Spyros Chakas’ solo block on match point provided an emphatic punctuation to the University of Hawaii men’s volleyball team’s sweep of UC Santa Barbara tonight in the semifinals of the Big West Championship at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.

UH’s block set the tone early and the Rainbow Warriors finished with 13 in their 25-18, 26-24, 25-14 win over the Gauchos before a crowd of 4,734.

The fourth-ranked and second-seeded Warriors advanced to Saturday’s championship match against top-seeded Long Beach State with the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament on the line. The title match is set for 7:30 p.m.

UH opposite Dimitrios Mouchlias, the reigning Big West and AVCA Player of the Week, led the Warriors with 15 kills on .419 hitting. Chakas added 11 kills, two aces and was in on five blocks in UH’s third win over UCSB this season and 13th straight in the series with the Gauchos.

Punahou graduate Ryan Wilcox led UCSB with 13 kills and the Warriors held the Gauchos to .167 hitting.

UH posted two blocks in a five-point run with Chakas at the service line in the opening set. Chakas later had three kills in a four-point Jakob Thelle service turn. UH hit .444 in the set with just one attack error and held UCSB to a .152 performance thanks in part to six blocks and 11 digs.

>> PHOTOS: Hawaii vs. UCSB

Mouchlias had seven kills with no errors in 11 swings in the second set to help the Warriors fend off the Gauchos. Wilcox had two aces in a five-point UCSB run that gave the Gauchos an 18-16 lead. The Warriors went on a 6-2 surge and closed the set on Cole Hogland’s solo block.

The Warriors took control of the third set with Chakas’ five-point service run highlighted by back-to-back aces. They continued to pull away and Chakas block set up a third meeting with LBSU.

Long Beach State swept the regular-season series with the Warriors with two four-set wins at the Walter Pyramid on April 1 and 2.

In tonight’s first semifinal, Long Beach State freshman Alex Nikolov put away 11 of his career-high 28 kills in the fourth set and the top-seeded Beach rallied past UC Irvine 22-25, 25-23, 25-19, 29-27 win.

Nikolov hit .558 on his 43 attacks to lead the Beach to its third Big West tournament final.

“He’s a big-time player, he has a big arm and scores points for us all over the court and he makes us go,” LBSU coach Alan Knipe said.

Clarke Godbold added 15 kills on .400 hitting and Nathan Harlan provided a lift off the bench from the service line and with five kills.