The562’s coverage of Long Beach State athletics for the 2024-25 season is sponsored by Marilyn Bohl.
The Long Beach State men’s volleyball program lives by the slogan “expect greatness.” So when they took the court Monday night against UCLA in the NCAA Men’s Volleyball National Championship, they expected nothing less.
Featuring two of the top teams in the nation in a rematch of last year’s national championship, the match was expected to be intense and tightly contested. But the Beach put on a performance nothing short of greatness, avenging their championship loss with a commanding sweep over the Bruins at the Covelli Center in Columbus, Ohio. The Beach won 25-17, 25-23, 25-21.
It marks a fourth national championship in program history and the first since the Beach went back-to-back in 2018-2019. Head coach Alan Knipe has been a part of each national championship with the program, one as a player in 1991 and now his third as a coach here in 2025.
“It’s incredible. The feeling absolutely never gets old,” Knipe said. “I’m so proud of the guys and everything they did all season long. With what we went through with our lineups and our roster, and pretty much a brand new team at the beginning of the year, losing three starters along the way, and changing guys’ positions. [These guys] handled it so well and I’m so proud of them.”
It feels like there was no opponent more fitting for Long Beach in the national championship match than UCLA. It’s the fifth time in the last six years that the teams have met in the NCAA tournament, and third time they’ve ever met in the championship including their first championship bout in 1970. The Beach have had their season ended by UCLA in each of the last two seasons.
The match started and ended in the same way, and it’s the same way it’s been all season: Moni Nikolov. The National Player of the Year opened the match with his first of four aces and swung on an overpass for a kill at match point to seal the win. He finished the match with six kills on .300 hitting and had a match-high 27 assists.
“It’s such a relief. I wanted this win more than anything else,” Nikolov said. “I’m so glad that I got to share these emotions with our coaches in the whole team. It was the first time I actually started crying tears of joy so it truly meant so much to me.”
Nikolov was named the NCAA All-Tournament MVP, adding to his honors as AVCA National Player of the Year and Big West Player of the Year. His season will surely go down as the best debut season ever, and if it’s his only season in college, it could arguably be the greatest season for any NCAA men’s volleyball player ever.
It sure helps having the best player in the nation on your team, but Nikolov has also been surrounded by a resilient team that has fought past injuries and played with a next-man up mentality. Though the cameras have been zoomed in on him and his story, Nikolov credited his teammates as the true reason for all of their success.
“If I could, all the spotlight that I’ve gotten all season, I would give it all to my team,” Nikolov said. “They deserve it as much as I do. I’m happy that this game is growing but I don’t want this to be a one-man thing. It’s completely opposite. This team deserves it.”
Fellow Bulgarian and outside hitter Alex Kandev has been one of the guys who has stepped in for injured players and has slowly crawled his way to becoming a shutdown hitter for the Beach through the back portion of the season. Kandev racked up a match-high 13 kills in the championship match.
“I always have to be ready and I was ready for the opportunity,” Kandev said. “That’s all I can say. It’s unfortunate that [Sotiris Siapanis] got hurt, but I was just being ready. I’m so grateful that coach gave me the opportunity.”
Alongside Kandev is fellow outside Nato Dickinson, and the pair have each stepped up into big roles and led the team in kills in each of the final two matches. The pair filled into their spots after injuries to Siapanis and Daniil Hershtynovich, which are two of many changes that the Beach has faced to their personnel throughout the course of the season.
“We’ve never needed this much,” said Knipe of the extra depth. He credited his staff for keeping everyone ready at all times. “We’ve never had to go this far down the depth chart to be successful. I don’t think anyone will ever grasp the amount of work that goes in. What we saw this year, at the end of the season, especially for the last month, is one of the most impressive things I’ve seen in college volleyball.”
The Beach hit a monstrous .688 and never trailed in the first set while only recording just a single hitting error. LBSU found itself with its back against the wall in the second set while trailing 13-18 at one point, but went on a 7-2 run to tie the match up at 19 apiece.
The tide turned when Nikolov recorded an ace and forced a UCLA timeout with the Beach still down 18-19. Nikolov came out of the timeout with yet another ace, tying the match before eventually pulling away 25-23. Kandev hit 1.00 in the set with six swings and six kills.
“I didn’t see anything man. I just threw the ball and I knew that nobody could pass my serve,” Nikolov said of the second set service run. “When I need a serve I’m the one that’s gonna get it there. The team has put so much love into me and filled me with everything I’ve needed to have that confidence. The trust that these coaches put into me makes me feel like the best player in the world and I love them to death.”
The fourth NCAA Men’s Volleyball National Championship comes in the Beach’s 11th championship appearance in program history, in what was a dominant season through and through. The Beach was ranked No. 1 in the nation for the last 14 weeks. It’s their third men’s volleyball championship in the last seven years, but it’s the first for Bobby Smitheran as athletic director.
“I’m so happy for the young men in our program because they’ve represented Long Beach and Long Beach State,” said Smitheran. “They’ve done it with heart and with class I’m just so proud of the way they’ve competed. To be the number one ranked team for as long as they have, that’s difficult to give that kind of bullseye on your back and to finish it off the way they did I’m just so happy for them.”
