In the six days since Hawaii won its third national championship in six years in men’s volleyball, I’ve gone back and rewatched the match three times.
Now I understand the decision made by thousands of University of Hawaii fans to travel to the National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Championship at Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles.
There is nothing quite like winning a national championship.
Sitting courtside for last Saturday’s NCAA semifinal against Long Beach State had a different feeling than any other match this season.
Not only was a national title on the line, but the rivalry between the Beach and the ’Bows was elevated when Long Beach freshman opposite hitter Wojciech Gajek of Poland celebrated a point in the Big West tournament championship by flashing a double shakas sign and then pointing it down.
Never in a million years could Gajek have imagined that single celebration would ignite a team, and a fan base, as much as it did.
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Hawaii volleyball fans don’t boo often. It rarely happens. The boo’s were crystal clear inside of Pauley that evening, and the emotion wasn’t just limited to the fans.
Prior to Wednesday’s national championship celebration at Bankoh Arena at Stan Sheriff Center, I walked into the UH locker room as the players were eating pizza before heading inside the arena to be celebrated.
I asked each player two questions. One was, what will you always remember about this season? The other was, what does winning a national championship mean to you?
You’d be surprised at how many players mentioned the win over Long Beach State before winning the national championship.
That’s a rivalry that has real teeth to it. Once Hawaii finished off Long Beach in four sets, which included plenty of trash talk and stares back and forth through the net, all that was left was a team with nothing to lose.
UC Irvine pulled off the upset of the tournament when it walked into Pauley and took out top seed UCLA in five sets.
It came down to a championship point in the fifth set with UCLA ahead 14-12. UC Irvine hit a ball that went long. The Bruins came rushing on the court to celebrate, but Anteaters coach David Kniffin had other ideas.
His challenge of a touch ended up working out. The point was overturned, despite nearly every camera view shown on TV and social media suggesting otherwise. UCLA couldn’t recover, hitting two balls out and giving up the final three points after the challenge to lose 16-14.
I had my own “Dewey Defeats Truman” moment when I posted on social media that UCLA advanced to the final four. I saw the ball go out, UCLA rush the court, and immediately rushed to post something so I could get back to watching Hawaii, which was on the court in the first set against Southern California in the first NCAA Tournament match it has ever hosted and played in.
A record crowd was in the Stan to see UH beat the Trojans in four sets and there were quite a few people multi-tasking between watching the game and checking their phones.
A decent-sized humming sound was noticeable throughout the arena a couple of minutes after I had thought UCLA won. The next time I checked social media, a poster replied to my comment saying, “not yet!”
I eventually put two and two together and realized what had just happened. After the first set between UH and USC was over, the announcement was made over the speakers that UC Irvine had upset UCLA in five sets. It felt right then and there that the door was wide open for Hawaii to go walking through.
Monday night, with nearly 8,500 people back at the Pauley for a national final without the host team, Hawaii dropped the first set by double digits.
UC Irvine had seven blocks and UH was in double figures in errors despite ending up with more kills in the set.
With no more room left for error, it was do-or-die time for the Rainbow Warriors, and what made this national championship as sweet as ever was that every single person on the court stepped up.
Whether it was Quintin Greenidge popping up tough serves one after the other right to setter Tread Rosenthal, or Louis Sakanoko diving for one-handed digs with torn ligaments in his hand, or Kristian Titriyski terminating balls again at an unreal rate, or Justin Todd providing the blocking presence in the middle Hawaii sorely missed in the Big West final, everybody did their part.
Trevell Jordan put down a ball in the middle from a height that looked like he was trying to touch the scoreboard. Adrien Roure deep cornered a perfect out-of-system shot that was a thing of brilliance.
And yet it all started with the quarterback of it all, Judge Tread, doing a little bit of everything, from setting perfect balls to putting down kills on two, the blocking, the defense, the complete package of what a starting setter for the senior national team could look like one day.
The celebration lasted the rest of the night before the team was on a plane ride back home early the next morning.
We’ve already learned since that Titriyski is going back to Bulgaria for good to turn pro and there will be others who hit the transfer portal and leave.
The nucleus of this group is staying, however, and the talk of a repeat championship has already begun.
Every team who had won a title since 2011 repeated as national champion the following year until Long Beach State failed to do so this season.
The ’Bows look like they may be the ones to start a new streak.
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Reach Billy Hull at [email protected].