Moni Nikolov Award Freshman of the Week Week Of 2/17/2025 Sport Men's Volleyball School Long Beach State Year Freshman Position Setter Hometown Sofia, Bulgaria High School Vasil Levski Sport School Moni Nikolov's all-around play from the setter position continues to lead No. 1 Long Beach State and the pair of sweeps on the week resulted in Big West Freshman of the Week honors. This is Nikolov’s third first-year player award of the season. On the road at No. 3 UCLA, Nikolov finished with seven kills on .600 hitting while assisting on 34 plays and adding a team-high three blocks in a sweep of the Bruins. The Beach hit .442 as a team with Nikolov guiding the offense to the Wednesday win and season sweep in the rematch of the 2024 National Collegiate Championship. In Friday’s home match against Vanguard, Long Beach State hit .477 as a team, with Nikolov again powering down seven kills to go with 25 assists and four aces in the three-set affair. Impressively, the native of Sofia, Bulgaria, leads the nation with a 1.081 ace average and rates 21st in the country with 9.51 assists per set for top-ranked Long Beach State.