AP Photos PAPL101-103

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) One more win for Pepperdine would mean a season sweep of rival Hawaii, but more importantly a fifth NCAA volleyball championship.

The top-seeded Waves (29-4) will face second-seeded Hawaii (23-8) Saturday for the fourth time this season, this one for the national title.

Pepperdine won the three previous matches, including a 3-1 victory last week in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation championship game.

Hawaii coach Mike Wilton said his team wouldn't be intimidated by the Waves, but would need to be more consistent than they had been in previous matches.

"I know that the first two times that we played them, they were hard fought games but Pepperdine certainly won the statistical battle decisively," Wilton said. "The third time that we played them, serving and scoring ratios were very close. ... I just felt that their peaks and valleys were less pronounced than ours were."

That consistency has made for one of the best teams ever at Pepperdine, a school which also has four national runner-up finishes.

"It's really hard to compare teams," Pepperdine coach Marv Dunphy said. "I think maybe down the line looking back, this would be one of the steadier teams."

This is Pepperdine's ninth appearance in the NCAA title game, but its first since a 1998 loss to UCLA. Hawaii, which is looking for its first national championship in any men's sport, last reached the title game in 1996, also losing to UCLA.

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