{"id":287358,"date":"2026-04-26T23:07:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T23:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/287358\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T23:07:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T23:07:11","slug":"long-beach-state-crowned-big-west-champions-after-outlasting-hawaii-3-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/287358\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Beach State Crowned Big West Champions After Outlasting Hawai’i, 3-2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Championship Central >>><\/a> | Box Score<\/a> |\u00a0LBSU presser<\/a> | UH presser<\/a>\u00a0

\nIRVINE, Calif. \u2014 With a thrilling five-setter in The Hawaiian Islands presents the 2026 Outrigger Big West Men\u2019s Volleyball Championship, second-seeded and third-ranked Long Beach State\u00a0settled the postseason score with a 3-2 victory against regular-season champion Hawai\u2019i on Saturday night from the Bren Events Center.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

LBSU\u00a0(24-4)\u00a0now earns The Big West\u2019s automatic berth into the expanded 12-team bracket of the 2026 National Collegiate Men\u2019s Volleyball Championship.\u00a0The Beach \u2013 and all The Big West squads vying for entry into the field \u2013 will learn their seeds,\u00a0destinations\u00a0or potential hosting assignments\u00a0in the regional format, announced Sunday at 1 p.m., on ncaa.com.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The five-set Championship match was just the second full complement finale since The Big West began sponsoring the event, with the 2019 final,\u00a0also extending to five.\u00a0Long Beach State\u2019s title\u00a0is their third (2018, \u201924), and a\u00a0first under the direction of Nick MacRae in his first season at the helm and 14th\u00a0overall for the Beach.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0hotly-contested\u00a0match featured\u00a044 ties and 12 lead changes throughout the night, with a rowdy crowd of 3,501 fans. The first frame saw the Beach open the night with the early\u00a04-1 advance after back-to-back strikes for Championship Most Valuable Player\u00a0Wojcieck\u00a0Gajek. Three\u00a0straight\u00a0for UH with Adrien Roure back at the service line gave the Rainbow Warriors the one-point advantage and\u00a0a see-saw battle ensued with ties at points six through 10.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hawai\u2019i\u00a0led 17-15 after Kristian\u00a0Titriyski\u00a0found the cross-court strike and the triple block with\u00a0Ofeck\u00a0Hazan, Tread Rosenthal and Roure put the \u2019Bows up 20-17.\u00a0Titriyski\u00a0iced the set with a sixth kill of the frame, hitting .556 for in the first.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a tightly contested second set, Long Beach State needed extra points to even the\u00a0match\u00a0score.\u00a0Senior Skyler Varga and Gajek were instrumental in keeping the score close to counter an early push from UH with Jake Pazanti\u00a0facilitating\u00a0the offense to hit .351 in the set.\u00a0UH led 16-14 after Louis\u00a0Sakanoko\u2019s\u00a0kill after the long rally found the mark, but an ace for Gajek was too hot to handle two points later to knot the score at 16 apiece. The\u00a0battle continued to stay close for the\u00a0remainder\u00a0with both sides holding late leads.\u00a0Ben Braun\u2019s strike closed the set at 27-25 to guarantee a fourth frame.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

LBSU built an early edge in the third period with a series of service aces, highlighted by Gajek’s two aces, to lead 9-4. UH responded with force including a decisive 6-1 run to close the period. The Beach held the\u00a0to secure the 25-22 victory. Highlights included a block at 23-22 as Hazan and Roure\u00a0combining for\u00a0the denial and\u00a0an ace off the hands of\u00a0Rosenthal\u00a0for the\u00a0final point.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the fourth period, LBSU and UH continued the joust, with\u00a0a marathon 30-28\u00a0set with another 12 ties and three lead changes\u00a0with the Beach gaining crucial momentum.\u00a0Hawai\u2019i had the first chance to close out the set after\u00a0Sakanoko\u2019s\u00a0kill made the score 24-23, but\u00a0Gajek responded with the point. UH again had a second shot at set point, again after a\u00a0Sakanoko\u00a0strike with a Gajek response. The next exchange was between Roure and Gajek and then Roure and Jackson Cryst\u00a0to knot it at 27 apiece. After a tie at 28,\u00a0Cryst\u00a0went back to serve and ripped off\u00a0consecutive aces to\u00a0get the Beach\u00a0the victory and 15 points away from the title.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The fifth frame was all Beach to open, racing out\u00a0to a 12-5 lead to\u00a0overwhelm\u00a0UH, putting the \u2019Bows on their heels. Hawai\u2019i\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0give up to the\u00a0final point,\u00a0staving off three match points and\u00a0to make\u00a0it\u00a014-11\u00a0after Rosenthal and Hazan denied an attack from\u00a0Pazanti\u00a0before Gajek capped the night with the the final strike to close with a game-high 27 kills on .489 hitting.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Varga added 16 kills with nine digs and six total blocks with\u00a0Cryst\u00a0adding a game-best tying nine blocks with eight kills.\u00a0Pazanti\u00a0dished out 52 assists with 10 digs for the double-double in the win.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

For UH,\u00a0Titriyski\u2019s\u00a020 kills led with way with\u00a0Sakanoko\u00a0(17) and Roure (15)\u00a0reaching double figures.\u00a0Hawai\u2019i\u2019s\u00a0Ofeck\u00a0matched\u00a0Cryst\u2019s\u00a0block tally with nine, including two solos on the night. Rosenthal finished with a match-high 54 assists.\u00a0\u00a0
\n \n<\/p>\n

Gallery: (4-25-2026) 2026 MVB Championship – LBSU vs. UH<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Championship Central >>> | Box Score |\u00a0LBSU presser | UH presser\u00a0 IRVINE, Calif. \u2014 With a thrilling five-setter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287359,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-287358","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\/287358","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=287358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}