Congrats to Hawaii.Very impressive that over half their starters were on their bench on last years championship team. That shows great inner growth and development by their players and the coaching staff.

THAT BACKSET TO END SET 2… Jacob is just so

the more i watch this game, Hawai'i was even keeled the entire match, no matter if they were down, or in the lead to close out sets, they maintained the same relaxed attitude, compared to LBSU. LBSU let their emotions get to them.

Player of the Year should’ve gone to Thelle. If Nikolov came to Hawaii, he wouldn’t get as much sets as he did with LB; TRUST ME

Also, the refs needed to hand out some yellow cards to LBSU's libero, challenging and complaining every 50/50 ball.

Long beach was a one man show. Hawaii was more balanced team.

Hawaii returns their entire team.  it will be interesting to see them attempt a three-peat.

Player of the year should go to the person that impacts their team the most, the person to keep their teammates heads in the game even when their down. And to me that sounds like Thelle. Yes, Nikolov is good and well-deserved freshman of the year but though he played a pretty good game, he was seen visibly frustrated and yelling at his teammates (He's still young, I mean he just turned 18 like last month, so he has time to grow out of that) and I really do think how they communicate with each other on the court is what cost them the game (Besides Hawaii playing absolutely incredible). Nikolov was yelling at Olivier for whatever ever reason, then the next play Olivier gets blocked.  Thelle is constantly seen encouraging his teammates through communication and his serves.

I will never understand why volleyball 🏐 is not popular like basketball 🏀 in the United States with volleyball players making millions of dollars just like Lebron James, Luka Doncic, and Stephen Curry.

I would rather watch high school volleyball than professional basketball. It is just more fun and exciting to me. It would be a dream come true to witness live a game like this championship game between Hawaii and Long Beach.

Nepotism at its finest. I hope the coaches son had a good time throwing the game

This was Nikolov’s last ncaa match.

I don't care what nobody say or none of them commentators  Chaz Galloway 🔥🔥🔥

Commentator : "And there's a big argument to be made Paul, that player of the year should have gone to Jakob Thelle. Best setter, he makes this team run, they have no singular weapon. He is the guy who's going to be determining the strategy addition throughout. As he goes that team goes."
In the 2019 loss to Long Beach in the National Championship, UH lost the first set with Brett Sheward setting too predictably. They switched to Thelle and the team became more effective. Thelle has become the first team setter after that.
The NCAA voters voted for Nikolav to become the FIRST Freshman to win player of the year when this is a TEAM sport.
The FACTS : Thelle setting : UH beats BYU for National Championship and won 3- 0. Thelle setting : beats #1 Long Beach St. For the Big West Championship and won 3- 0, WITH Nikolav playing. Thelle setting : UH beats #1 seed Long Beach St. For the National Championship and won 3- 0 WITH Nikolav playing.
Pretty obvious who the real player of the year really is!
Media, commentators, NCAA all hyping up this freshman Nikolav as if all the many players who ever played the game before him were mediocre. A TRUE player of the year would have been the one to lead his team to victories!

Although Long Beach had the best hitter on the court, volleyball is a team sport and as a team Hawaii was just better. Hawaii’s pass/receive was on point which allowed Jakob Thelle to run a quick offense just completely overwhelming Long Beach. The serving was also impressive, it seemed like Long Beach was out of system a lot. Can’t wait til next season it’s going to be interesting being that everyone is coming back and teams will be a lot better. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a repeat with both teams in the finals again.

Long beach's setter played pretty badly. Missibg his sets and making it tough for his attackers.

The Hawaii setter knows how to confuse LB...

Jakob Thelle can become a naturalized American if he wants a career. The team needs a backup setter, as Christenson is the only good and reliable setter playing there.

Seems like theres a touch of nepotism coming from the Beach side. They get some incredible recruits yet can't find a setter that can set the outside a consistent ball. Knipe set the bic with Nikolov way too much and never ran the middles. Hawaii clearly watched that during film and adjusted to it. I'd imagine if Aidan was not Alex's son, there would be someone else out there.

Thelle played like the player of the year this match, however Nicolov was very good this match too

Best Hawaii squad ever