The Stan Sheriff Center will host what has the potential to be the best and most memorable sports event of the year in Hawaii on Friday.

It also might be the greatest night for nerds since those Kaneohe videogamers repelled the lamest robbers of all time from their cyber castle last year. In the parlance of the gamer fraternity, the guys who tried to take their joysticks were pwned.

Sorry, I don’t know how that’s pronounced.

I do know this, though: If by now you don’t pwn a ticket for the NCAA regional volleyball showdown between No. 3 Hawaii and No. 1 Southern Cal, it might be too late and you will miss the match of the year. (Never mind their seedings; I trust the coaches poll more than the tourney brackets.)

And if you want to see it on TV, you’re as out of luck as a lone blocker up against a Kanani Danielson crosscourt slam.

Barring some totally unexpected last-minute change of heart by the self-anointed Worldwide Leader, rights-owner ESPN will only make the match available on ESPN3 … and trying to catch it on regular TV on ESPN3 would be like trying to view it on a Ouija board. That’s because ESPN3 is more precisely described at ESPN3.com. It’s an online channel, and you need a doctorate in computer science to figure out how to log on. That’s why the IT guys will be all it Friday. Computer dudes will be in high demand.

At last report Wednesday, UH was still trying to put together a financial offer permitting a local telecast. But hopes were not high — especially considering precedent like last year’s Hawaii-Boise State football game, a somewhat similar situation when the boys from Bristol refused to budge.

PERHAPS ESPN has done Hawaii a favor, though. No local conventional TV means even more people in the arena. Maybe a sellout? And more people in the arena means an even bigger wall of noise behind the Wahine in a match where they might really need every one of Ten Thousand Maniacs.

And that nasty, biased, Hawaii-hating committee that set up the brackets and seeding? They — probably unwittingly — gave us what could amount to the NCAA volleyball championship match Friday, here in Hawaii. The other side of the bracket doesn’t suck, but it’s not this good. It will be a week and three matches before they’ll actually award the hardware in San Antonio.

I like what UH coach Dave Shoji had to say about this: Very little. He knows there’s no sense in making a big issue of it. All it can do is distract a team, and that might be why No. 2-ranked Nebraska didn’t even make it to the Sweet 16 and a sweet trip to Hawaii.

For local sports fans, especially those who bleed green, this match comes at a perfect time, in the perfect place. It won’t be the most watched event of the year, but it could have the most positive emotional impact. Everyone in the arena except a few local USC fans will be behind the Rainbow Wahine.

A little more height would be preferred, sure. UH isn’t perfect — just one loss away from it at 31-1. And it might be two after Friday, and the end of another great season a few matches short of the goal. But a victory against USC, and the chances for a fifth national championship look pretty bright.

Too bad it’s not on TV. It’s a tough ticket, but get one if you can. If that’s impossible and you’re not a computer whiz, find a super geek or look up that old, long-lost AV guy from high school. He can probably hook you up.