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The wait is finally over.
Fourteen months after Hawai’i and BYU last played each other the two teams will meet again in a NCAA Tournament finals showdown two years in the making.
Check out the championship match to follow today and how to follow it live.
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. in Columbus, Ohio
Follow live: Live stats, Live video (ESPNU), Radio feed, Off the Block in-match tweets, BYU in-match tweets, BYU in-match tweets,
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)
What to know: Colton Cowell didn’t hold back describing the magnitude of the NCAA Tournament finals. The All-American outside attacker in the prematch news conference Friday called the match-up the biggest day of his life. After a possible finals match-up between BYU and Hawai’i was prevented last year because of a global pandemic, the only two teams to hold the No. 1 ranking the last two seasons will face each other for the national championship. Both teams enter the finals as the top two offenses in the nation. Setter Jakob Thelle is fifth in the country averaging 10.63 assists per game and has guided Hawai’i to a nation-best .359 attack percentage. Middle attacker Patrick Gasman also leads the nation in individual attack percentage at .509, including having 10 kills and zero errors while hitting .625 in a sweep against UC Santa Barbara in the NCAA Tournament semifinals. This was the second consecutive postseason match that Gasman had double-digit kills and hit more than .500. In addition, opposite Rado Parapunov is second in the nation with a 4.39 kills per game average and has double-digit kills in every match this season. Setter Wil Stanley led the Cougars to the second-best attack percentage in the nation at .349. The senior in the NCAA Tournament semifinals victory against Lewis helped the team hit .354 and defensively had five blocks and a match-high eight digs. Along with Stanley, opposite Gabi Garcia Fernandez leads the Cougars offense. Fernandez, the 2020 National Player of the Year, is fifth in the nation averaging 0.54 aces per game and is in the nation’s top 20 with a 3.76 kills per game average. This will be the first meeting between the two programs since BYU and Hawai’i split a two-match series last year in Honolulu — days before the rest of the season was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. BYU finished with a .603 attack percentage and Fernandez had eight aces as the Cougars swept the Rainbow Warriors in that series opener. Parapunov in the series finale, though, had a season-high 30 kills on a .440 attack as Hawai’i rallied from a two-game deficit to BYU in five games.