Not much, if anything, was getting past middle attacker Justin Todd.
Todd led all players with a season-high 10 blocks as the No. 2 seed Hawai’i defeated the No. 3 seed Long Beach State 25-15, 18-25, 25-21, 25-22 in the NCAA Tournament semifinals on Saturday in Los Angeles.
Todd opened the match with three blocks in the first game, including a solo block during a 5-1 run early in the game and then the game-winning block. In addition, the middle attacker had four blocks in the final game to complete the victory in front of a crowd of 9,409 people.
This sixth time a player had at least 10 blocks in the NCAA Tournament during the 25-point rally scoring era.
Setter Tread Rosenthal guided the Hawai’i offense to out-hit Long Beach State .337 to .200 en route to the team returning to the NCAA Tournament finals for the first time since 2023.
Opposite Kirstian Titriyski led all players with 14 kills and committed two attack errors in the final two games. Outside attacker Louis Sakanoko added 12 kills on a .360 attack percentage, while outside attacker Adrien Roure had 10 kills.
Both Titriyski and Roure also had kills as part of a 4-1 run to close out the match.
Titriyski with the score tied at 21-21 in the fourth game had a kill to give the Rainbow Warriors the lead. The opposite teamed-up with Todd on the next play for block and ended the run with the match-winning kill.
Outside attacker Skyler Varga in the loss finished with a team-high 13 kills. Varga, though, was the only Beach player to have double-digit kills and hit more than .100.
The Beach was limited to less than a .150 attack percentage in two of the four games, including a match-low .042 attack percentage in the final game.
Hawai’i with this victory will advance to play UC Irvine in the NCAA Tournament finals on Monday. UC Irvine defeated the No. 4 Ball State in four games in the other semifinal match on Saturday.
This will be the first NCAA Tournament finals between two Big West teams since 2022 when Hawai’i defeated Long Beach State.