The Long Beach State men’s volleyball program lives by the slogan “expect greatness.” So when they took the court 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. Knipe later announced his retirement in 2025, finishing his legendary career on top.
“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.”
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.”
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.”
