Coming down to the final week in the ultra-competitive and dynamic league, the bracket has been set for The Hawaiian Islands presents the 2026 Outrigger Big West Men’s Volleyball Championship. The three-day championship features all six nationally-ranked squads converging on Court 21 at The Bren Events Center in Irvine, Calif., from April 23-25.
The top seed belongs to regular-season champion and second-ranked Hawai’i (
26-4, 9-1 BW)
who claimed their third conference crown on Friday night, emphatically finishing the season with a pair of sweeping efforts. AVCA National Player of the Year semifinalist setter
Tread Rosenthal directs the offense to a league-leading hitting percentage of 0.379 while averaging a nation’s best 13.70 kills per set. The regular-season title is the first for the Rainbow Warriors since 2023, a shared title with Long Beach State. UH will be looking for back-to-back Big West Championship titles after taking home the hardware on their home court in 2025 and advancing to the national collegiate semifinals.
The defending national champion and third-ranked Beach (22-4, 8-2 BW) occupy the second seed in the bracket, just one game back from the ’Bows in the regular season standings with both league losses coming at the hands of the top seed. LBSU’s stout defense and all aces attitude from the service line have been keys to their continued success under the helm of first-year head coach and alumnus Nick MacRae. The Beach top the country with 2.38 aces per set with the duo of AVCA National Player of the Year semifinalist Skyler Varga and
Alex Kandev combining for 1.061 service strikes per set.
UH and LBSU receive the first-round bye in the bracket and will first take to the court on Friday, awaiting the victors of Thursday’s must-see matchups.
Opening the action at 5 o’clock is a rematch of Saturday’s season finale that went to five as No. 4 seed UC Santa Barbara (14-11, 5-5 BW) squares off against fifth-seeded UC San Diego (12-13, 3-7 BW). The Gauchos took both matches against the Tritons in the 2026 regular season, but needed the full complement of five frames in each in the evenly matched bout. In the last AVCA poll, UCSB was listed in ninth with UCSD just two spots back in 11
th. A deja vu moment of the 2025 Championship first round, the Tritons took the opening game of the event 3-2 last season.
The winner of the 4/5 contest advances to Friday’s semifinal to face off against No. 1 seed Hawai’i at 5 p.m. UH took both regular-season games against the Gauchos on O’ahu, but the ’Bows only regular-season blemish in conference action came on April 11 in La Jolla, as the Tritons halted an eight-game winning streak to turn UH away in four.
On the other side of the bracket, host and No. 3 seed and fifth-ranked UC Irvine (17-7, 5-5 BW) tangles with sixth-seeded CSUN
(12-14, 0-10
BW) at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday. Both UCI and UCSB own identical 5-5 league records and split their regular-season series 1-1. However, the Anteaters hold the five sets to four advantage in those two matches to earn the tiebreaker to secure the third seed.
The Anteaters and Matadors faced off in the penultimate week of regular season play with the UCI taking both games. Similarly to Thursday’s first game, UCI and CSUN also met up in the 2025 Championship first round, a five-setter that went the way of the Anteaters.
Long Beach State is waiting in the wings for the winner between the two, prepped for Friday’s 7:30 p.m. first serve in the semifinal round. The Beach won all four regular-season games against their potential foes, but both UCI and CSUN stretched one match against LBSU to five in the 2026 campaign.
The two semifinal winners as set to clash for the crown on Saturday at 5 o’clock to claim the league’s automatic berth into the expanded 12-team field of the 2026 National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Championship.
The selection show for the national championship is set for 1 p.m. next Sunday, April 26, on NCAA.com, with national postseason play at four regional sites followed by final site action from Los Angeles’ Pauley Pavilion slated for May 9-11. The powerhouse Big West has finished the year with at least one national finalist in every year of sport sponsorship, with five national titles since 2018, including last season’s trophy for LBSU.
All five matches inside the Bren Events Center be produced by Spectrum Sports and air on that channel in Hawai’i and on ESPN+ covering the rest of the nation. Kanoa Leahey will be on the call with Chris McLachlin providing color commentary.
Secure your seats to attend The Hawaiian Islands presents the 2026 Outrigger Big West Men’s Volleyball Championship today at bigwest.org/mvbtix. Single-day and all-session ticket options are available.