COLUMBUS, Ohio – How sweep it is! No. 1 Long Beach State needed just three sets to down back-to-back defending champion UCLA to hoist the trophy at the 2025 National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Championship at the Covelli Center.  

With the win, Long Beach State claims the program’s fourth national title, all with Alan Knipe playing a part. In 1991, Knipe was a student-athlete, and now as the head coach of the Beach, a Knipe-led squad went back-to-back in 2018 and ’19 and now celebrates a championship once more in 2025.  

The nation’s best hitting team showed their offensive prowess by hitting .354 in the match, including an impressive .688 in the first set, to take the match with set scores of 25-17, 25-23 and 25-21 and cap the season with 30 wins to just three losses. UCLA meanwhile, only mustered a .192 percentage on the attack as LBSU got the better of the third-seeded Bruins for the third time this season.  

Long Beach State opened the first set with a service ace by AVCA and Big West Player of the Year Moni Nikolov, setting the tone for the match. UCLA was able to knot the score at one and two points apiece but the Beach maintained control throughout the frame, never relinquishing the lead. LBSU got back-to-back combo blocks for freshman Alex Kandev and Isaiah Preuitt to hold the six-point advantage at 20-14 before the set was finished off with the 25-17 score. 

The second set was the Bruins race out to the 4-1 lead after Zach Rama and Sean McQuiggan combined for the denial to force a LBSU timeout. UCLA held the lead  throughout the middle of the set, seeing a five-point margin after Caeron Thorne’s kill made it 15-10. The difference remained after an ace for UCLA’s Ido David forced yet another Beach break with the score at 18-13. LBSU sliced the deficit to two after an error for UCLA made it 20-18 in favor of the Bruins with Nikolov back to the service line. The nation’s leader in aces pounded two in back-to-back fashion with timeouts in between each bomb to knot the game at 20 apiece. Ties were seen at 21 and 22 before Preuitt’s turn at serve gave the Beach set point at 24-22 after a strike from Kandev.  

Managing to stave off the first set point, there was no stopping the finale as what looked to be an overpass was saved with a one-handed set at the net for Nikolov as DiAeris McRaven connected on the big swing to finish the frame 25-23. Kandev was a perfect 1.000 in the set with six kills on six swings while Nikolov provided 10 of LBSU’s 11 assists in the set. 

The third set was tight from the outset with ties at 1, 2 and 3 points before the Beach claimed the advantage of the Nikolov to Kandev Bulgarian connection. Showing range at the service line, Nikolov recorded the off-speed ace to give the Beach a 9-6 lead and a pair of kills for Skyler Varga stretched the advantage to 11-6. UCLA was able to rally to make it a one-point game at 12-11 with a triple block at the net, but LBSU went on a 5-2 run punctuated by a stuff from Varga and McRaven to put the score at 17-13.  

The final set stayed tight after three straight points for the Bruins put the score 21-20 after a big UCLA block of a powerful Kandev swing. Then it was the Beach’s turn for three in a row, finished off by a tip over for Kandev with the score at 23-20. Championship point came at 24-21 after a long rally was finished by a Kandev kill. In fitting fashion, the match ended like it began – with the ball in the hands of the Player of the Year. This time instead of the ace, Nikolov crushed the kill to send the Beach into celebration. 

LBSU was led by a 13-kill outing on .450 hitting for Kandev with Nikolov going off for 27 assists with six kills and four aces. Nato Dickenson provided seven kills with four digs and a pair of blocks with Varga adding five kills in the outing. Kandev, Varga and Nikolov were named to the All-Tournament Team with Nikolov adding Most Outstanding Player to the illustrious resume after a first year of collegiate volleyball.  

2025 NCAA Men’s Volleyball Championship All-Tournament Team  

Finn Kearney, Hawaii  

Ryan Barnett, Pepperdine  

Zach Rama, UCLA  

Cooper Robinson, UCLA  

Alex Kandev, Long Beach State  

Skyler Varga, Long Beach State    

Most Outstanding Player Moni Nikolov, Long Beach State 

On Sunday, May 4, Piedmont Recreation Department hosted the 4th annual Play Like a Girl+ event at Witter Field. The event featured 29 individual stations, featuring more common sports like basketball, football, soccer, and tennis, as well as offering less common sports like roller derby and skateboarding. Other organizations, like the Women’s Coaching Alliance, also had booths. Being offered for the first time were powerlifting, water polo, gymnastics, and mountain biking.

While the event is hosted in Piedmont, it is open to anyone, and admission is free.

“The idea is to show that just because you never felt like a runner or a softball player, doesn’t mean there’s not something you’ll connect with,” said Communications Program Manager Echa Schneider, who directed communications for the event.

The Recreation Department hoped that the event would help girls not just from Piedmont, but the wider East Bay.

