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IRVINE, Calif. \u2014 The University of Hawai’i men’s volleyball team’s bid for a fifth OUTRIGGER Big West Championship title was turned back by Long Beach State in a five-set duel in the tournament final on Saturday at the Bren Events Center in Irvine, Calif.
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\nLong Beach State, the tournament’s second seed, claimed the conference title by set scores of 20-25, 27-25, 22-25, 30-28, 15-11.
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\nThe top-seeded Rainbow Warriors (27-5) saw five attempts at championship point in the fourth set denied as the Beach (24-4) extended the match to a fifth set. LBSU then ran away early and held off the Warriors in the deciding set.
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\nLong Beach State secured the Big West’s automatic bid to the National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Championship while UH will await Sunday’s selection show, which will be livestreamed on NCAA.com at 10 a.m. Hawai’i Time.
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\nUH and Long Beach State went to five sets for the second time in three meetings this season and the Beach emerged with the win in a three-hour battle that featured 44 ties. The match also marked the first time the Warriors lost this season after winning the first set.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both teams finished with match with 65 kills with LBSU hitting .321 to UH’s .286. The Beach also closed the night with a 17-14.5 blocking advantage. #HawaiiMVB<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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\nUH opposite Kristian Titriyski<\/a> led the Warriors\u00a0and tied his season high with 20 kills in 41 attempts. Louis Sakanoko<\/a> finished with 17 kills while hitting .353 and Adrien Roure<\/a> added 15 kills and two aces. Tread Rosenthal<\/a> distributed 54 assists and also served up two aces to raise his career total to 114 and tie Rado Parapunov for fifth in program history. Ofek Hazan set a career high with nine blocks, including two solo.
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\nLong Beach State was led by tournament MVP Wojciech Gajek’s 27 kills on .489 hitting. Jackson Cryst was in on nine of LBSU’s 17 blocks.
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\nThe opening set was tied 13-13 when UH edged ahead on an LBSU service error and a kill from Roure. UH held on to the lead and opened up a 23-19 margin when Rosenthal landed an ace in the back corner. After Roure gave UH set point, Titriyski’s sixth kill closed out the opening set.
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\nThe second set saw 12 ties and the Beach earned set point at 24-23 when Jake Pazanti put away an overpass. UH survived two set points before LBSU finished off the set to even the match.
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\nLong Beach State jumped out to a 9-4 lead in the third set before UH went on a 6-1 run and took a 13-12 lead on an ace by Finn Kearney<\/a>. There were seven more ties before the Beach went up 22-21. Sakanoko hammered a kill out of the back row and UH took a 23-22 lead on a triple block by Titriyski, Roure and Hazan. Rosenthal then closed out the set from the service line. A tough serve led to an LBSU attack error to give UH set point and Rosenthal fired an ace to cap the 4-0 run and give the Warriors a 2-1 lead in the match.
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\nUH led early in the fourth set but Long Beach State went on a 5-1 run to move ahead and led 20-17 to prompt a UH timeout. The Warriors battled back and moved ahead 23-22 on back-to-back kills by Titriyski. After a Beach kill, a kill from Sakanoko gave UH championship point. LBSU fought off five match points and took the lead at 29-28 with an ace. After a UH timeout, Cryst closed the set with another ace to force a fifth set.
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\nLong Beach State posted three blocks in a 6-1 run to open up an 8-3 lead in the deciding set. The Beach went up 14-8 and UH fought off four championship points before Gajek ended the match with his final kill. Long Beach State hit .500 in the final set to UH’s .000 with five kills and five errors.\u00a0
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