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 team has been ranked No. 1 in the nation for 14 straight weeks. On Monday night, they’ll have the opportunity to prove it.
It’s down to two teams in the NCAA men’s volleyball tournament, and once again, it’s UCLA and Long Beach State in the national championship. The pair will square off on Monday at 4 pm pst in the the Covelli Center in Columbus, Ohio, in a rematch of last year’s championship.
“Now we’re left with two which is always the goal,” said LBSU coach Alan Knipe. “You always want to have a fighter’s chance left in the game of the season and that’s what we have. That;s what we’ve wanted and now we get a chance to go out and execute our way through it and that’ll be the goal. It’s two really talented teams playing good volleyball and it’ll come down to execution and a few points here and there which it always does.”
A national championship win would be the fourth in program history for the Beach, with the most recent title coming against UCLA in 2018. Since then, LBSU has faced UCLA four times in the Final Four, with their fifth meeting set for Monday. The Bruins have eliminated LBSU in each of the last two NCAA tournaments.
Last year, Long Beach State came up just short against UCLA in the national championship in a four set loss in the Walter Pyramid. The Beach has since lost 10 of their seniors and look totally different from a year ago. Senior DiAeris McRaven is the only starter in the same position from last year and reflected on the path back to the championship game.
“I think last year, falling short in the finals and even falling short in the Big West I think we’re all hungry for championship for sure,” said McRaven. “Something we always talk about is making sure that we play at our very best right at the end of the season…We’re very hungry for this final game.”
Though it’ll be recalled as ‘the rematch,’ there really isn’t much the same about these two individual teams in recent years. Both programs have seen frequent roster changes in past seasons — and even throughout this season players have moved in and out of each lineup. The Bruins also have a new coach this year, John Hawks, who took over for long-time coach John Speraw.
This year, it wasn’t as close as it was intense when the two teams met for their regular season series. The Beach walked away with a pair of wins from that series to stay undefeated at the time, winning in four sets at the Walter Pyramid on Feb. 7 before sweeping them a few days later on Feb. 12 at the Pauley Pavilion.
A lot has changed for the Beach since their regular season matches, but one thing has remained constant: Moni Nikolov. The Bulgarian setter just added some history to his resume in the semifinals against Pepperdine by passing Emmanuel’s Curtis Abram for the single-season ace record. Abram set the record in 2011 in 121 sets, while Nikolov broke it in just his 106th set and is up to 102 aces.
Nikolov sent the entire arena into silence in the fourth set of that match against Pepperdine when he dove for a ball and slid into the metal rolling chair of a broadcast person. He grimaced over his knee and stayed on the floor for a minute but returned to his feet and finished out the match. He said that the “knee is fine” on Sunday and practiced as normal.
Nikolov recorded eight aces across the two matches against UCLA in February, but he’ll be surrounded by a few different pieces this time around. The Bruins have yet to face Nato Dickinson and Alex Kandev, who have stepped up this season in response to a handful of Beach injuries. The pair each recorded a match-high 19 kills in Saturday’s semifinal against Pepperdine.
“There’s been so much change for our team,” Knipe said. “But they’ve evolved. Their pieces are slightly different and the style they’re trying to play is different early on so we’ll see when we get out there but it’s gonna come down to execution of high level volleyball and it’ll be close sets. We’re gonna get after it.”
Since their first meeting, UCLA has arranged some of their personnel which has included involvement from freshman outside Sean Kelly. Zach Rama has been moved from outside to opposite while Cooper Robinson has remained as another big outside for the Bruins. Sean McQuiggan has also remained strong for UCLA in the middle.
“Both us and Long Beach are two very different teams,” said the senior McQuiggan. “Obviously you think about it when they beat us twice but we’re going to come out there and play our best level of volleyball.”
The Bruins are in the national championship following a dominant win over No. 2-seeded Hawaii. UCLA won in three straight sets and is now seeking its 22nd championship in program history to complete a successful three-peat.
LBSU and UCLA will square off at the Covelli Center in Columbus, Ohio, to decide a national champion at 4 pm pst/7pm est. The game will be broadcasted on ESPN2.
“These two teams have played a lot in the Final Four in recent years and they’ve always been great matches and dog fights,” Knipe said. “I would imagine nothing less than that. That’s what the players want and I’m sure that’s what everybody who’s watching wants.”
The562’s coverage of the Long Beach State and UCLA match from Feb. 7, 2025:
