Hawaii is king of the Big West once again

MANOA — Championship secured.

The Hawai’i men’s volleyball team bested top-seeded Long Beach State in four sets to claim the program’s fourth Big West title Saturday night before a crowd of 8,540 at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.

Finn Kearney finished with a team-high 14 kills and Adrien Roure put down 11 kills with no errors and was named the tournament’s most valuable player.

Louis Sakanoko added eight kills and had back-to-back aces late in set four to give Hawai’i a 24-20 lead before a Tread Rosenthal dump gave the Rainbow Warriors the 25-21, 25-22, 21-25, 25-22 victory.

The win gave Hawai’i an automatic berth into the NCAA men’s volleyball tournament in a couple of weeks at the Covelli Center in Columbus, Ohio. The Rainbow Warriors were announced as the No. 2 seed on Sunday and will face the winner between Penn State and Daemen in the quarterfinals on May. 8.

“I just love to play volleyball, especially here,” said Roure. “I just want to play more, to play more and games and to go to Ohio, we needed to win yesterday and today, it’s just that simple.”

Hawai’i (26-5 overall, 7-3 Big West) played some of its best volleyball all season jumped out to early 6-3 leads in the first two frames against Long Beach State (27-3, 8-2) before taking a 2-0 set lead in the championship match.

The Rainbow Warriors were executing at a high level early on, hitting .500 in the opening frame and increasing that efficiency to .600 in the second set.

The Rainbow Warriors storm the court after Tread Rosenthal’s dump gave Hawai’i the championship over Long Beach State. | Photo: Michael Lasquero

“These guys, I could tell the energy that they had, the dialogue that they were having was meaningful and accurate,” said Hawai’i coach Charlie Wade.

“Super proud of the guys just embracing the moment and not just being meat-headed and screaming and yelling but really cerebral, meaningful dialogue going out throughout, how to receive, how to defend, just tactically, what we were doing it was a nice night for sure.”

The score was tied 12 times in the opening set, with a kill by Nato Dickinson tying it at 19 for Long Beach State.

That’s when Kearney started to take over.

Freshman Finn Kearney celebrates after a point against Long Beach State. | Photo: Michael Lasquero

Back-to-back kills by the freshman gave Hawai’i a 21-19 advantage that forced a Long Beach State timeout. Kearney’s next kill made it a 23-20 game before a Roure kill and a hitting error gave Hawai’i the opening set win.

Kearney, who also had 10 kills the night before in the Rainbow Warriors’ semifinal win over UC-Irvine, has answered the call starting at opposite in place of the injured Kristian Titriyski, who earned All-Big West honors.

“Finn is a really great player,” Sakanoko said of Kearney. “He’s in a tough position, you don’t play a lot the whole year and one guy is injured and you need to replace Kristian Titriyski, it’s not just like some random guy, he was the go-to guy of the team, he did a really great job adapting with the setter, playing with a full crowd and just like take his spot, so definitely he did a really great job.”

Roure was the top threat of the second set, with six of his eleven kills in the frame. The freshman outside hitter took his game to another level in the tournament with his family traveling halfway across the world from France to see him play.

“The first thing they told me was I’m lucky to have them because every time they come see me I win,” Roure said. “Being able to play in front of my family, obviously it’s far, even some of my cousins, I don’t see a lot, just once a year and we never see each other play, I’m just happy to show them how I can play.”

Adrien Roure earned MVP honors for the Big West tournament after putting down 29 kills in two days with only three errors for the tournament. | Photo: Michael Lasquero

Long Beach State’s Moni Nikolov came alive from the service line in the third set with four straight service aces to give the visitors an early 7-2 lead that grew as high as eight when Hawai’i trailed 16-8.

The Rainbow Warriors did manage to make a little bit of a run late in the set and got within three before an attack error gave Long Beach the set three win.

The fourth set was a slugfest with 11 ties and three lead changes, the most out of any frame of the match. Long Beach state led by as many as six, 12-6, before Sakanako sandwiched two aces in between a kill of his own to make it a one-point game to set up Roure’s tying kill at 13-13.

Sakanoko’s next service turn was just as effective when Hawai’i regained the serve after a service error gave the Rainbow Warriors a 21-20 lead. An attack error made it a two-point lead before Sakanoko’s third and fourth ace of the night, all in the fourth set, made it a 24-20 Hawai’i advantage.

“I just locked in,” said Sakanoko of the serving.

Long Beach State, who lost to Hawai’i in two of the team’s three meetings in 2025, is the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.