No. 1 Hawai’i dispatches No. 5 UC San Diego in Big West semifinals

Good time for some get back.

It took a little bit of a warm up, but the top-seeded University of Hawai’i men’s volleyball team turned up the gas to accelerate away from No. 5 UC San Diego (13-14, 3-7 Big West) in four frames on Friday evening, (25-19, 19-25, 25-20, 25-13), advancing to the 2026 OUTRIGGER Big West men’s volleyball championship match on Saturday.

Louis Sakanoko, a 1st-team All-Big West selection, led the way with 12 kills for the Rainbow Warriors while adding four digs, three blocks and a service ace in the win. Fellow French product and 1st-team All-Big West pick Adrien Roure was the only other UH player to tally double figures in the kill department as he racked up 10 kills, five blocks and three digs.

Hawai’i (27-4, 9-1 Big West) overcame 21 attacking errors, including 13 over the first two sets, to avenge the lone conference loss of the year and clinch a second straight conference title match appearance in one fell swoop.

“That team’s given us all we can handle,” head coach Charlie Wade said of the Tritons after UH’s victory. “We weren’t as sharp offensively as we have been throughout the year but a lot of that is credit to a tough [UCSD] team and we’re fortunate to come out with a win.”

Despite losing redshirt sophomore Justin Todd early in the first set to a lower left leg injury, Hawai’i got a massive boost from the middle blocker position as Trevell Jordan and Ofeck Hazan combined for 12 kills and just two attack errors while each adding four blocks.

Hazan entrance to close out the first frame proved to be a helpful jolt of energy for UH as the top-seeded Rainbow Warriors scored the final five points after the sophomore from Israel entered and took the stanza, 25-19.

UC San Diego was able to capitalize on the continued sloppiness of Hawai’i in the second set, seeing nine more miscues (six attack, three service) from the higher seed provide the cushion needed to knot the match at one frame apiece as the Tritons hit .379 as a group.

After trading the first 18 points of the third, the Rainbow Warriors took control of the swing set behind a Kristian Titriyski service turn that resulted in five straight scoring rallies and a 14-9 lead over the Tritons.

“We settled down and got a little bit better rhythm offensively,” said Wade of the shift in momentum.

UCSD pulled no closer than three for the remainder of the scale-tipping set, seeing UH commit four total errors (two attack, two service) over the final 18 rallies on the way to a comfortable 25-20 decision and 2-1 set lead.

Hawai’i left little time for UC San Diego to recover in a must-have fourth frame, ripping off an 11-0 run that put the top-seeded Rainbow Warriors up 17-6 and forced the Tritons to burn through both timeouts.

Three more errors by UH helped UCSD extend the night a tad longer, but Sakanoko smoked his 12th putdown of the match to end the fourth frame with a 25-13 win for the regular season champion Rainbow Warriors.

Tread Rosenthal had another solid all-around day at the office as the setter went for 39 assists, seven digs and five kills on 10 swings while getting hands on three different blocks in the win by Hawai’i.

No. 2 Long Beach State dispatched No. 3 UC Irvine in straight sets in the other semifinal, setting up a rematch from last year’s Big West Tournament championship match between the Beach and ‘Bows.

Hawai’i beat LBSU in five sets on March 20 at the Pyramid and followed up the hard-fought win with a convincing sweep of the Beach on the very next night to help take full control of the regular season Big West standings. The Rainbow Warriors beat the Beach in four sets in last year’s Big West Championship match behind a 14-kill performance from Finn Kearney.

The 2026 OUTRIGGER Big West Men’s Volleyball Championship match between No. 1 Hawai’i and No. 2 Long Beach State will see first serve on Saturday at 2 p.m. HT.