IRVINE, Calif. - The Big West on Tuesday announced four major award winners for the 2022 men’s volleyball season, as voted on by the league’s six head coaches following the 2022 OUTRIGGER Big West Men’s Volleyball Championship, presented by The Hawaiian Islands.
The Big West Player of the Year is fourth-year junior Hawai’i setter Jakob Thelle, with Long Beach State phenom Alex Nikolov the unanimous Big West Freshman of the Year. David Kniffin of UC Irvine and Charlie Wade of UH are the Big West Co-Coaches of the Year.
Thelle is coming off a spectacular performance that garnered him Big West Championship Most Valuable Player distinction as his second-seeded Rainbow Warriors swept Nikolov’s top-seeded Beach in Saturday night’s final in front of 6,636 loud fans at home inside SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center. The native of Tonsberg, Norway, produced his second double-double of the season with match highs of 43 assists and 11 digs, setting Hawai’i to a .368 attack percentage while adding two kills and a block. Thelle had dished out 33 assists and led all players with nine digs in a semifinal sweep of UC Santa Barbara as UH hit .388.
Thelle was the lone setter among 14 All-Big West First Team selections after picking up All-Big West honorable mention in 2021. He has started all 27 matches he has played in this year, with his per-set average of 9.97 assists ranking 11th nationally and fourth in The Big West. Thelle is also sixth in the country in aces per set (0.55), and ninth in the conference in digs per set (1.61). He was this season’s first Big West Offensive Player of the Week and American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) National Player of the Week back on Jan. 10.
Nikolov, a true freshman outside hitter from Sofia, Bulgaria, was a main force in Long Beach State’s run to a third Big West regular-season crown in four years since the conference began its sponsorship of men’s volleyball. Nikolov is one of three Beach players to start all 25 matches, and has put down double-figure kills in 23 of them, including each of the last 15. Nikolov eclipsed the 20-kill mark seven times, with a pair of double-doubles. His national ranks are first, second and third, respectively, in aces (0.61), points (5.56) and kills (4.60) per set.
Nikolov earned a record eight of the 15 total Big West Freshman of the Week recognitions, and is both an All-Big West First Team choice and of course on the Big West All-Freshman Team. He was the Big West Offensive Player of the Week twice, on Jan. 24 and April 4, and the AVCA National Player of the Week on Jan. 24. Nikolov averaged 6.71 kills per set over the runner-up Beach’s two matches at the Big West Championship this past weekend, beginning with a season-high 28-kill outburst during Friday’s four-set semifinal triumph over UC Irvine.
Kniffin and Wade are both first-time Big West Coach of the Year honorees. They have each won national championships at their current programs, in 2013 and 2021, respectively.
In his 10th season at the helm of his alma mater, Kniffin guided No. 13 UC Irvine past the opening round of the Big West tournament for the third time in four editions by sweeping No. 9 UC San Diego. His ‘Eaters also produced wins over a pair of National Collegiate Championship qualifiers in No. 2 LBSU and No. 5 Pepperdine, as well as No. 12 Stanford, the other Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) finalist. Kniffin was previously the 2015 MPSF Coach of the Year.
Wade has directed Hawai’i to a 24-5 overall record in his 13th campaign in charge, with the Rainbow Warriors this past Saturday night becoming The Big West’s first team to lift a second conference tournament trophy. Coming off the program’s first national crown a year ago, they were a perfect 18-0 on O’ahu in 2022. UH, The Big West regular-season runner-up with a 7-3 mark, is on to the National Collegiate Championship for the fifth time in the last seven seasons under Wade, who was the 2019 AVCA National Coach of the Year.
Thelle gives Hawai’i a third successive Big West Player of the Year, after former teammate Rado Parapunov the past two seasons. Parapunov, incidentally, shares Nikolov’s hometown of Sofia, Bulgaria. Nikolov is the third straight Big West Freshman of the Year for Long Beach State after current teammates Clarke Godbold (2021) and Mason Briggs (2020).
Thelle, Wade and defending national champion Hawai’i (24-5), and Nikolov’s Long Beach State (20-5), are in the 2022 National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Championship field as The Big West’s automatic qualifier and an at-large entrant, respectively. The Rainbow Warriors ascended to the No. 1 position in Monday’s AVCA Coaches Poll for the first time since Jan. 31, while the Beach went up a spot to No. 2.
The Beach have earned the No. 1 national seed and a bye straight through to the national semifinals on Thursday, May 5, at 5 p.m. PT, against the winner of an opening-round tilt between third-ranked host UCLA and No. 5 Pepperdine. The Rainbow Warriors will also be in opening-round action next Tuesday, May 3, at 7:30 p.m. PT inside Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom, against either No. 14 Princeton or North Greenville, with the advancing side taking on fourth-ranked No. 2 national seed Ball State in the semifinals two nights later. The national championship match is set for a 5 p.m. PT first serve on Saturday, May 7, featuring a national television audience on ESPN2.