By Davis Ramage
COLUMBUS, Ohio – No. 1 seed Long Beach State men’s volleyball (30-3) swept the No. 3 seed University of California, Los Angeles Bruins (22-7) in a 2024 National Championship rematch, blocking a Bruin three-peat and taking back its spot at the top of the volleyball world.
With the stadium on its feet and LBSU up 24-21 with a 2-0 set lead, one of LBSU’s heroes of the tournament, redshirt senior opposite Nato Dickinson, held the ball and took a deep breath at the service line.
Dickinson fired in a high-speed serve, too fast for UCLA to receive correctly, that was passed over to LBSU. With the ball getting passed to freshmen setter Moni Nikolov, as it does on most plays, he delivered the dagger into the heart of the UCLA to win the title only in the way he could, slamming it over on two.
“The feeling absolutely never gets old,” LBSU head coach Alan Knipe said. “I’m so proud of the guys and everything they did all season long.”
LBSU’s win blocked UCLA of its third National Championship in a row. Instead, The Beach won its fourth all-time and first since 2019.
With a packed Covelli Center, whose allegiance was split evenly between gold and blue, the match was started, but halted momentarily after the first point as Knipe challenged the ruling of a no-touch on Nikolov’s opening serve of the game.
The challenge was successful, adding to Nikolov’s NCAA single-season record 106 aces, and giving The Beach the momentum immediately.
In the ensuing plays, freshman outside hitter Alex Kandev picked up right where he left off on Saturday with two kills in The Beach’s first five points to put The Beach up 5-3.
Kandev ended the match with 13 kills while hitting an efficient .450. His rise to glory in the NCAA Tournament has been well-noted, and he came up large again in the final set.
“I always had to be ready, and I was waiting for an opportunity, and I took it,” Kandev said.
Freshman outside hitter Alex Kandev celebrates after a block in the third set of The Beach’s sweep of UCLA in the 2025 Men’s Volleyball National Championship at the Covelli Center in Columbus, Ohio, on Monday, May 12. Kandev recorded four blocks in the sweep. Photo credit: Mark Siquig
An ace from redshirt junior opposite Skyler Varga sent the crowd into a frenzy and forced a UCLA timeout with LBSU leading 10-7.
Moments later, Varga came up large again as he floated from the back row for a thundering kill that caused him to fall to the floor and do push-ups in celebration.
Nikolov was having success deceiving the UCLA block and freeing up the high-flying LBSU attackers for one-on-one opportunities at the net with nine fist set assists. When he couldn’t set them up, he was scoring himself, adding six kills in the match.
After an ace from freshman outside hitter Sean Kelly cut The Beach’s lead to three at 16-13, The Beach’s block became virtually impenetrable from that point on, with three blocks to end the set and four in the set in total.
Fittingly, UCLA’s sixth attack error of the set ended the set 25-17 in favor of LBSU.
The second set gave the opposite narrative of the first, as it was now The Beach struggling with attacking errors, with five errors to the Bruins’ one, and the Bruins up 18-13 and in control.
This is when it all changed.
A service error from senior service substitute Ido David gave The Beach life down 18-14.
Suddenly, down 20-18, Nikolov stepped up to the service line, and all eyes were on the phenom.
Arguably the best server in the history of collegiate volleyball fired two aces to ignite the black and gold faithful and tie the match at 20.
“I just threw the ball and I knew that nobody can pass my serve,” Nikolov said. “When we need a serve, I’m the one that’s gonna get it there.”
Freshman setter Moni Nikolov skies for a serve in the second set of The Beach’s sweep of UCLA in the 2025 Men’s Volleyball National Championship. Nikolov recorded four aces to add to his NCAA-record total, ending the season with 106. Photo credit: Mark Siquig
The two volleyball powerhouses traded points until an attack error from Bruin junior outside hitter Zach Rama, followed by a Kandev kill, gave The Beach set up point 24-22.
The Bruins got one back, but senior middle blocker DiAeris McRaven closed the set out with a deafening kill, completing the five-point comeback and claiming the set 25-23, going up 2-0.
Up 8-6 in the third set, Nikolov stepped up to the service line again, this time changing it up from his usual NCAA record-breaking speed for an ace that completely fooled the UCLA defense and sparked a three-point service run to put The Beach up 11-6.
Keeping the Bruins in the match was redshirt junior opposite hitter Cooper Robinson, who, with The Beach up 14-11, added his ninth kill of the match to bring them within two.
However, another Bruin service error stunted their momentum, and The Beach’s two cornerstones of the match took over: defense and Kandev.
A Kandev kill and two blocks put The Beach up 19-15, and it felt in the building as if The Beach were about to win it all.
The Bruins got within one at 21-20, but two kills by Kandev and a kill from redshirt senior opposite Nato Dickinson put The Beach one point away from glory.
Nikolov’s aforementioned game-winning kill will be etched in history and is the cherry on top of all of the hardware the man coined “The Bulgarian Prince” took home in his freshman season.
‘It’s the most impactful season by one player that’s happened in NCAA volleyball history, in my opinion,” Knipe said.
