IRVINE, Calif. — No. 2 seed Long Beach State took down third-seeded UC Irvine in three to set up a Championship rematch for the trophy in The Hawaiian Islands presents the 2026 Outrigger Big West Men's Volleyball Championship. 

The Beach improve to 23-4 on the season and will meet up with regular-season champion Hawai'i on Saturday at 5 p.m., for The Big West's automatic berth in the 2026 National Collegiate Men's Volleyball Championship field. The two tangled in the 2025 finale and UH took the match 3-1, and this will be the fifth time the Rainbow Warriors and Beach will vye for the title. 

The match began with a competitive first period with 13 ties and five lead changes. The Beach opened the frame on an 11-5 run capped by a Connor Bloom strike, assisted by Jake Pazanti. However, UCI was able to respond with a run of their own, knotting the score at 14 apiece after a LBSU miscue from Skyler Varga. The Anteaters got on the high side with the frame at 21-20 as William D'Arcy, Trevor Clark and Andreas Brinck combined for the triple block on Varga's attempt. LBSU got two straight points of their own to tie the game at 23's with a bit block of their own as Varga teamed up with Jackson Cryst for the denial. The two went point-for-point into extras before the Beach were able to pull out the 29-27 set win. 

The second set started the way the first one ended, scrappy and competitive, with both teams trading scores through the first third of the frame. LBSU then went on a run to jump ahead 18-10 on an ace from freshman Wojciech Gajek and never looked back in the 25-16 set.

LBSU opened the third with gusto and grew a 19-12 lead after back-to-back kills from Ben Braun and  Bloom. The Beach went on to take the frame 25-18 to cruise to the win with six players recording at least three kills and the team hitting .355 in the match. Gajek finished with 10 kills on .471 hitting, three aces and two blocks as Pazanti disched out 27 assists with six digs. Kellen Larson added a game-high 11 digs in the win. 

For the Anteaters, Brinck finished with a match-high tying 10 kills with Big West All-Freshman Team selection Cameron Kosty supplying 25 assists. UCI moves to 18-8 on the year and awaits the national collegiate selection show on Sunday 1 p.m.