The562’s coverage of Long Beach State athletics for the 2024-25 season is sponsored by Marilyn Bohl.
When two good teams play at their best, the best team wins.
That was the case for the Long Beach State men’s volleyball team in their semifinal matchup against Pepperdine, where the Beach hit a staggering .586 to Pepperdine’s .464—well above the season averages for both teams. The Beach dropped the first set before eventually turning away to win in four; 20–25, 25–23, 25–19, 25–23.
The win punches LBSU’s ticket to the NCAA National Championship match, marking their third title match appearance in the last four years. They’ll face UCLA on Monday at 4 pm pst at the Covelli Center in Columbus, Ohio, in a rematch of last year’s national championship.
“That was a really good and well-coached team, and they found their niche down the line this season,” said LBSU coach Alan Knipe of the semifinal win over Pepperdine. “We talked a lot about how they weren’t going to go away — that’s the sign of a good team. We knew we were going to have to fight for every point and knock them out if we were going to advance. If not, we were going home.”
In his first game after being named AVCA National Player of the Year, standout setter Moni Nikolov added another achievement to his resume by breaking the single-season ace record. He set the new mark with a pair of aces in the third set against Pepperdine and brought his career total to 102. Nikolov also tallied 52 assists, six kills, and a match-high 10 digs.
“I feel happy, but I have nothing more to say,” said Nikolov of his new record. “I don’t care if I have the ace record and we lose on Monday, and I don’t care if I have the ace record and we win on Monday. I just want to win on Monday. I’m glad I’m doing well on serve, but I have bigger goals.”
Nikolov’s record-setting service run also marked a turning point midway through the third set, where the Beach hit a preposterous .720 in the set with zero hitting errors. Long Beach committed just two errors in the final two sets, a big improvement from their nine errors in the first two.
“When you’re hitting a number like that you feel like all options are available,” said Knipe of the third set. “The setter is feeling like he can do whatever he wants. The hitters did great and Moni did a great job but the hitters don’t hit .720 if our three passers aren’t dialed. They did a good job.”
Nato Dickinson had 19 kills for the Beach on .485 hitting. Alex Kandev matched him with 19 kills, a new career-high on .533 hitting. Skyler Varga had 11 kills on .381 hitting while middles DiAeris McRaven and Isaiah Preuitt each had four kills.
“All great teams have a great player, and Moni is our great player. That doesn’t mean that we don’t have other really good volleyball players on the court,” Knipe said. “In fact, we have a whole bunch of them and we’ve needed almost every single one of them all season long.”
“The guys were passing nails and lights out today so it makes my job really easy when we’re in system with no blockers up the middle and I just have to put the ball on the floor,” said Dickinson.
Ilay Haver led Pepperdine with 14 kills on .545 hitting while Cole Hartke had 13 on .333 hitting with a pair of aces. Ethan Watson hit a team high .600 with nine kills and Ryan Barnett had 13 kills on .357 hitting with an ace. Gabriel Dyer had 48 assists.
“This was such a unique game. Both teams hit out of this gym,” said Barnett. “The margins were three or four points here and there. Sometimes this is the way this sport goes.”
The Beach almost found themselves down a pair of sets in a tight second frame that saw 15 total ties and six lead changes. Knipe even called a pair of timeouts just two points apart in the middle of a Ryan Barnett service run for Pepperdine that put the waves up 19-18. A Dickinson kill and a Nikolov ace eventually gave the Beach the lead, one they’d hold onto for the rest of the set.
Similarly, the teams traded another six lead changes in the fourth set with 13 different ties. The pair were knotted up at 18-18 before a Preuitt kill that again gave the Beach a lead they’d hold onto. Dickinson had the final two points for the Beach with a pair of kills to seal the game.
“Like we’ve been saying all night it was lights out passing the whole game through especially, in those last two sets,” said Dickinson. “Our guys trust me and I trust them. [The last few points] could have gone to anyone and I’m glad they went to me.”
“It was a good quality match. Both teams hit an insane mark,” said Pepperdine coach Jonathan Winder. “We played one of the better matches of our seasons and it just wasn’t good enough. They played great and there were a couple plays in the second set that didn’t go our way. That was maybe the difference half way through there with a couple opportunities that we had.”
Nikolov took a hard spill in that fourth set while diving for a ball where he slid a side of his body into the metal rolling chair of a camera girl. Nikolov grimaced in pain over his knee and was down for an extended period of time but eventually returned to his feet without missing a single point.
“I’m good,” he said. “Obviously I had the adrenaline and that kinda helped me. Now the pain is a little bit stronger but nothing is gonna stop me from participating on Monday.”
Long Beach State will now look ahead to a national championship rematch from last year against UCLA on Monday. The pair face off in the Covelli Center at 4 pm pst/7 pm est. The562 will have full preview and coverage of the game from Columbus, Ohio.
