VolleyBALLIN'!
National Notables
- Statistically, The Big West leads the nation in a slew of categories, landing in both the team and individual national Top 10 on a combined 51 occasions, 23 team listings and 28 individual. As a conference, The Big West hits .342, 24 percentage points higher than its closest league, the MPSF (.318).
- Only three conferences have a combined winning record on the year, paced by The Big West (43-6; .878). The MPSF (44-19; .689) and MIVA (48-26; .648) are a distant second and third in the cumulative picture.
- Fans flock to Big West matches, particularly on O’ahu, where the average attendance is 5,699 fans. The top eight attended games all involve the ‘Bows, including two matches at BYU.
What 2 Watch 4
All six teams in The Big West take to the court this week with four ranked opponents dotting the docket, including a two-game series between No. 4 Hawai’i and No. 9 Stanford and No. 15 UC Santa Barbara at No. 6 BYU. Sixteenth-ranked CSUN also takes on 10th-ranked Pepperdine in Malibu on Saturday.
Highlighting the slate is a rematch of the 2024 National Collegiate Championship match as No. 1 Long Beach State hosts third-ranked UCLA at Walter Pyramid with the Beach looking for redemption.
Four matches are slated to hit the airwaves on ESPN+. Check listings for more information.
Last Week, Today
The Big West went a combined 10-2 on the week, with five impressive road wins over nationally-ranked foes as No. 2 UC Irvine swept through two matches at No. 9 Stanford, No. 4 Hawai’i dispatched No. 5 BYU twice and No. 16 CSUN took down No. 20 George Mason. Also notching a ranked win UC San Diego, who downed No. 19 Lincoln Memorial last night in La Jolla.
Poll Position
Powered by top-ranked Long Beach State, all six Big West squads remain in the listings in the AVCA National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Poll for Feb. 3, with three Big West teams comprising the top five. The Beach held firm on top line with UC Irvine right behind in second and receiving two first-place votes. Hawai’i held firm at No. 4 and UC San Diego moved up two spots to 13th with UC Santa Barbara at No. 15 and CSUN holding at 16th in the listings.
Team Tidbits - Around the League
All six Big West squads opened the 2025 campaign on a tear, as teams were a combined 28-0 before the first defeat of the year came on Jan. 22. The league is currently 43-6 on the season will all losses coming at the hands of ranked foes. Quick facts on each squad’s successes include:
CSUN
The No. 16 Matadors claimed a pair of victories at George Mason’s Uvaldo Acosta Tournament, including a 3-1 win of their 20th-ranked hosts. Lorenzo Bertozzi averaged 3.17 kills per set over six frames on court including a career-high matching 14 kill output with five digs and three aces against the Patriots. Setter Donovan Constable (45 assists, 9 digs) and libero Chris Karnezis (11 digs) were also crucial in CSUN’s first win of the season over a ranked opponent to highlight the weekend.
National Leader: CSUN’s Stilian Delibosov leads the country in blocks per set, denying an average of 1.538 attempts a frame.
Hawai’i
The fourth-ranked Rainbow Warriors took a pair of matches in Provo in a Top 5 battle with BYU. Big West Freshman of the Week Kristian Titriyski averaged 4.11 kills and 5.22 points per set with 1.22 blocks per set and four aces in the series. Titkiyski put down a career-high 20 kills with four blocks in the five-set opening win, including seven strikes in the marathon fifth set, three of which erased match points. Sophomore setter Tread Rosenthal nearly posted a triple-double with 43 assists along with career-highs of nine kills and eight blocks on Friday.
Big West Defensive Player of the Week Kurt Nusterer averaged 2.22 blocks per set against the Cougars, matching a career-high of 10 blocks in each match. In Saturday’s four-set rematch, the junior from Indianapolis, Ind., put down seven blocks in the opening set as BYU hit .147 in the match.
National Leaders: Hawai’i’s 7,152 fans at Jan. 17th’s sweep of Princeton is this season’s single game high, to date. Kurt Nusterer’s 10 total blocks against BYU on Jan. 31 is tied for tops in the country for a five-set match.
Long Beach State
No. 1 Long Beach State utilized multiple lineup in the Silver State Showcase as the Beach swept through Fort Valley State and Belmont Abbey. Alex Kandev made a first collegiate start against Belmont Abbey and closed with 11 kills and no errors on 14 swings (.786) with three aces in Saturday’s match. Freshman Mino Nikolov continues with stellar all-around play, leading the Beach to a combined .441 hitting from the setter position.
National Leaders: One of five unbeaten squads remaining, the Beach are hitting an impressive 0.418 on the season, good for best in the nation. Individually, freshman Moni Nikolov is the leader in aces per set at 1.037, the only player with an average greater than one. Nikolov’s eight aces in a five-settter against Pepperdine on Jan. 26 leads the category.
UC Irvine
The second-ranked Anteaters had a fruitful road trip to No. 9 Stanford with a pair of sweeping victories paced by Big West Offensive Player of the Week Hilir Henno. The senior averaged 5.83 points, 4.67 kills, and 1.50 digs per set with five total aces. In the series opener, Henno closed with 15 kills on .500 hitting with a pair of aces and two blocks. Back-to-back Big West Setter of the Week Joe Karlous averaged 8.33 assists and 2.50 digs per set on the week, with 31 assists nine digs and two blocks on Friday before playing in a 6-2 on Saturday.
UCI swept through BYU back on Jan. 24 in front of 2,823 fans, the third-largest crowd in program history.
National leaders: The Anteaters are pacing the country in aces per set (2.78) and stand as one of five undefeated teams remaining in Division I-II.
UC San Diego
No. 13 UC San Diego dropped a tough five-setter to No. 7 Loyola on Saturday. With the valiant effort, the Tritons improved two places in the polls despite the defeat. Senior Anthony Cherfan led all players iwth a career-high 21 kills while hitting .488 (21-1-41) in the match. Graduate student Bryce Dvorak added career-bests of 50 assists and seven digs in the match. Also registering a new benchmark was freshman Keegan Cook, who finished with a career- and match-high 13 digs for UCSD.
Now with two losses on the record, UC San Diego’s 6-0 start to the season was their first as a Division I-II team (since 2001).
UC Santa Barbara
No. 15 UC Santa Barbara split their home weekend with a sweep of Concordia before falling to No. 12 Lewis in four on Friday. Redshirt senior Geste Bianchi led the Gauchos in kills in both matches, with 20 in the sweep and 23 in the loss to the Flyers. Bianchi was one dig shy of a three-set double-double against CUI. The 20-kill tally stands as tops in the country in a three set match thus far this season.
Cole Schobel was active all over the court, averaging 10.29 assists and 2.14 digs per set. In the match against CUI, the sophomore also contributed four kills on .571 hitting with four digs, three blocks and two aces.
This was the last time the Gauchos have two home matches in the same week until the final matchups of the regular season when Hawai’i heads to Santa Barbara.
National Leaders: The Gauchos lead the country in assists (12.54) and kills (13.79) per set. Individually, Geste Bianchi tops the lists in three categories: attacks (11.10), kills (5.50) and points (5.98) per set.
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.
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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