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The championship match is set for Saturday night.
Check out the match-ups and the historical tidbits to know before the start of the NCAA Tournament finals between BYU and Hawai’i.
No. 1 seed Hawai’i (16-1, 10-0 Big West) vs. No. 2 seed BYU (20-3, 11-1 MPSF)
Match vitals: 8 p.m. Saturday in Columbus, Ohio
Television Broadcast: ESPNU
Television Announcers: Paul Sunderland and Kevin Barnett
Radio Broadcast: ESPN Honolulu
Radio Announcers: Tiff Wells
How they reached the NCAA Tournament semifinals: Hawai’i earned the No. 1 overall seed as an at-large bid and swept UC Santa Barbara in the NCAA Tournament semifinals. BYU won the MPSF Tournament and defeated Lewis in the NCAA Tournament semifinals.
Season series: First meeting this season
All-time series: BYU leads 42-22 (last meeting 2020)
NCAA Tournament championships: Hawai’i (2002); BYU (1999, 2001, 2004)
NCAA Tournament record: Hawai’i (6-6); BYU (12-7)
NCAA Tournament finals appearances: Hawai’i (1996, 2002, 2019, 2021); BYU (1999, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2021)
NCAA Tournament appearances: Hawai’i (1995, 1996, 2002, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021); BYU (1999, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2021)
Hawai’i players national accolades: Rado Parapunov (National Player of the Year, Bryan Ivie Award, Nicolas Szerszen Award, First-Team All-American); Patrick Gasman (Ryan Millar Award, National Blocker of the Year finalist, First-Team All-American); Gage Worsley (Erik Shoji Award, Steve Shondell Award, First-Team All-American); Colton Cowell (Steve Shondell Award finalist, Second-Team All-American); Jakob Thelle (Lloy Ball Award finalist, All-American Honorable Mention)
BYU players national accolades: Gabi Garcia Fernandez (Bryan Ivie Award finalist, Dain Blanton Diversity Award finalist, National Server of the Year finalist, First-Team All-American); Davide Gardini (Karch Kiraly Award finalist, First-Team All-American); Wil Stanley (Lloy Ball Award finalist, First-Team All-American); Felipe de Brito Ferreira (All-American Honorable Mention); Zach Eschenberg (All-American Honorable Mention)
Stats to know: This will be the first time BYU and Hawai’i have ever met in the NCAA Tournament. It also will be the fifth time the former conference rivals have met in the postseason during the rally scoring era with their last postseason meeting occurring in the 2017 MPSF Tournament semifinals. The last time two teams met in the NCAA Tournament finals without playing each other earlier in the regular season was 2017 when Ohio State swept BYU. BYU has lost its last three appearances in the NCAA Tournament finals, but no program has lost its last four NCAA Tournament appearances since USC in the 1980s. If Hawai’i wins the national championship, it will have the fewest wins of any national champion since UCLA in 1976.