The Hawaii men’s volleyball team had already locked up the No. 3 seed in next week’s Big West championships in Honolulu before it stepped on the floor at LionTree Arena on Saturday night in La Jolla, Calif.

That was apparently a mixed blessing for the Rainbow Warriors, who were not on their game against UC San Diego in the regular-season finale one day after dispatching the Tritons in four sets. UCSD tossed in nine aces and swept UH for the first time since 2012, 27-25, 25-21, 25-20.

No. 5 UH (22-6, 5-5 Big West) will have to regroup for its first-round matchup with sixth-seeded UC Santa Barbara (9-17, 2-8) at the Stan Sheriff Center at 7 p.m. Thursday. UCSB lost to Cal State Northridge in four sets Saturday to drop into the final spot.

Charlie Wade’s ‘Bows, who have competed for the entirety of conference play without injured All-America star Spyros Chakas, finished with their first non-winning record in the Big West era of men’s volleyball, since 2018 (not including the 2020 season that was nixed due to the COVID-19 pandemic).

UH will almost certainly have to win three times in three days for the league's automatic NCAA berth to attain a fifth straight NCAA Tournament appearance.

Top-ranked Long Beach State avenged Friday's three-set loss to No. 4 UC Irvine by sweeping the Anteaters right back at the Pyramid on Saturday, and claimed the No. 1 Big West seed with a 9-1 record. UCI (7-3) received the No. 2 seed and will head straight to the semifinals along with LBSU.

If UH gets past UCSB in the first round, it will get UC Irvine on Friday. The Rainbow Warriors took two matches from the Gauchos at home and went 1-1 against UCI on the Big West road.

UH has sometimes struggled to establish its outside hitters in the wake of Chakas’ injury, and that was the case Saturday as Keoni Thiim put down 12 kills on .455 hitting, but freshman Louis Sakanoko had only four kills on negative-.083 hitting.

Senior Chaz Galloway was summoned off the bench and had seven kills on .429 hitting in his most extensive action in UH’s last four matches. Opposite Alaka‘i Todd had six kills.

Sebastian Lara led UCSD (12-14, 4-6) with 14 kills on .478 hitting and Anthony Cherfan added 13 kills for the Tritons, who are the No. 4 seed and will face No. 5 CSUN in Thursday's other first-round match.

Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.