Championship Central | Box score | UH presser | LBSU presser 

HONOLULU – Propelled by a raucous crowd of 8,576 fans, the second-seeded Hawai’i Rainbow Warriors held serve at home to claim the crown at The Hawaiian Islands presents the 2025 Outrigger Big West Men’s Volleyball Championship. UH downed regular-season champion and AVCA No. 1 Long Beach State 3-1 in the match held at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.  

This is the fourth Big West Championship title for UH, also hoisting the trophy in 2019, ’22 and ’23. The Rainbow Warriors earn the league’s automatic entry into the field of the 2025 National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Championship. The ’Bows will learn their seed and opponent when the bracket is released tomorrow, Sunday, April 27 at 1 p.m. PT/10 a.m. HT. Meanwhile, No. 1 ranked Long Beach State and the rest of The Big West will be eagerly awaiting the call up for the postseason with two at-large bids on the line. 

The Rainbow Warriors (26-5) leaned on a balanced offensive attack and timely serving to hold off LBSU (27-3) for the win. Championship Most Valuable Player Adrien Roure finished with 11 kills on an efficient 19 swings with no errors to hit .579 while adding nine digs on the night. Sophomore Tread Rosenthal directed the offense with 42 assists as the team hit .411 for the match. Finn Kearney led the team with 14 kills and Louis Sakanoko delivered four crucial aces in the victorious effort. 

UH raced out to the early lead, taking the first frame by a score of 25-21 with Kearney powering down seven kills and Kurt Nusterer adding four as the team hit .500 in the frame (18-3-30). For the Beach, redshirt senior Nato Dickinson was the counter with eight kills on .636 hitting, but UH was able to maintain the lead without ever relinquishing the advantage in the set. 

In the second, Hawai’i eked out the set win to take the sizeable advantage against the top team in the nation. The score was knotted at 22-22 after a kill from LBSU's Alex Kandev set up by fellow freshman and Bulgarian countryman Moni Nikolov. However, UH was able to capitalize on LBSU miscues to take the second by a score of 25-22.  

Out of the halftime break, Long Beach State found a different gear, playing focused volleyball to that began with a service ace from Kandev. Nikolov was also all aces from the service line with four direct strikes in a row to push the score to 7-2 in favor of th regular-season champion Beach.

LBSU was up by seven after freshman Isaiah Preuitt recorded a strike to make it 17-10 to keep the momentum in the frame. UH closed the gap to three after a Rosenthal solo block made it 23-20, but the Beach was able to come away with set to flow into the fourth with momentum. 

LBSU kept the pressure on to open the frame, leading 12-6 after scoring six unanswered points, capped by a Nikolov strike. But the ’Bows battled back with Sakanoko taking control at the service line. A pair of aces and a kill for the sophomore from Paris, France, along with a blast for Roure tied the score at 13-all. 

A few short points later, UH found themselves on the high side on the scoreboard, and the crowd was electric as the scoreboard neared closer and closer to the 25-point threshold. LBSU rallied to knot the score at 20 apiece after another Nikolov attack found the mark, but Sakanoko’s final time at the back line allowed UH to get to set point following back-to-back aces to put the score at 24-20. The Beach staved off the end of the match twice before Roure set up Rosenthal to send the ’Bows into celebration. 

LBSU's Dickinson led all scorers with 21 kills while hitting at a .485 clip and Kandev added 12 kills in the match. Nikolov closed with 47 assists in the loss for the Beach. 

The Big West has been a mainstay on the national stage since sport-sponsorship and 2025 is sure to be no exception. The league has combined for four national titles with both Long Beach State (2018, ’19) and Hawai’i (2021, ’22) going back-to-back for the crown. Two of those iterations were between the Beach and the ’Bows, one of the fiercest men’s volleyball rivalries around. At least one league team has been a national finalist in each of the last six seasons.