First Serve!
National Notables
- All six Big West squads open the 2025 campaign ranked in the Top 20 in the AVCA/NVA National Coaches’ Poll, including three in the top four. National runner-up Long Beach State opens the year ranked second, followed by Big West runner-up UC Irvine at No. 3 and perennial powerhouse Hawai’i at No. 4. CSUN and UC Santa Barbara land at Nos. 15 and 16, respectively, with uC San Diego at 18th.
- The Big West returns the National Player of the Year in Hilir Henno of UC Irvine. Henno is the fourth consecutive Big West player who has earned top billing in the country, dating back to 2021. Winners in The Big West era also include Rado Parapunov (UH, 2021), Alex Nikolov (LBSU, 2022) and Jakob Thelle (UH, 2023). All told, 14 players from current Big West institutions have won Player of the Year, since 1991.
- There are seven new squads competing in NCAA Division I-II, with three dotting various Big West schedules. Hawai’i plays Catawba, four squads see Menlo and UC San Diego and Long Beach State take on Vanguard in their inaugural seasons.
What 2 Watch 4
Three Big West squads ring in the New Year and serve up the season this weekend. second-ranked and defending league champion Long Beach State hosts the North American Challenge. The field includes Southern California squads No. 18 UC San Diego and No. 10 Pepperdine and a bevy of teams from north of the border. Saskatchwan, Calgary and Trinity Western head to Long Beach with nine total contests over two days in both Walter Pyramid and The Goldmine.
No. 4 Hawai’i hosts No. 20 McKendree for a two-match series to open the year. The Rainbow Warriors have won 11 straight season openers, dating back to 2014. UH owns the 2-0 advantage in the season series and the meeting on O’ahu will be a first between the two teams.
2025 Preseason Prognostications
For the second consecutive season, Long Beach State was voted atop the 2025 Big West Men’s Volleyball Preseason Coaches’ Poll. The Beach are coming off a national championship runner-up finish and The Big West title in 2024, looking to defend their crown and again represent the league on the national stage.
The Beach earned top billing with four first-place votes and 24 total points in the voting, edging out 2024 Championship runners-up and National Collegiate Championship semifinalists as an at-large participant, UC Irvine. The Anteaters tallied 21 points and picked up the remaining two first-place votes in the vote of the league’s six head coaches.
Individually, strength is seen across all six squads as each team claims at least one spot on the Preseason Coaches’ Team.
Coming off a 27-3 season with a 9-1 mark in league play a year ago, Long Beach State placed three on the preseason team with upperclassmen attackers Sotiris Siapanis and Skyler Varga earning distinction. The two hitters are joined by freshman phenom in setter Moni Nikolov, the lone first-year player to make the listings. The name might sound familiar, as Moni is the younger brother of former Beach standout and 2022 AVCA Player of the Year, Alex Nikolov.
Siapanis, a senior from Limassol, Cyprus, is coming off an All-American season which saw the outside hitter contribute 3.18 kills per set on an effective .342 hitting percentage. Varga added 2.98 kills per set with 82 total blocks in The Big West championship season. The redshirt junior opposite hitter adds to the international flair on the preseason team, hailing from Muenster, Saskatchewan. Nikolov hails from Sofia, Bulgaria, and is touted as one of the world’s top setters. The frosh is a nine-time national championship in his age group in Bulgaria.
UC Irvine is represented on the preseason team by Maxim Grigoriev and defending AVCA Player of the Year Hilir Henno. A senior outside hitter from Pornichet, France, Henno paced the nation in points per set in 2024, with a 5.52 average while leading The Big West with a .373 hitting percentage and adding 33 service aces. Powered by the play of Henno, UCI led the country in kills (13.24) and assists (1253) per set. Grigoriev provided 103 total blocks for the Anteaters while averaging 2.99 points per set on the season. The junior middle blocker from Walnut Creek, Calif., was the 2023 Big West Freshman of the Year. UCI (20-11, 7-3 BW in 2024) was edged by eventual national champion UCLA in the semifinals after the runner-up finish at The Big West Championship.
