Hawaii won the 2026 NCAA National Collegiate men’s volleyball championship Monday night, rallying from a one-set deficit to beat UC Irvine 3-1 at Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles and close the expanded 12-team tournament with the program’s third national title.

The second-seeded Rainbow Warriors lost the first set 25-15, then controlled the next three by scores of 25-18, 25-18 and 25-20. The result gave Hawaii a 30-5 final record and ended UC Irvine’s surprise postseason run at 21-9. The championship match was televised on ESPN2 and streamed through the ESPN app, the same distribution structure promoted for the tournament’s final stage.

The title match completed a bracket that began May 1 with four regional sites and concluded May 11 in Los Angeles. The NCAA’s official bracket listed Hawaii as the 2026 national champion after wins over USC, Long Beach State and UC Irvine. UC Irvine’s path was longer and more disruptive: the Anteaters beat Penn State in five sets, upset No. 1 UCLA in five, defeated No. 4 Ball State in four and then took the first set from Hawaii before the Rainbow Warriors’ offense settled in.

Hawaii’s turnaround was driven by a sharp offensive response after a difficult opening frame. According to the official box score, the Rainbow Warriors hit .167 in the first set but finished the match at .410. They totaled 58 kills, nine aces and 54 assists, while UC Irvine finished with 38 kills, five aces and 35 assists. UC Irvine had the edge in blocks, 12 to 6, but Hawaii’s serving and attacking efficiency tilted the match after the first set.

Kristian Titriyski led Hawaii with 16 kills and added two aces. Adrien Roure had 15 kills, while Louis Sakanoko added 12 kills and three aces. Tread Rosenthal directed the offense with 44 assists. UC Irvine was led by Andrej Jokanovic, who had 13 kills, while William D’Arcy added nine. Micah Goss, Trevor Clark and Cameron Kosty were among the Anteaters’ top blockers as UC Irvine tried to disrupt Hawaii’s rhythm at the net.

The final followed a bracket that produced several notable results before championship night. In the first round on May 1, Pepperdine swept Fort Valley State, UC Irvine beat Penn State in five sets, Loyola Chicago swept Saint Francis and USC swept Belmont Abbey. In the regional finals on May 2, Ball State beat Pepperdine in five, UC Irvine stunned top-seeded UCLA in five, Long Beach State swept Loyola Chicago and Hawaii beat USC in four.

The national semifinals were played May 9 at Pauley Pavilion. UC Irvine beat Ball State 3-1 to reach the final, while Hawaii beat Long Beach State 3-1 in a matchup of Big West powers. That set up an all-Big West championship match between Hawaii and UC Irvine, two programs with deep NCAA tournament histories and extensive familiarity from conference play.

The tournament’s expanded format was one of the defining features of the 2026 championship. The Sporting News described the field as growing from nine to 12 teams, with seven automatic qualifiers and five at-large selections. Four seeded teams hosted regional brackets, while the semifinals and final were centralized at Pauley Pavilion. That structure gave more teams access to the championship while preserving a seeded path for the top programs.

Television and streaming access were also a central part of the championship’s public-facing schedule. The final was listed for ESPN2 and the ESPN app, while the tournament’s earlier matches were available through ESPN streaming. For fans, the format underscored the increasingly fragmented but broader access model for Olympic and college sports: the championship match received a traditional cable window, while the full tournament was available digitally.

For Hawaii, the title continued a recent run that has made the Rainbow Warriors one of the sport’s defining programs. The championship was Hawaii’s first since its back-to-back national titles in 2021 and 2022. The program also reached the final in 2023, losing to UCLA, and returned to the top of the sport Monday after navigating both a strong Big West schedule and a postseason that included USC, Long Beach State and UC Irvine.

UC Irvine’s runner-up finish still marked one of the tournament’s strongest stories. The Anteaters entered the bracket outside the top four national seeds but eliminated Penn State and UCLA in consecutive five-set matches. Their semifinal win over Ball State put them in the title match for the fifth time in program history, according to UC Irvine Athletics, but Hawaii’s serving and balanced attack prevented the Anteaters from adding to their previous national championships.

The championship also reinforced the West Coast center of gravity in men’s college volleyball. The final four included UC Irvine, Hawaii and Long Beach State, with Ball State representing the Midwestern side of the bracket. UCLA, the No. 1 seed and host for the final weekend, was eliminated in the regional final by UC Irvine, preventing a home-court run and opening the door for an unexpected Southern California finalist.

For the NCAA, the 2026 bracket provided a fuller championship arc than the previous nine-team format. The regional weekend created more elimination matches and more local hosting opportunities, while the centralized semifinal and final weekend gave the sport a clear national showcase. The final result, however, still went through one of the sport’s established powers. Hawaii absorbed UC Irvine’s opening punch, adjusted across the next three sets and left Pauley Pavilion with another national trophy.