The No. 6 seed UC Santa Barbara Women’s Water Polo team (16-13, 2-5 Big West) gave hosts and No. 3 seed UC Irvine (15-12, 5-2 Big West) everything the Anteaters could handle in Friday’s Big West Championship Quarterfinal, but the Gauchos’ late rally came up just a goal shy of sending things to overtime as Santa Barbara fell, 12-11. 

Christina Mullane recorded a hat-trick, while Juju Amaral tallied five assists and Ava Donleavy made 14 saves.

“We came in with a strong gameplan, we were really excited about our after-goal defense that we ran, and it worked pretty well for a good amount of the game,” UCSB interim head coach Emma Myall said. “In general, I’m so proud of the season this year. It was a very unexpected season for us, and the girls went through a lot of hardship and difficult times of change, and they started adjusting really well to me and to my staff, and we all realized we had each other’s backs and we wanted to win.”
 
“Our culture, that was the one thing I really wanted to focus on when I first came in as interim (head coach). I brought the girls together and we talked about love, and we talked about confidence and loyalty and accountability, and those things led us through the season. The number one of those was love, right? With love you have respect, you have all the things, and the celebration, the goals, the blocks, everything we’re doing, that’s all out of love for each other, and we’re a family at the end of the day.”

The Gauchos were all over the Anteaters early, with Mullane drawing and converting a penalty shot on Santa Barbara’s first possession. Amaral added her first of two goals on the day to double the Gauchos’ advantage to 2-0 inside two minutes.

Irvine responded and tied the game before the second quarter, but Bella Mady scored the first goal of the second to put Santa Barbara back on top.
 
The second quarter went back and forth, with Irvine next to score, then Amaral putting the Gauchos ahead again. The Anteaters answered, but again Santa Barbara re-took the lead, this time through Imani Clemons. The Gauchos held that lead, a 5-4 edge, at halftime.
 
Irvine took their first lead of the day with the first two goals of the third quarter, but Santa Barbara again grabbed their lead back with goals from Mullane and Molly Souza, going up, 7-6.

After another Anteater goal tied things, Annie Kuester gave the Gauchos the lead yet again, 8-7, heading into the fourth quarter.
 
For the first time all day, Irvine took a two-goal lead in the fourth, going in front by three, 11-8, with four and a half minutes left to play.

Mullane’s third goal of the day reduced the arrears to two, then Isabel Valaika scored less than 20 seconds later to bring Santa Barbara back into the game, with the score 11-10.

Irvine’s final goal of the day came just inside the three-minute mark, and Kuester kept the comeback dream alive with her second goal of the day, with a minute and 45 seconds left.

The Gauchos got a chance to tie the game in the final ticks of the clock, but could not convert.

HONOLULU – Led by freshman setter Moni Nikolov, top-ranked Long Beach State cruised to a 3-0 [25-18, 25-23, 25-17] sweep of No. 10 UC San Diego in The Hawaiian Islands presents the 2025 Outrigger Big West Men’s Volleyball Championship on Friday night at SimpliFi Arena at the Stan Sheriff Center.

With the win, the Beach (27-2) advances to the Big West Championship match which will take place on Saturday, April 26 at 10 p.m. (PT) / 7 p.m. (HT). LBSU will play the winner of the No. 3 Hawaii/No. 4 UC Irvine match.

UC San Diego, which was a No. 4 seed in the tournament, concludes its season with an 18-11 overall record.

Nikolov was excellent as he served up four aces in the match to bring his career total to 90, which is a new Big West single-season record. With 90 career aces, Nikolov is just 10 shy of the NCAA single-season record which was set in 2011 by Curtis Abraham at Emmanuel. With Nikolov leading the way, Long Beach State finished the night with six aces as the squad now has 213 aces on the year, which is a new program record.

There it is! Ace #88 for Moni Nikolov! A new Big West single-season ace record gives Long Beach State a 19-18 lead over UCSD #GoBeach pic.twitter.com/xpPBg4uave

— Long Beach State Men’s VB (@LBSUMVB) April 26, 2025

In addition to his hot serving, Nikolov paced the Beach to a .400 hitting percentage after distributing 35 assists. He helped the team out on both sides of the ball knocking down four kills on an .800 clip (4-0-5), while adding five digs and one block assist.

Freshman outside hitter Alex Kandev was on point as he led the team with 14 kills on a .600 attack percentage (14-2-20). He also was the team leader in digs with eight, while adding two blocks and two assists.

Adding to LBSU’s offensive attack were Nato Dickinson and Skyler Varga who posted eight and seven, kills respectively.

Junior middle blocker Ben Braun had a solid night in which he posted five blocks, five kills, and a .571 attack percentage (5-1-7).

Long Beach State took a quick 2-0 lead to start the match, thanks to back-to-back kills from Dickinson. From there, the Beach controlled the set, never trailing, as they hit .520 to UCSD’s .214. Three-consecutive kills from Kandev gave LBSU a 7-3 edge, before an ace from Dickinson made it a 15-11 game at the media timeout. The Beach sent the game to set point after tallying four-straight points (24-17), before taking the first set, 25-18.

The Beach started the second set much like the first, with an early 2-0 lead as Braun opened the frame with a kill and Nikolov served up ace No. 87 to tie the conference record. However, the Tritons would not go away quietly. The conference foes battled each other through 11 ties and four lead changes over the next several points. With the game tied at 18-all, Nikolov served ace No. 88 to set a new Big West record and put LBSU on top, 19-18. After three more ties, a Kandev kill put Long Beach State ahead for good (23-22), before he knocked down another kill to give LBSU the 25-23 win.

A kill from Alex Kandev wins the second set, 25-23, for LBSU #GoBeach pic.twitter.com/7cIqEC0VOQ

— Long Beach State Men’s VB (@LBSUMVB) April 26, 2025

The third set began close as the two teams traded points early on. However, a kill from Varga broke a 7-7 tie. The Beach got back-to-back aces from Nikolov as he brought his career total to 90 while give Long Beach State a 13-9 edge. With LBSU in control, the top-seeded Beach finished the set and match on a 6-1 run as they cruised to a 25-17 win to complete the sweep and advance to the championship match.

SWEEPING THEIR WAY TO THE FINALS?????? @LBSUMVB advances to the championship game!#?????????????????????? x #NCAAMVB pic.twitter.com/VLI6A8vu42

— The Big West (@BigWestSports) April 26, 2025

The third set began close as the two teams traded points early on. However, a kill from Varga broke a 7-7 tie. The Beach got back-to-back aces from Nikolov as he brought his career total to 90 while give Long Beach State a 13-9 edge. With LBSU in control, the top-seeded Beach finished the set and match on a 6-1 run as they cruised to a 25-17 win to complete the sweep and advance to the championship match.

UC San Diego hit .253, with 33 kills on 31 assists. The Tritons had three players in Sebastian ­Lara, Josh Schellinger, and Peter Selcho score seven kills. Schellinger also added three blocks and a pair of digs. Setter Bryce Dvorak concluded the match with 29 assists and three digs.

?? See the postgame press conference with @LBSUMVB Head Coach Alan Knipe, and players Skyler Varga and Moni Nikolov #GoBeach #LBNation #LBGRIT #ExpectGreatness https://t.co/ZEDunDWJOe

— Long Beach State Men’s VB (@LBSUMVB) April 26, 2025