Third place in the preseason poll is claimed by perennial powerhouse Hawai’i, who compiled 18 points in the voting. The Rainbow Warriors are represented on the Preseason All-Big West team by sophomore setter Tread Rosenthal. Tabbed The Big West Freshman of the Year in 2024, In a first collegiate season, the Austin, Texas, native averaged 10.08 assists and 1.50 digs per set while serving up 41 aces. UH is coming off a 23-7 campaign.
The trio of UC Santa Barbara (12 points), CSUN (8) and UC San Diego (7) round out the polling entering 2025.
UCSB’s preseason team honoree is redshirt senior Geste Bianchi. Bianchi, an opposite hitter from Laguna Beach, Calif., led the country in kills per set in 2024, averaging 4.82 strikes per frame while tallying 5.48 points per set, which trailed only Henno in the national rankings. Senior setter Donovan Constable of CSUN is the third assist-man on the nine-member preseason listings after averaging 9.88 assists per set and a .358 hitting percentage for the Matadors last spring. Rounding out the individual honorees is UC San Diego senior Anthony Cherfan. The opposite hitter from Los Angeles provided 3.13 kills per set for the Triton offense with 61 total blocks in a first year at UCSD after playing the previous two seasons for BYU.
2024 Season Rewind
The 2024 edition of The Big West Men’s Volleyball Championship saw exciting play from all six league squads taking to the court at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center in Honolulu.
No. 5 seed CSUN and third-seeded host Hawai’i advanced to the semifinal round before the top two seeds in Long Beach State and UC Irvine holding court to advance to the Championship match.
Setting up a showdown between the Beach and the Anteaters for the trophy, with LBSU claiming a 3-1 win. Championship Most Valuable Player Clarke Godbold led all scorers with 17 kills on .324 hitting with five blocks and five service aces. Sotiris Siapanis finished with a 15-kill 11-dig double-double and Skyler Varga added 11 kills and eight digs in the victorious effort.
Both Big West finalists found themselves in the national bracket. Both No. 2 seed Long Beach State and fourth-seeded UC Irvine advanced to the national semifinals in sweeping fashion. The Anteaters fell to eventual champion UCLA in five to bow out of the bracket. Meanwhile, the hosts tallied an electrifying reverse sweep over GCU to play for the Championship, marking a sixth straight season with at least one Big West team in the season’s last match.
Podium Performances at the Paris Olympics
Four Big West men’s volleyball alumni took home hardware at the 2024 Paris Olympics with Kevin Tillie of France climbing to the top of the podium for the gold medal.
A gradiuate of UC Irvine, Tillie stands as the 18th Olympian with Big West ties to claim multiple gold medal performances. Tillie was a member of UCI’s 2012 and 2013 National Championship teams, earning NCAA All-Tournament honors each year. The outside hitter was a two-time first team AVCA All-American for the Anteaters.
A Big West trio from the United States claimed the bronze medal. Long Beach State alumnus T.J. DeFalco was joined by first-time Olympian Taylor Averill of Hawai’i and UC Irvine’s David Smith on the squad. Smith was making an impressive fourth Olympic appearance in the Games.
League Superiority
The Big West has dominated the collegiate men’s volleyball landscape since the league began its sponsorship of the sport ahead of the 2018 campaign, laying claim to four of the last six national titles, with at least one national finalist in each season.
Long Beach State went back-to-back in 2018 and ’19, first rallying past host UCLA, 3-2, and then Hawai’i, 3-1, at its own Walter Pyramid. After the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out the 2020 installment, Hawai’i claimed the crown in 2021 and ’22, both in straight sets, over BYU in Columbus, Ohio, followed by a rematch with the Beach at UCLA in ’22. In 2023’s installment, UH was vying for a three-peat, but fell just short with UCLA earning the title at George Mason in Fairfax, Va., defeating The Big West champions in four in the finale. Last season, UCLA was able to secure the repeat, with Long Beach State closing as national runners-up after hosting the Championship at Walter Pyramid. |
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