Seconds after the Hawaii men\u2019s volleyball team completed a four-set statement win over Long Beach State, the Rainbow Warriors flashed double shakas in unison around Pauley Pavilion.<\/p>\n
A lingering issue was righted.<\/p>\n
UH, still fired up from its loss to its archnemesis in the Big West championship match two weeks prior, ousted the Beach in a 25-15, 18-25, 25-21, 25-22 NCAA semifinal at UCLA\u2019s storied venue and will have a chance to win a third national title in six years there on Monday.<\/p>\n
Charlie Wade\u2019s group will face another Big West rival in UC Irvine. But before they threw themselves into preparation for the Anteaters on Sunday, the \u2018Bows reveled in some payback.<\/p>\n
In his stirring performance in the Big West final, Beach freshman opposite Wojciech Gajek flashed now-infamous inverted shakas \u2014 or \u201cshakas down\u201d \u2014 that quickly became fodder on local sports talk radio and in the large Hawaii volleyball community.<\/p>\n
UH\u2019s response on the floor was symbolic, then literal with their shakas in the direction of the Beach and a raucous pro-UH crowd announced at 9,409.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think everyone took it a little personally in Hawaii, what he did,\u201d UH hitter Louis Sakanoko said in the NCAA press conference after Saturday\u2019s match. \u201cEven if he didn\u2019t mean to do that. So that\u2019s a little way to send it back, in the classy way.\u201d<\/p>\n
While UH\u2019s three primary pin hitters Sakanoko, Kristian Titriyski and Adrien Roure posted double-digit kills on .337 team hitting, Gajek was among the Beach players to struggle against a \u2018Bows block. He finished with 11 kills against nine errors (.071).<\/p>\n
Middle Justin Todd, who missed the Big West title match with an ankle injury, was all too eager to get back into the fray. He got in on a career-best 10 blocks, including two solo. He appeared to relish in some trash talk through the net with LBSU middle Jackson Cryst.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to show what I could do against Long Beach and our team does an amazing job, but I wanted to contribute and I worked really hard,\u201d Todd said.<\/p>\n
UH Athletics made a social media post of a foam shaka hand pointing down getting turned right side up.<\/p>\n
A contrite Gajek wrote a comment<\/a> on it on Instagram.<\/p>\n \u201cBig thank you to Hawaii fans that showed me some love after the game regardless of my acting. It\u2019s truly incredible how dedicated you are to supporting your team everywhere they go, and I think I\u2019ve never seen something like that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Second-seeded UH (29-5) took three of four matches on the extended season from third-seeded LBSU (25-5), which remained potent as Nick MacRae succeeded the legendary Alan Knipe.<\/p>\n In the day\u2019s first semifinal, UCI beat fourth-seeded Ball State 25-19, 23-25, 27-25, 25-19, upholding the West Coast domination of the sport in recent years.<\/p>\n It will be the third all-Big West final since the conference started sponsoring men\u2019s volleyball in 2018. LBSU beat UH at the Walter Pyramid in 2019 and UH beat LBSU at Pauley Pavilion in 2022.<\/p>\n UH swept UCI (21-8) in two matches at the Bren Events Center on April 3 (in five sets) and April 4 (three).<\/p>\n UH setter Tread Rosenthal gutted out a mid-match lower body injury to finish off the Beach with a difficult (and accurate) bump set over his head from nearly out of play as he tumbled toward the scorer\u2019s table.<\/p>\n The status of the Big West Player of the Year could be a huge factor in the final.<\/p>\n Wade noted that his playmaker was \u201cplaying on one leg at the end\u201d in something of a metaphor for the season that saw abrupt schedule changes, travel difficulties and a back-and-forth saga at opposite between Titriyski and Kainoa Wade.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we are properly callused that this point,\u201d the 17th-year coach said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t just an easy season for us. We went through stuff and had injuries and drama and just kind of the peaks and valleys of a season. Our league and everything we\u2019ve gone through has prepared us to get to this point.\u201d<\/p>\n Wade\u2019s mantra of \u201cgood turns late\u201d at the service line came into play as his son helped swing the all-important third set in a 1-1 match. With UH holding a tenuous 16-15 lead, Kainoa Wade entered as a serving sub and fired four bullets, including an ace, to give his team the momentum. It was 19-16 when the Beach sided out and got him off the floor.<\/p>\n Sakanoko struggled with his serve for most of the match but helped right his team when it trailed 18-15 in the fourth. UH got back within a point with kills by Roure and middle Travell Jordan off his serve.<\/p>\n With it tied at 21, UH seized the match with kills by Titriyski and Roure and a stuff of Gajek by Tirtriyski and Todd.<\/p>\n There would be no repeat of the Big West final, when UH squandered five match points in Set 4 and lost it in five. After a Roure service error, Titriyski put it away by tooling the Beach block on Rosenthal\u2019s improvised bump set.<\/p>\n With UH mostly healthy, and having achieved convincing NCAA Tournament victories over USC and LBSU, it appears closer in ability and poise to its title teams of 2021 and 2022 than last year\u2019s inexperienced and hobbled group that got swept by UCLA in the national semifinals.<\/p>\n \u201cI think everyone was motivated to come back to the championship and show that we are a good team and we can really go until the end,\u201d Sakanoko said. \u201cSo really excited for Monday and playing UCI.\u201d<\/p>\n It is the seventh time UH has reached the national final. Monday\u2019s 1 p.m. Hawaii time match will be broadcast on ESPN2.<\/p>\n Brian McInnis<\/a>\u00a0covers the state\u2019s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii.\u00a0He can be reached at\u00a0brian.mcinnis@<\/a>charter.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n