“Never once did we think ‘this is only going to be for Piedmont,’” said Piedmont Rec. Department Recreation Supervisor Eva Phalen.

Over 1,000 people attended, with 1,000 pre-registering and 200 registering on the event day.

While a majority of attendees were from Piedmont or Oakland, people came from farther away places such as Alameda, San Francisco, and Sacramento, Phalen said.

Play Like a Girl is part of Piedmont Rec.’s strategy for increasing female athletic participation and having an equal percentage of boys and girls who play sports.

“[Play Like a Girl] really came out of realizing we have girls who want to play sports, we have organizations that always say ‘We need more girls in our sports,’ let’s get them in front of each other,” Phalen said.

The creation of Play Like a Girl was also influenced by state legislation.

“There’s this law called AB2404, and it’s the Title IX equivalent within Parks and Recreation,” Phalen said. “So when my supervisor, Shelly Putzer, and I found out about this and we looked at each other with these big eyes and said ‘Uh oh, we’ve got some work to do.’”

Before the Rec. Department began trying to even out sports participation, it was much more difficult for girls to get involved in sports.

“When Catey McCreary was inducted into the [Piedmont High] Hall of Fame, she gave an amazing speech about growing up in Piedmont at a time when there was not equal access to sports for girls,” said Play Like a Girl Parent Volunteer and Piedmont Mayor, Betsy Smegal Andersen. “She had to play on boys’ teams to get playtime for soccer and baseball.”

Mayor Andersen expressed how happy it makes her feel that times have changed in Piedmont.

“It’s just wonderful now that we have water polo and we have flag football. When I was growing up, we had Powder Puff, which was one game a year where the girls were allowed to play,” Andersen said. “Now, girls can play flag football, as a season, as a sport. It’s wonderful.”

UCLA

Long Beach State

2025 NCAA Men’s Volleyball Championship All-Tournament Team

Finn Kearney, Hawaii

Ryan Barnett, Pepperdine

Zach Rama, UCLA

Cooper Robinson, UCLA

Alex Kandev, Long Beach State

Skyler Varga, Long Beach State

 

Most Outstanding Player

Moni Nikolov, Long Beach State

 

COLUMBUS, Ohio – No. 1 seed Long Beach State men’s volleyball (30-3) swept the No. 3 seed University of California, Los Angeles Bruins (22-7) in a 2024 National Championship rematch, blocking a Bruin three-peat and taking back its spot at the top of the volleyball world.

With the stadium on its feet and LBSU up 24-21 with a 2-0 set lead, one of LBSU’s heroes of the tournament, redshirt senior opposite Nato Dickinson, held the ball and took a deep breath at the service line.

Dickinson fired in a high-speed serve, too fast for UCLA to receive correctly, that was passed over to LBSU. With the ball getting passed to freshmen setter Moni Nikolov, as it does on most plays, he delivered the dagger into the heart of the UCLA to win the title only in the way he could, slamming it over on two.

“The feeling absolutely never gets old,” LBSU head coach Alan Knipe said. “I’m so proud of the guys and everything they did all season long.”

LBSU’s win blocked UCLA of its third National Championship in a row. Instead, The Beach won its fourth all-time and first since 2019.

With a packed Covelli Center, whose allegiance was split evenly between gold and blue, the match was started, but halted momentarily after the first point as Knipe challenged the ruling of a no-touch on Nikolov’s opening serve of the game.

The challenge was successful, adding to Nikolov’s NCAA single-season record 106 aces, and giving The Beach the momentum immediately.

In the ensuing plays, freshman outside hitter Alex Kandev picked up right where he left off on Saturday with two kills in The Beach’s first five points to put The Beach up 5-3.

Kandev ended the match with 13 kills while hitting an efficient .450. His rise to glory in the NCAA Tournament has been well-noted, and he came up large again in the final set.

“I always had to be ready, and I was waiting for an opportunity, and I took it,” Kandev said.

Freshman outside hitter Alex Kandev celebrates after a block in the third set of The Beach’s sweep of UCLA in the 2025 Men’s Volleyball National Championship at the Covelli Center in Columbus, Ohio, on Monday, May 12. Kandev recorded four blocks in the sweep. Photo credit: Mark Siquig

An ace from redshirt junior opposite Skyler Varga sent the crowd into a frenzy and forced a UCLA timeout with LBSU leading 10-7.

Moments later, Varga came up large again as he floated from the back row for a thundering kill that caused him to fall to the floor and do push-ups in celebration.

Nikolov was having success deceiving the UCLA block and freeing up the high-flying LBSU attackers for one-on-one opportunities at the net with nine fist set assists. When he couldn’t set them up, he was scoring himself, adding six kills in the match.

