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No. 1 Long Beach State Advances To The Big West Championship Match With Sweep of No. 10 UC San Diego

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 […]

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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.

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.

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.

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.



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