beach State (2018-19), Ohio State (2016-17), Loyola (2014-15) and UC Irvine (2012-13) … Hawai’i is 8-6 all-time over its seven National Collegiate Championship appearances, while Long Beach State is 18-10 across its 12 … UH has won five straight matches in this event, while LBSU had its five-match streak at the national tourney snapped … In national title matches, UH is 2-2, with LBSU 3-6 … Hawai’i also won the 2021 final in straight sets, over BYU in Columbus, Ohio … The Beach are 7-4 inside Pauley Pavilion in the National Collegiate Championship, and UH is 4-1 … Jakob Thelle finished with 61 aces to lead the nation, with Alex Nikolov right behind at 59, which is a single-season freshman record at LBSU and falls one shy of equaling the overall program mark.

All-Tournament Team
Most Outstanding Player: Spyros Chakas, Hawai’i
Jakob Thelle, Hawai’i
Dimitrios Mouchlias, Hawai’i
Alex Nikolov, Long Beach State
Spencer Olivier, Long Beach State
Ethan Champlin, UCLA
Quinn Isaacson, Ball State