The casts may change, but Hawaii and Long Beach State have delivered memorable performances throughout their men’s volleyball rivalry.

As such, the series will be afforded a national stage this weekend when the Rainbow Warriors and Beach meet at the Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, Calif., for a showdown between the Big West’s co-leaders.

UH and LBSU open their highly anticipated series today, and Saturday’s rematch is set to be televised on ESPNU.

“The Big West has been at the forefront of growing men’s collegiate volleyball since its existence, and this is kind of a historic moment,” UH coach Charlie Wade said of drawing national television coverage for a regular-season match.

“That’s exciting to see us getting that kind of exposure and hope we put on a good show and people enjoy it.”

The teams have combined to win the past three national titles, and defending champion UH (18-3, 3-1 Big West) entered the week ranked fourth in the national coaches and the media polls. LBSU (14-3, 3-1) is ranked second in the AVCA coaches Top 15 and is No. 1 in the Off the Block media poll as well as the NCAA RPI, which has Hawaii eighth this week.

“A lot of credit goes to the what kind of level the programs have been able to sustain for a long period of time to generate that kind of interest,” Beach coach Alan Knipe said. “I would imagine Hawaii feels the same as I do about it. It’s great for the sport and great for both institutions.”

Over the previous five years, UH and LBSU have played in three conference tournament title matches, with the Beach winning the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation crown in 2017 and the inaugural Big West championship in 2018 — both played in the Pyramid.

The Warriors broke through in 2019 with a five-set win at the Stan Sheriff Center in the Big West title match. But the Beach got final word in rallying for a four-set win in the national championship match at home.

After the pandemic canceled the Big West season in 2020, UH swept a contentious series at home last year on its way to the national championship. The second match went five sets, with UH pulling out the second 32-30 amid sometimes heated discussion over the artificial crowd noise being piped into an empty SimpliFi Arena.

The noise figures to be all natural today and Saturday for UH’s return to the Pyramid, where the Beach have won the past seven meetings with UH.

“I definitely think Long Beach is an interesting place to play,” UH setter Jakob Thelle said. “It’s definitely a fun environment having all these fans and students coming and talking to us on the sidelines. It’s definitely a fun environment. I embrace it.”

Both teams swept conference series last week, with UH taking two matches at home against Cal State Northridge and LBSU winning both ends of a home-and-home series with UC Santa Barbara.

LBSU outside hitters Spencer Olivier and Clarke Godbold and libero Mason Briggs earned conference recognition last year. To that mix, the Beach added 6-foot-7 outside hitter Alex Nikolov from Sofia, Bulgaria, which also produced former UH All-American Rado Parapunov.

“They hit the lottery with that one. I gotta talk to Rado — we got some bad intel,” Wade said. “He’s arguably the best player in the country right now.”

Nikolov ranks fourth in the nation and leads the Big West with 4.37 kills per set. He can also impact the game from the service line, with .597 aces per set, second in the Big West behind Thelle’s NCAA-leading average of .667. Nikolov has been named the conference’s Freshman of the Week six times this season.

“He’s just a very talented volleyball player in all aspects of the game,” Knipe said. “He’s good in the small parts of the game and he’s good in the point-scoring parts of the game. He’s a big, physical outside hitter and very competitive and he’s a great teammate.”

UH counters with Thelle running an attack that is hitting a league-high .353 while picking up the tempo as the season has progressed.

“It kind of fits the skill set of who we’ve got,” Wade said. “These guys are fast jump, fast arm — that’s genetically how they’re built, so it does make sense to try to max them up … and allow them to go fast as much as possible.”

UH outside hitter Spyros Chakas leads the Warriors with 213 total kills and is second on the team with 3.23 kills per set, with opposite Dimitrios Mouchlias leading the way with 3.29.

“I think we’re at the right place,” Thelle said. “We’ve definitely been progressing the last couple of weeks. … It’s all going to come down to execution. The team that can execute the best is the team that’s going to win. So that’s something we have to work on and be as good as we can in the moment.”

Big West men’s volleyball

At Walter Pyramid, Long Beach, Calif.

No. 4 Hawaii (18-3, 3-1 BWC) vs. No. 2 Long Beach State (14-3, 3-1)

>> When: Today, 4 p.m.; Saturday, 4:30 p.m.

>> TV: Saturday’s match on ESPNU

>> Radio: 1420-AM / 92.7-FM (today), 1500-AM (Saturday)

>> Online: Today’s match on ESPN+