COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Long Beach State men’s volleyball team is back atop the sport after capping a dominant season with one of its best performances.
Top-seeded LBSU defeated third-seeded UCLA, 25-17, 25-23, 25-21, on Monday night at Ohio State’s Covelli Center to win its fourth national championship and avenge a loss to the Bruins in the 2024 title match, which was played at Long Beach State.
Freshman setter Moni Nikolov, the AVCA National Player of the Year, had six kills, four aces, two blocks and 27 assists to pace Long Beach (30-3), which hit .354 and held UCLA to .192.
“Not for one second did we think we were going to lose that game,” said the 6-foot-10 Nikolov, who was named the tournament MVP. “Before the game in the locker room we told each other we were here. We were born for this (expletive) game.”
The animated Nikolov, 18, paused and apologized for his faux pas before adding: “We were built for this game. Even when we were down five (in the second set), we trusted each other because we knew we were the better team.”
Alex Kandev had a team-high 13 kills and four blocks for Long Beach while hitting .450. Nato Dickinson added seven kills on a .417 hitting percentage, Skyler Varga had five kills and Diaeris McRaven added five blocks.
Long Beach had five aces, tying the NCAA single-season record (237) in the rally-scoring era, and 9.5 blocks, leading UCLA in every statistical category.
Cooper Robinson had 10 kills and hit .381 to lead the Bruins (22-7), while Zach Rama had eight kills and five blocks.
Long Beach won back-to-back NCAA titles in 2018 and 2019 and had finished as the runner-up twice since then (2022 and 2024) – there was no 2020 tournament because of the COVID pandemic. LBSU’s only other national championship came in 1991.
UCLA was chasing its 22nd national championship and trying to become the first program to win three in a row since the Bruins won four in a row under longtime coach Al Scates from 1981-84.
The first set was close early until Long Beach used a quick 3-0 surge to open an 11-7 lead. LBSU extended its lead to 20-14 following back-to-back blocks by Isaiah Preuitt and Kandev and hit .688 in the frame on its way to a 25-17 win.
UCLA seized control early in the second set behind kills from Robinson and Sean McQuiggan, eventually building its largest lead at 18-13 after a Ido David ace. Long Beach responded and took advantage of some costly UCLA errors (two attack errors from Rama and a service error from David and Rama), winning seven of the next nine points to draw even at 20-all on a pair of Nikolov aces. Long Beach scored three straight points for a 24-22 lead, then closed the set on a McRaven kill.
The third set remained close until LBSU created some separation for a 16-11 lead. UCLA mounted one final charge behind consecutive kills from Rama to get within 21-20, but Long Beach withstood the pressure. A kill from Kandev sent the match to championship point, and a Nikolov kill completed the sweep and kicked off the celebration.
LBSU, which had a 20-match winning streak earlier this season, spent the past 14 weeks ranked No. 1 on the strength of a deep roster. Long Beach did lose a pair of matches to Big West Conference rival Hawaii last month, including the Big West Tournament final, but won nine of 10 sets in the NCAAs to leave little doubt as to who the best team in the country was.
Long Beach won all three of its matches against UCLA this season, beating the Bruins twice in February (a four-set victory at home, and a sweep at Pauley Pavilion) before Monday’s title match.
The 2025 NCAA Tournament will be played at UCLA.