After an ace from freshman outside hitter Sean Kelly cut The Beach’s lead to three at 16-13, The Beach’s block became virtually impenetrable from that point on, with three blocks to end the set and four in the set in total.

Fittingly, UCLA’s sixth attack error of the set ended the set 25-17 in favor of LBSU.

The second set gave the opposite narrative of the first, as it was now The Beach struggling with attacking errors, with five errors to the Bruins’ one, and the Bruins up 18-13 and in control.

This is when it all changed.

A service error from senior service substitute Ido David gave The Beach life down 18-14.

Suddenly, down 20-18, Nikolov stepped up to the service line, and all eyes were on the phenom.

Arguably the best server in the history of collegiate volleyball fired two aces to ignite the black and gold faithful and tie the match at 20.

“I just threw the ball and I knew that nobody can pass my serve,” Nikolov said. “When we need a serve, I’m the one that’s gonna get it there.”

Freshman setter Moni Nikolov skies for a serve in the second set of The Beach’s sweep of UCLA in the 2025 Men’s Volleyball National Championship. Nikolov recorded four aces to add to his NCAA-record total, ending the season with 106. Photo credit: Mark Siquig

The two volleyball powerhouses traded points until an attack error from Bruin junior outside hitter Zach Rama, followed by a Kandev kill, gave The Beach set up point 24-22.

The Bruins got one back, but senior middle blocker DiAeris McRaven closed the set out with a deafening kill, completing the five-point comeback and claiming the set 25-23, going up 2-0.

Up 8-6 in the third set, Nikolov stepped up to the service line again, this time changing it up from his usual NCAA record-breaking speed for an ace that completely fooled the UCLA defense and sparked a three-point service run to put The Beach up 11-6.

Keeping the Bruins in the match was redshirt junior opposite hitter Cooper Robinson, who, with The Beach up 14-11, added his ninth kill of the match to bring them within two.

However, another Bruin service error stunted their momentum, and The Beach’s two cornerstones of the match took over: defense and Kandev.

A Kandev kill and two blocks put The Beach up 19-15, and it felt in the building as if The Beach were about to win it all.

The Bruins got within one at 21-20, but two kills by Kandev and a kill from redshirt senior opposite Nato Dickinson put The Beach one point away from glory.

Nikolov’s aforementioned game-winning kill will be etched in history and is the cherry on top of all of the hardware the man coined “The Bulgarian Prince” took home in his freshman season.

‘It’s the most impactful season by one player that’s happened in NCAA volleyball history, in my opinion,” Knipe said.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Freshman Moni Nikolov posted six kills, four aces and a pair of digs and Long Beach State beat UCLA 25-17, 25-23 and 25-21 to win the NCAA men’s volleyball tournament Monday night.

It was the Beach’s (30-3) fourth championship in program history and first since 2019. Long Beach State also won the title in 2018 and claimed its first title in 1991 when current coach Alan Knipe was a player.

The 6-foot-10 Nikolov, who just turned 18, started the match with an opening-serve ace and ended UCLA’s two-time reign with a thunderous kill.

“Not for one second did we think we were going to lose that game,” Nikolov said. “Before the game in the locker room we told each other we were here. We were born for this …. game.

“Even when we were down five, we trusted each other because we knew we were the better team.”

Trailing 1-0, UCLA led 18-13 in the second set before the nation’s No. 1-ranked team outscored the Bruins 12-5 for a two-point win. In the third set, Alex Kandev’s kill gave Long Beach State a 4-3 lead and the Beach led for the remainder. Kandev finished with a .452 hitting percentage.

The Bruins entered the tournament with the second-highest hitting efficiency in the country but were stifled in part by Long Beach State’s length and were outhit by the Beach .354 to .192. UCLA’s Cooper Robinson finished with a .381 hitting percentage.

The championship match was the third meeting between the two teams this season with Long Beach State owning a 9-1 set advantage.

Long Beach State dropped just a single set as it beat Fort Valley State 3-0 and Pepperdine 3-1.

Two-time defending champion UCLA (22-7) sought to become college volleyball’s first three-peat champion since the Bruins won four in a row from 1981 to 1984.

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – After a crushing finish in the NCAA semifinals, the University of Hawaii at Manoa men’s volleyball team is back home.

The Rainbow Warriors lost to UCLA in straight sets in the final four of the 2025 NCAA National Championship in Columbus, Ohio, Saturday.

Despite a disappointing end, the team is thankful for the many Hawaii fans that made the trip to support them, as well as those who greeted them back on campus.

Middle blocker Kurt Nusterer said, “I still will never be able to wrap my head around the fact that people love us that much to make sacrifices like that to support us, and it’s the reason this program is successful.”

This was UH’s fifth appearance in the last six seasons in the tournament.

The ‘Bows ended the season with a 27-6 record and the title of Big West Champions.

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