LONG BEACH, Calif. >> This is it.

Seriously, this is it for two teams with a combined 10 seniors, most of whom have been training, sweating and playing together for at least four years.

It’s their last collegiate match and the biggest of their careers.

The fourth and final showdown between No. 1 Hawaii (28-2) and No. 2 Long Beach State (27-2) this year will decide the 50th NCAA men’s volleyball championship. And, for the first time in the 50 years of the Big West — in any sport — two conference schools are meeting for a national title.

The defending NCAA champion 49ers expected to be here. It’s why they put in a bid to host the tournament at the Pyramid.

The Warriors, the only ones to defeat Long Beach State last season, promised themselves they would be here as well. That promise began the day after Hawaii fell to Long Beach State in the conference tournament, expecting to have an NCAA at-large bid awaiting them when they landed in Honolulu and a return trip that never got booked when they were overlooked by the selection committee.

While that snub has fueled the past 12 months for the Warriors, there is another that has driven them.

It is said that heavy is the head that wears the crown — something the 49ers have worn well. But perhaps heavier are the shoulders that carry an entire state, a role the Warriors have embraced.

“Coming back with a trophy would be so special, not just for us, but for our fans, for the state,” reserve senior hitter Brett Rosenmeier said during Friday’s news conference. “People around town would see us, tell us good luck. We know everyone is watching.”

“We made it our goal to be here,” senior middle Dalton Solbrig added. “We’re so evenly matched. We felt all season we’d have to go through each other to win it.

“It’s been awesome that our fans have traveled wherever we’ve gone, making every game feel like a home game. Even when we went to North Carolina in January, we had fans there. They’re here now.”

The ti leaves, lei, Hawaii state flags and green apparel were obvious in the Pyramid for Thursday’s semifinal. Even more are expected tonight.

There’s pressure on both sides of the court. Long Beach State hasn’t lost in the Pyramid in 42 matches, dating back to March 26, 2016, when it was swept by UCLA when LBSU All-Americans-to-be TJ DeFalco, Josh Tuaniga and Kyle Ensing were freshmen.

The 49ers are making their eighth national final appearance and their first in consecutive years since 1990-91. They won it all in 1991, defeating USC at Blaisdell Arena.

The Beach also is seeking to become the sixth program to win at least two in a row, joining UCLA, Pepperdine, UC Irvine, Loyola-­Chicago and Ohio State.

The Warriors are in the national final for the third time, and the first since 2002, when they defeated Pepperdine. (The title was later vacated for use of an ineligible player.)

It also is the third trip to the NCAA championship for two Hawaii All-Americans. The Worsley brothers were at the 2002 title match at Penn State, Joe nearly 5 and Gage age 3. Dad Roger, a former Rainbow Wahine staffer, was then working at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York and drove the family to University Park. The brothers also were ball boys during Stanford’s 2010 championship run.

Some liken this Warriors journey to that of the 1996 Hawaii team and the back-and-forth-across-the-Pacific battles with UCLA. There are some similarities: The Warriors hosted the conference tournament and a week later ended up in Pauley Pavilion, where the defending national champion Bruins were hosting the national tourney, eventually defeating Hawaii in five.

The difference this time around? Hawaii hosted and won the conference tournament. But the Warriors still will have to defeat the defending national champs at their home to earn the banner.

“There’s a special kind of excitement surrounding this,” 49ers coach Alan Knipe said. “The media attention, the crowd sizes, just the way the schedule worked out that led to these big matches with Hawaii at the end of the year.

“Selling out of the Pyramid, selling out of the Stan Sheriff, then coming back to the final four here with all the excitement. These (49ers) have moved the mark not only in Long Beach State volleyball, but for men’s volleyball across the country, as this Hawaii team has also done. What we’ve seen over the last couple of months has been great for the game.”

Five of the past six matches between these two have gone five sets. Just as it was expected for most of the season that the two would be here for Round 4, the expectation is that tonight will go the distance as well.

Warriors earn 5 awards

Rado Parapunov won two awards and three other teammates one each from OffTheBlock.com, a nationally recognized web-based organization dedicated to collegiate men’s volleyball.

Parapunov, a junior, won the Bryan Ivie Award for best opposite and the international player of the year. Senior Joe Worsley received the Lloy Ball Award for best setter, and his brother, sophomore Gage, the Erik Shoji Award for best libero.

The blocker of the year went to junior middle Patrick Gasman. Gasman finished second in the voting to UCLA’s Daenan Gyiman for the Ryan Millar Award (best middle attacker), and senior Stijn van Tilburg lost by two votes to Long Beach State’s TJ DeFalco for the Karch Kiraly Award (best outside hitter).

UCLA senior setter-hitter Micah Ma’a (Punahou) shared the best server with Lewis setter Matt Yoshimoto.