The Harvard men’s volleyball team wasn’t going to leave Oahu without giving fourth-ranked Hawaii at least one tough test.

That test ended up feeling more like a midterm exam.

The Crimson had three match points to secure one of the biggest upsets in program history only to see Hawaii rally with the final five points to survive a 25-17, 25-27, 25-15, 21-25, 16-14 marathon victory that lasted more than three hours on Friday night.

A SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 4,876 overcame tense moments in the final points of the match that saw UH call timeout after its 17th hitting error that gave Harvard match point at 14-11.

Freshman Justin Todd, who started for the first time in his UH career, staved off the first match point with his fourth kill in eight swings.

Freshman Finn Kearney substituted into the match and served four straight tough balls into the Harvard side of the court.

His last serve forced an overpass at the net that setter James Bardin had no other option other than to swing away at.

The ball hammered off the block of Todd and down onto the Harvard court to end a thriller that lasted 3 hours, 8 minutes, and included nine challenges.

“This time of year, I believe that it is important to develop the bench,” Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said. “It does disrupt the rhythm … but I think we have so many talented players that I am going to err on the side of giving guys a chance to get out there.”

Wade started different lineups in each of the first three sets and played 13 players, with freshman middle Ofeck Hazan not available due to a minor finger injury.

Sophomore setter Tread Rosenthal, who finished with a match-high 47 assists, seven digs, six kills in eight swings and four block assists, had a kill and was in on a block during UH’s 5-0 run to seal it.

Hawaii (4-0) outblocked Harvard 15.5-5.5 and hit .394 to the Crimson’s .246. UH dominated the stats everywhere except behind the service line, where it committed 22 serving errors. UH also committed 17 hitting errors, had eight receiving errors and three block errors.

“Obviously it’s beneficial, especially early in the year, to get that feeling under us of having to panic and being able to fight out of it, but this early in the season we shouldn’t be going to five with anyone,” Rosenthal said.

Opposite Kristian Titriyski finished with a match-high 18 kills and outside Adrien Roure added 14 kills, with 12 coming in the first three sets.

Kearney, who did not miss on any of his 12 serves, had four kills and an ace but was in a can’t-miss situation at the end.

Harvard took its last timeout still leading 14-13, but it wasn’t able to freeze Kearney.

“I was just trying to stay calm,” Kearney said.

How did he do so?

“He was making jokes,” Rosenthal said. “He was calm, cool and collected.”

Logan Shepherd and Owen Fanning had 17 kills apiece to lead Harvard (0-2), which nearly became the first EIVA team not named Penn State to beat Hawaii in 16 tries.

With Hazan out, redshirt junior Kurt Nusterer had a season-high nine kills in 12 swings and hit .667 to go along with six block assists.

The Rainbow Warriors didn’t need any help winning the first set but got it anyway from the Crimson, who served out eight times in the opening set.

Hawaii hit .421 in the opening set, led by a 4-for-4 effort on kills from Nusterer.

Titriyski served back-to-back aces as part of a 5-0 UH run after Harvard took an early 6-5 lead.

Todd was credited with UH’s third ace on set point after an out call was overturned.

The Crimson came back to stun the Rainbow Warriors in the second set, taking it on a double block of Roure, who had eight kills in 11 swings before he was blocked by Brian Thomas and Shepherd on Harvard’s third set point.

UH made substitutions at the start of the second set, bringing in sophomore outside Louis Sakanoko and middle Alex Parks for the first time this season.

Parks put UH ahead 22-21 with a kill and was in on a block to put Hawaii ahead 23-22, but the Rainbow Warriors couldn’t finish despite hitting .440.

UH had two critical net violations and the teams combined for 25 service errors in the first two sets.

“The obvious is we just missed a ton of serves,” Wade said. “That isn’t us. The first set we missed three and then you miss eight in the second set and you lose. As impressive as the offensive numbers were through two sets, we still drop a set because we made too many service errors. Same thing in the fourth set.”

Hawaii re-established control of the match in the third set winning by double digits. Kearney replaced Sakanoko on the outside and had two kills and a solo block to help UH roll its way back in front.

Hawaii’s seven hitting errors in the fourth set led to its first five-setter of the young season.

UH will return to the court for home matches against No. 19 Princeton on Wednesday and Friday.