No. 1 Long Beach State Sweeps No. 8 Fort Valley State To Advance to the National Collegiate Semifinals

COLUMBUS, Ohio – No. 1 Long Beach State made its 15th NCAA Tournament appearance, its eighth showing in the last nine seasons, and came away with a 3-0 [25-21, 25-16, 25-16] sweep of No. 8 seed Fort Valley State in the NCAA Quarterfinals on Thursday night at the Covelli Center.

The Beach (28-3) will go on to play the winner of the No. 4 seed Loyola Chicago-No. 5 seed Pepperdine on Saturday, May 10 at 2 p.m. (PT) / 5 p.m. (ET).

The Wildcats finish their season with a 16-10 overall record after having gone undefeated at 10-0 in SIAC action.

Freshman setter Moni Nikolov paced Long Beach State to a .367 hitting percentage as he dished out 31 assists distributing the ball evenly. Nikolov turned in an all-around performance as the 6-foot-10 rookie contributed eight kills, eight digs, three aces, and one block on the night. His three aces bring his season total to 97 as he closes in on the NCAA Single-Season aces record of 100 which was set in 2011 by Curtis Abraham.

Senior outside hitter Nato Dickinson turned in his third-straight double-figure kill performance as he led the Beach with 12 on his way to hitting .429 (12-3-21). He went on to collect five digs and two blocks on the night.

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The tor-NATO strikes again!??? #GoBeach pic.twitter.com/JicqzYjutW

— Long Beach State Men’s VB (@LBSUMVB) May 8, 2025

Ben Braun, a junior middle blocker from Rancho Mirage, Calif., was efficient as he hit .800 knocking down nine kills on 10 swings, while committing just one error.

Defensively, freshman libero Kellen Larson anchored the defense that held Fort Valley State to a .129 hitting percentage. Larson’s collected seven digs, and picked up 14 perfect receptions, while adding a pair of assists.

The Beach opened the match scoring three-straight points to take a 3-0 lead. However, the Wildcats were quick to counter with three-consecutive points of their own to even the score at 4-all. After the fourth tie of the set, the Beach broke the game open with a 6-0 run, highlighted by a pair of kills from DiAeris McRaven, to open up a 22-16 advantage. After LBSU sent it to set point (24-17), the Wildcats tallied four-straight points to cut the Beach’s lead down to three (24-21). Following a Long Beach State timeout, Dickinson put the game away with a kill to win the first set, 25-21.

Long Beach State hit .450 in the second set as the Beach broke through early. A Skyler Varga kill kicked off a 4-0 run to give LBSU a lead (4-1) that it would not relinquish the remainder of the frame. Up 15-9 at the media timeout, the Beach used a block assist from Braun and Varga to extend their lead to eight (23-15) before Varga secured the set, 25-16, with a kill.

Holding a 2-0 set lead, Long Beach State hit .476 in the third set and never trailed. After two early ties, the Beach got a kill from Braun that kicked off a 3-0 run as LBSU led FVSU, 5-2. After falling behind the Beach, 18-12, after an Alex Kandev kill, Fort Valley called a timeout. The break did little to cool off Long Beach as they surged ahead and closed the set and match on a 5-0 run that saw back-to-back aces from Nikolov and a kill from Braun to win it, 25-16.

Fort Valley State was led by Isaiah Fedd’s 14 kills on a .357 attack percentage. At setter, OShane Farquharson dished out 15 assists, while libero Constantine Ononye recorded five digs.