Sports
Prolific LBSU Freshman Moni Nikolov Tabbed as AVCA Player of the Year
Story Links Big West Player of the Year Moni Nikolov has been named American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) National Collegiate Player of the Year, announced Friday night. Presented at the reception ahead of the 2025 National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Championship semifinals, Nikolov gives The Big West five consecutive national honorees, joining last year’s winner Hilir […]
Presented at the reception ahead of the 2025 National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Championship semifinals, Nikolov gives The Big West five consecutive national honorees, joining last year’s winner Hilir Henno (UC Irvine), Jakob Thelle (Hawai’i, 2023), older brother Alex Nikolov (Long Beach State, 2022) and Rado Parapunov (Hawai’i, 2021). Long Beach State’s Josh Tuaniga (2018) and TJ DeFalco (2019) also took home top billing, bringing the number of Big West national Players of the Year to seven since men’s volleyball became a conference-sponsored sport in 2018.
The accolades for Big West squads didn’t start then, however, with eight additional honorees from league institutions since the award began in 1991. Nikolov becomes the eighth LBSU student-athlete to win the prestigious honor and the second freshman all-time, joining brother Alex in distinction.
Winning the National Player of the Year award as a freshman puts Nikolov in elite company across NCAA Division I athletics. He now joins the short list of Kevin Durant (2007), Anthony Davis (2012), Johnny Manziel (2012), Jameis Winston (2013), Zion Williamson (2019), Paige Bueckers (2021), and Alex Nikolov (2022).
Arguably one of the best young men’s volleyball setters in the world, The Big West Player and Freshman of the Year is averaging 10.00 assists per set for the nation’s most productive offense. The Beach hit .395 on the season, putting down a Division I-best 13.28 kills per set with Nikolov guiding the way.
The prowess at the service line has been unmatched as the first-year player from Sofia, Bulgaria has accumulated a Big West single-season record 97 aces on the year. The 0.942 aces average leads the country. Also a major contributor on the front line, Nikolov averaged 0.757 blocks per set with 78 on the season to go along with 1.56 kills per set for LBSU.
Nikolov has single-match superlatives with eight aces in a five-setter to lead the country as well as seven in a four-setter to tie for second nationally. Nikolov has distributed 30 or more assists in each of the last seven matches and 21 times 31 total matches played.
Nikolov’s top-ranked Beach are set to battle No. 5 seed Pepperdine in the semifinal round of the 2025 National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Championship on Saturday at 2 p.m. PT, inside the Covelli Center in Columbus, Ohio and broadcast on ESPN+. LBSU will be looking to advance to back-to-back Championship finals in the quest for a first national championship since winning back-to-back trophies in 2018 and ’19. Should LBSU advance, they’ll meet up with the winner between second-seeded Big West champion Hawai’i and No. 3 seed and defending champion UCLA.
The Beach and Bruins tussled for the title in 2024 with UCLA coming out on top. The Beach and ’Bows went four sets on O’ahu for The Big West crown and the two have met up in the national finals on two occasions with each program cutting down the nets once.
While Moni has followed in Alex’s footsteps as a freshman phenom for the Beach, he can best Alex on the national collegiate stage tomorrow by making a Championship final, and soar over his brother the high-flying outside hitter on Monday with a win.