From the start, the 95th men’s volleyball meeting between Hawaii and UCLA had the look of a classic.

The 12th sellout crowd in program history filled SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center for the highly anticipated duel between the top two teams in the national polls and ended the night in full roar when Hawaii’s Kurt Nusterer and Jakob Thelle teamed on a walk-off block to give the No. 1 Rainbow Warriors a 29-27, 21-25, 25-22, 28-26 victory over the second-ranked Bruins in the finale of the 27th Outrigger Volleyball Invitational tonight.

A turnstile crowd of 9,308 witnessed the Warriors rally from a 23-20 deficit to win the first set and watched as UCLA hold off a UH comeback in the second. The Warriors (17-1) closed the third set with a 5-2 run to take the lead in the match and the fourth went to extra points for the second time in the match.

UH fought off two set points and UCLA survived a match point before Nusterer, who started in place of Cole Hogland, and Thelle got the final block to end the match.

Hawaii opposite Dimitrios Mouchlias put away a season-high 22 kills while hitting .390 to help the Warriors bounce back from their first loss of the season and was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.

Three teams finished the tournament at 2-1 and No. 3 Penn State, which defeated UH on Friday and swept Purdue Fort Wayne in Saturday’s first match, was awarded the tournament title by set differential.

UCLA opposite Ido David led four Bruins (19-2) in double figures with 21 kills.

The Warriors open Big West play, and close a five-week homestand, with a two-match series with No. 4 Long Beach State starting Friday.