Hawaii and UC Irvine will meet Sunday at 1 p.m. at Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles for the NCAA men’s volleyball championship, a final that pairs two Big West powers with recent history and a long memory. Hawaii arrives as the second seed and the conference runner-up at 29-5, while UC Irvine comes in at 21-8 after advancing out of a rugged bracket.

Hawaii reached the title match by beating Long Beach State in four sets in Saturday’s semifinal at Pauley Pavilion, then settled in to await a rematch with a team it already handled twice in regular-season conference play. The Warriors are in the national final for the fifth time in the last seven seasons, a run that has kept them in the sport’s center even as the program’s record book carries a complicated line: Hawaii is officially recognized as a two-time national champion in 2021 and 2022 after its 2003 title was vacated.

UC Irvine brings a different kind of pedigree to the match. The Anteaters have won four national titles, with the last coming in 2013, the same year David Kniffin took over as head coach. That connection is part of the backdrop to this final, because Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said Kniffin once served as his interpreter on a trip to Argentina in 2007, and that the two talk regularly during the season.

Wade said Kniffin was his interpreter when they went to Argentina in 2007, when Wade was coaching Pacific on the women’s side, and added that the relationship has stayed active through the years. He said the teams know each other well and that their meetings have been competitive, even if they have not carried quite the same intensity as Hawaii’s battles with Long Beach State. That familiarity matters because both programs are coming from the same conference and because Hawaii has already proven it can solve UC Irvine twice this season.

The tension in Sunday’s match is plain: Hawaii has the better record and the head-to-head edge, but UC Irvine has the longer championship history and the coach who has kept the program near the top since 2013. For Hawaii, another win would add to a recent era that has already brought official national crowns in 2021 and 2022. For UC Irvine, it is a chance to end a 13-year wait and claim a fifth title on the sport’s biggest stage.