Long Beach State rallies to stun Hawaii in 5 sets for Big West title
IRVINE, Calif. — Jackson Cryst served back-to-back aces to end the fourth set after Hawaii had five championship points and No. 2 seed Long Beach State pulled out a heart-stopping 20-25, 27-25, 22-25, 30-28, 15-11 win over the Rainbow Warriors to win the Outrigger Big West Men’s Volleyball Championship tonight at Bren Events Center.
Freshman opposite Wojciech Gajek finished with a match-high 27 kills and senior Skyler Varga added 16 kills for the Beach (24-4), who lost both regular-season matches to the ‘Bows. Kristian Titriyski tied a season-high with 20 kills, Louis Sakanoko added 17 and Adrien Roure finished with 15 for Hawaii (27-5), which will find out its NCAA Tournament fate during the selection show on Sunday at 10 a. m.
The ‘Bows will likely be one of the five at-large teams selected to one of four regional sites to be determined. Ofeck Hazan had a career-high nine blocks and six kills playing for an injured Justin Todd, who was on crutches and in a boot on the UH bench. Hawaii hit .
286 for the match. The Beach hit . 321, including .
500 in the fifth set. Hawaii dropped to 4-2 in Big West tournament finals, losing for the first time since 2018.