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Only four teams — Hawai’i, BYU, Lewis and UC Santa Barbara — remain in contention for the NCAA championship.
Check out the match-ups and the historical tidbits to know before the start of the NCAA Tournament semifinals.
No. 1 seed Hawai’i (15-1, 10-0 Big West) vs. No. 4 seed UC Santa Barbara (16-4, 7-3 Big West)
Match vitals: 5 p.m. Thursday in Columbus, Ohio
Broadcast: ncaa.com (online stream)
How they reached the NCAA Tournament semifinals: Hawai’i despite losing in the Big West Tournament earned the No. 1 overall seed as an at-large bid and a bye to the NCAA Tournament semifinals. UC Santa Barbara won the Big West Tournament and defeated Pepperdine in the NCAA Tournament opening round.
Season series: Hawai’i leads 3-0
All-time series: Hawai’i leads 53-27
NCAA Tournament championships: Hawai’i (2002); UC Santa Barbara (none)
NCAA Tournament record: Hawai’i (5-6); UC Santa Barbara (8-10)
NCAA Tournament appearances: Hawai’i (1995, 1996, 2002, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021); UC Santa Barbara (1970, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1988, 2011, 2021)
Stats to know: The No. 1 overall seed has reached the NCAA Tournament finals every year since 2012. UC Santa Barbara, though, was the last team to beat a No. 1 seed in the semifinals when it upset USC in 2011. The Rainbow Warriors are on a 10-match winning streak against the Gauchos dating back to 2017. This will be the second all-Big West meeting in the NCAA Tournament since the conference started sponsoring men’s volleyball in 2018. In that previous all-Big West meeting, Hawai’i lost to Long Beach State in the NCAA Tournament finals. UC Santa Barbara has won four consecutive NCAA Tournament semifinal matches with its last semifinal loss occurring in 1972.
No. 2 seed BYU (19-3, 11-1 MPSF) vs. No. 3 seed Lewis (21-2, 12-2 MIVA)
Match vitals: 8 p.m. Thursday in Columbus, Ohio
Broadcast: ncaa.com (online stream)
How they reached the NCAA Tournament semifinals: BYU won the MPSF Tournament and earned the No. 2 overall seed along with a bye to the NCAA Tournament semifinals. Lewis won the MIVA Tournament and swept Penn State in the NCAA Tournament opening round.
Season series: First meeting this season
All-time series: BYU leads 18-2 (last meeting in 2020)
NCAA Tournament championships: BYU (1999, 2001, 2004); Lewis (2003)
NCAA Tournament record: BYU (11-7); Lewis (5-7)
NCAA Tournament appearances: BYU (1999, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2021); Lewis (1996, 1998, 2003, 2004, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2019, 2021)
Stats to know: This will be the third all-time meeting in the NCAA Tournament between Lewis and BYU and the first meeting in the tournament since 2004. The No. 2 overall seed has lost to the No. 3 seed in all but one NCAA Tournament semifinals since the tournament expanded in 2014, including BYU losing to Stanford in 2014 and UCLA in 2018. The Cougars are on a five-match winning streak against Flyers, and BYU opposite Gabi Garcia Fernandez had seven aces during the last meeting in 2020. While both offenses are in the nation’s top three for attack percentage, Lewis has set its starting middle attackers 611 times this season — 325 more times than BYU.