{"id":286567,"date":"2026-04-26T07:07:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T07:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/286567\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T07:07:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T07:07:10","slug":"long-beach-state-wins-big-west-mens-volleyball-championship-in-five-set-thriller-over-hawaii-the562-org","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/286567\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Beach State Wins Big West Men\u2019s Volleyball Championship in Five-Set Thriller Over Hawai\u2019i \u2013 The562.org"},"content":{"rendered":"

The562\u2019s coverage of Long Beach State athletics for the 2025-26 season is sponsored by Marilyn Bohl<\/a>.<\/p>\n

No moment was too big for Long Beach State on Saturday.<\/p>\n

You couldn\u2019t have scripted a more perfect scene for the Big West men\u2019s volleyball championship than the battle the Beach ensued against longtime rival Hawai\u2019i at the Bren Events Center, and the match had every element of a movie, including a fairytale ending.<\/p>\n

Featuring two of the top three teams in the nation, the match felt destined for five sets, but it took Long Beach State\u2019s resilience to fight off five Hawai\u2019i match points in the fourth set to force one final race to 15.<\/p>\n

Behind freshman opposite Wojciech Gajek\u2019s all-world performance, the Beach played its best volleyball of the season with a conference championship on the line, outlasting the Rainbow Warriors in the fifth set to earn an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament with a 20-25, 27-25, 22-25, 30-28, 15-11 win.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnytime you have a championship go five sets, I think that\u2019s a huge credit to our sport. From there, it\u2019s about these guys\u2014all 17,\u201d credited LBSU coach Nick MacRae. \u201cI\u2019m just excited and blessed that we get to keep playing more volleyball, and our season\u2019s not done yet. We\u2019re going to celebrate for 24 hours, then come back on Monday and do the same old song and dance we\u2019ve done all year going into the NCAA tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gajek was named Big West Championship Most Valuable Player after the match, recording new career highs in both kills and blocks. The freshman racked up a monstrous 27 kills on .489 hitting\u2014the most efficient mark of any pin hitter on the night\u2014while adding six blocks and three aces.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized pretty quickly that it was my night and I just kept feasting no matter what set it was,\u201d Gajek said. \u201cI think that was the nicest game we\u2019ve played all year and the level was just really high. We have multiple guys on this team that deserve a shoutout. Our season is not over yet and we\u2019re excited for more to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gajek\u2019s most heroic stretch came during the Beach\u2019s desperation at the end of the fourth set, as the freshman kept his team alive with four straight kills on four consecutive Hawai\u2019i match points. Fellow freshman Jackson Cryst then followed with back-to-back aces to send the match to a fifth set, where Gajek accounted for over a third of the Beach\u2019s fifth-set points including the kill at match point.<\/p>\n

\u201cBig shoutout to Jackson at the end of the fourth set. It\u2019s a shoutout to everyone, and to [setter Jake Pazanti] for keeping feeding me at the end of that set,\u201d Gajek said. \u201cWe managed to keep that set close because we were down 23-21 at one point, but we just stayed consistent and managed to win the set before taking over in the fifth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the Beach was already likely to receive a bid into the NCAA\u2019s new 12-team bracket, the win on Saturday clinches an automatic berth as the Big West\u2019s representative. The official bracket will be released Sunday at 1 pm, with four regional sites set to be announced to host the opening rounds next weekend.<\/p>\n

The Beach opened the first set of Saturday\u2019s match on a roll, going on a 4-1 run before Hawai\u2019i came back to tie it, and the teams found themselves knotted up eight times through the bulk of the set. Despite committing more total errors, the Rainbow Warriors were more efficient with 15 kills on .294 hitting to Long Beach\u2019s nine on .160, closing out the set on a 5-1 run to take a one-set lead.<\/p>\n

LBSU then found itself on the other end of the close-out in set two despite trailing for nearly the entire set. The Beach took its first lead since the first half of the set at set point, 24-23, earning all three of the frame\u2019s set points en route to a tight 27-25 win to knot the match at a set apiece.<\/p>\n

The Beach opened the third set with a five-point lead in a set that was defined by runs and won by Hawai\u2019i. Gajek led the Beach on a 5-1 run with a kill and an ace to take a 19-17 lead at one point in the set, but the Rainbow Warriors responded with an 8-3 run to close out the set and regain the lead.<\/p>\n

MacRae then worked senior Dane Hillis into the lineup in the final two sets as an adjustment on the Beach\u2019s serve receive, which proved to be a worthwhile move. Hillis played the opening portion of the fourth set before the Beach fought off Hawai\u2019i\u2019s five match points to force a fifth set.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all knew what we needed to do when we were down 2-1, and that was it. We just needed to execute, limit their runs and keep\u00a0our runs longer,\u201d said senior Skyler Varga, who finished with 16 kills. \u201cI thought we did a good job of that in that fourth set to come back and win. It really was a team effort and an LB Grit kind of night.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Beach used a 6-1 run to open up a sizable lead in the fifth set and led by as many as six in what ended as a dominant final frame. LBSU played four match points before eventually sealing it on its fifth with a Gajek kill.<\/p>\n

The Beach had four different players finish with five or more blocks, including a game-high nine from Cryst to go with his three aces. Varga and Ben Braun each had five blocks, while Gajek had six. Pazanti racked up 52 asssists.<\/p>\n

The win comes after Hawai\u2019i defeated LBSU in each of the pair\u2019s regular-season matches this season to open Big West play. It also marks a year since the Rainbow Warriors defeated the Beach in last year\u2019s Big West Championship, adding extra meaning for returning players like Varga.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a little bit of revenge from last year,\u201d he said. \u201cWe kept that in the back of the mind for sure going into this match. It was just a complete team effort. We keep saying that it takes all 17 and we proved that tonight, and it feels good to come out with the W especially in the Big West finals.\u201d<\/p>\n

The562 will have live coverage as the NCAA bracket is released Sunday, including information on LBSU\u2019s upcoming matchup, with the Beach potentially in position to earn one of the top four seeds, which would host regional sites. When asked why the Beach deserves one of those spots, Hillis summed it up quickly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just won the hardest conference in men\u2019s volleyball,\u201d Hillis said. \u201cI think that proves enough.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The562\u2019s coverage of Long Beach State athletics for the 2025-26 season is sponsored by Marilyn Bohl. No moment…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-286567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}