There were plenty of records and milestones set this NCAA Tournament. Check out all the historical stats and notes from this NCAA Tournament that concluded with Hawai’i sweeping Long Beach State in the finals on Saturday.
– Hawai’i setter Jakob Thelle’s 10 aces were the third-most aces during a single NCAA Tournament in the 25-point rally scoring era.
– Hawai’i outside attacker Spyros Chakas is the first player since 2016 to win the NCAA Most Outstanding Player while in that same season not being the conference player of the year.
– Hawai’i middle attacker Guilherme Voss with 16 blocks finished tied for the second-most blocks during a NCAA Tournament in the 25-point rally scoring era.
– Hawai’i had a .434 attack percentage in the sweep against Long Beach State – the highest attack percentage in a NCAA Tournament finals since 2014.
– Long Beach State outside attacker Alex Nikolov is the first player during the 25-point rally scoring era to have 40 or more kills in the NCAA Tournament and only play in six games.
– Simon Towrie came off the Long Beach State bench and had seven aces in the NCAA Tournament. This is the most aces for a serving specialist in the NCAA Tournament during the 25-point rally scoring era.
– Long Beach State and Hawaii each had nine service errors – the fewest number of service errors for a team in the NCAA Tournament finals since Loyola in 2015.
– Long Beach State’s season-low one block in the NCAA Tournament finals was the fewest blocks in the finals during the 25-point rally scoring era.
– The Beach finished the NCAA Tournament finals with a .304 attack percentage and became the third team during the 25-point rally scoring era to lose a NCAA Tournament finals when hitting more than .300.
– The last 10 NCAA Tournaments have featured five repeat winners – UC Irvine in 2012-13, Loyola in 2014-15, Ohio State in 2016-17, Long Beach State in 2018-19 and Hawai’i in 2021-22.
– Hawai’i is the first team since Penn State in 2008 to win the NCAA Tournament finals as a school from a state outside where the finals took place and its opponent was from the same state as the finals venue.
– Hawai’i coach Charlie Wade joins Al Scates, Ernie Hix, Marv Dunphy, Tom Peterson, John Speraw, Shane Davis, Pete Hanson and Alan Knipe as the only coaches to win multiple NCAA championships.
– Wade also joins Scates, Davis, Hanson and Knipe as the only coaches to repeat as NCAA champions.
– This was the sixth time in the last 10 NCAA Tournaments that the finals was a sweep.
– North Greenville opposite Gregory Torres finished the NCAA Tournament with 31 kills in two matches. No ConfCarolinas player before this year had recorded 20 or more kills in a single NCAA Tournament.
– Quinn Isaacson became the first Ball State setter to make the NCAA All-Tournament Team since Rick Niemi in 1972.
– Hawai’i libero Brett Sheward had 16 digs in the semifinals victory against Ball State. That performance was the third-most digs in a single NCAA Tournament match during the 25-point rally scoring era.
– Long Beach State opposite Clarke Godbold in the semifinals had 11 kills and hit .688, which finished tied for the sixth-best attack percentage in a single NCAA Tournament match during the 25-point rally scoring era.
– Long Beach State’s 25-10 win against UCLA in the fourth game of the NCAA Tournament semifinals was the widest margin of victory in a NCAA Tournament game during the 25-point rally scoring era. It also tied for the widest margin of victory in a single NCAA Tournament game during the entire rally scoring era.
– The 30-point overtime in the third game of North Greenville’s sweep against Princeton in the opening round was the longest overtime game in the NCAA Tournament during the rally scoring era.
– Ball State’s five-game loss to Hawai’i was the first time in program history the Cardinals extended a NCAA Tournament semifinals match to the decisive game.
– This was the first time since 2014 that both NCAA Tournament semifinals went to decisive fifth games.
Towrie was a starting middle blocker in most of the sets and served 3 times in the 5th set versus UCLA