HONOLULU — The teams that have combined to win the past three national championships squared off in the Big West men’s volleyball title match on Saturday night, and it might not be the last time they meet this season.

Second-seeded Hawaii (24-5) outlasted top-seeded Long Beach State (20-5) in three tight sets and earned an automatic berth in the seven-team NCAA Championships with a 27-25, 28-26, 25-23 victory before a raucous crowd of 6,600 at the Stan Sheriff Center.

The loss leaves Long Beach, UCLA and Penn State vying for the two at-large berths in the NCAA field, with the pairings to be announced on Sunday (10 a.m. PT). LBSU went into the week with the nation’s top RPI and suffered the least surprising defeat of the three during their respective conference tournaments, so UCLA (No. 1 AVCA Poll, No. 3 RPI) and Penn State (No. 2 in both). UCLA is the host for the May 1-7 tournament.

Long Beach State (the 2018 and 2019 national champion) and Hawaii (the 2021 winner) battled each other through 33 ties and eight lead changes as the first two sets were decided in overtime.

Hawaii, which finished 17-0 at home this season, avenged a pair of four-set regular-season losses to Long Beach earlier this month by playing just a bit better in all facets on Saturday. LBSU hit .275 to Hawaii’s .368 attack percentage. Hawaii also held the edge in kills (53-43), assists (49-41), digs (35-32), and blocks (8-7), while both teams served up three aces.

The teams battled through 16 ties and five lead changes in the opening set, as neither team led by more than three points. After three set points, Hawaii claimed the first set by reeling off three consecutive points.

Long Beach State took a 9-4 lead in the second set, but the Rainbow Warriors began chipping away and knotted the score at 15-all. From there point, it was much like the first set as the two teams traded points and battled through four set points before Hawaii closed it out with another three-point flurry.

Down 14-11 in the third set, LBSU cut the margin to one point on several occasions but Hawaii held on and ended the match with a Spyros Chakas kill to hand Long Beach its first sweep since 2019.

Freshman outside hitter Alex Nikolov paced Long Beach with 19 kills, five digs, four blocks, and two aces, while hitting .286. Sophomore setter Aidan Knipe had 33 assists, eight digs and one block, and sophomore libero Mason Briggs had seven digs, 22 errorless receptions and seven assists. Senior middle blocker Marc Moody had four blocks, while junior outside hitter Spencer Olivier added eight kills, and junior middle blocker Shane Holdaway had four kills, one block, one dig, and one ace while hitting .444.

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The Greek duo of Dimitrios Mouchlias and Chakas had 16 kills apiece for Hawaii, while tournament MVP Jakob Thelle had 43 assists and 11 digs. Chaz Galloway (seven kills, five digs), Guilherme Voss (seven kills, five blocks) and Brett Sheward (nine digs) also contributed for Hawaii.

For the most part, the seedings held true in the Big West, but the rest of the country saw its share of surprises.

In the MPSF, UCLA, which had won nine matches in a row, lost to fourth-seeded Stanford in a five-set semifinal, Third-seeded Pepperdine also took out second-seeded USC before defeating Stanford in Saturday’s final to earn the conference’s automatic spot.

Penn State, which went unbeaten in the EIVA and was riding a 19-match winning streak, lost to fourth-seeded Princeton in a five-set semifinal on its home court. Third-seeded NJIT also beat second-seeded Harvard before losing to Princeton in that conference final.