Moni Nikolov Named Big West Player And Freshman Of The Year

IRVINE, Calif. – The Big West announced the individual conference awards on Tuesday afternoon and Long Beach State’s Moni Nikolov was named both Player and Freshman of the Year. Nikolov becomes the first ever freshman to earn Big West Men’s Volleyball Player of the Year.

“Receiving any one of these individual awards is such a great honor and very difficult to do,” said Long Beach State Head Coach Alan Knipe. “When you are honored with both in the same year, it’s rare. Moni is a very unique volleyball player and competitor.”

Nikolov, a 6-foot-10 setter, has put together an extraordinary rookie campaign thus far which has earned him All-Big West First Team honors in addition to his two individual awards. With 9.99 assists per set, a mark that ranks him 14th in the country, he has led top-ranked Long Beach State to a nation-leading .396 hitting percentage heading into the NCAA Tournament.

In addition to pacing the Beach offense, the Sofia, Bulgaria native has been phenomenal from the service line. Nikolov’s 94 aces set a new Long Beach State and Big West single-season record, and he is just seven aces shy of setting the NCAA record. His average of 0.94 aces per set is tops in the nation, while the team’s 2.21 aces per set are also good for first in the country. With Nikolov leading the charge, LBSU has tallied a program record 221 aces this season.

An all-around solid player, Nikolov has been a force on all sides of the ball averaging 1.53 kills, 1.48 digs, and 0.77 blocks per set, while hitting .396 on the year. His digs and blocks per set marks rank him in the Top 10 in the conference.

The three-time Big West Setter of the Week and seven-time Freshman of the Week has led the Beach in digs nine times and in blocks on three separate occasions. He also leads the team with three double-doubles this season.

This season, Nikolov distributed a career-high 51 assists at Lewis (1/18) to go along with a career-best 16 digs. His career-high eight service aces against Pepperdine (1/26) rank him second all-time in the Long Beach State single-match record book. Last month, he set new career-highs for himself in kills (10) and blocks (7) against UC Irvine (3/29) and NJIT (3/21), respectively.

Nikolov will lead No. 1 Long Beach State into the NCAA Tournament on Thursday, May 8 when the Beach takes on No. 8 seed Fort Valley State at 2 p.m. (PT). The match will be broadcast live on ESPN+.