Big West Conference

Freshman setter Moni Nikolov helped lead Long Beach State to a pair of wins against UC Santa Barbara en route to a sixth career Big West Freshman of the Week honor. Nikolov has also won weekly setter honors on three occasions this year, bringing the total tally to nine awards. 

Nikolov led the Beach to a .385 attack percentage while averaging 10.00 assists per set to go along with 1.43 digs, 1.29 kills, 0.43 blocks, and 0.43 aces per set.  

In Thursday’s four-set road win, LBSU hit .412 with Nikolov dishing out 43 assists ran a balanced offense on the road at UCSB as the Beach hit .412, while he dished out 43 assists. An all around player, Nikolov also chipped in five kills on a .333 clip (5-1-12), five digs, two blocks, and two aces.  

In LBSU's home match against the Gauchos, the native of Sofia, Bulgaria, distributed 27 assists to go along with five digs, four kills, one block and an ace. 

Nikolov leads the country in aces per set (1.051) and rates fifth in the conference in assists per set (9.71).