AVCA Release | All-Time Big West All-Americans 

LEXINGTON, Ky. – After yet another stellar year on courts across the league, five programs from The Big West are represented in the American Volleyball Coaches Association’s (AVCA) 35th National Collegiate Men's Volleyball All-America Team, unveiled on Monday. All told, the league boasts 10 on the first and second teams, over 40 percent of all honorees, and another 12 on the honorable mention listings.  
 
The 24 first- and second-team players sees representatives from 11 schools across the country, including five Big West member-institutions. League champion Hawai’i and national No. 1 Long Beach State each see a pair of players on the first team, and three total All-Americans. UC Irvine sports two honorees on the main listings with CSUN and UC San Diego claiming one apiece.  
 

The Big West comprises half of the first-team selections, headlined by 2025 Big West Player and Freshman of the Year Moni Nikolov. The setter from Long Beach State earns the first-team nod as well as AVCA Newcomer of the Year honors after an impeccable first season on the court. Nikolov heads into the postseason averaging 9.99 assists per set and has helped The Beach post a nation-leading .396 hitting percentage. Additionally, 94 services aces thus far in the 2025 campaign has established both school and Big West single-season records. 
 

LBSU redshirt junior Skyler Varga got the first-team nod after pacing the league in hitting (0.377) while averaging 2.81 kills and 3.56 points per set for the national No. 1. Senior DiAeris McRaven earned second-team acclaim after averaging nearly a block per set (0.966) for a Beach team that ranks second nationally in the category at 2.685. 
 

Big West champion Hawai’i is represented by a trio of underclassmen in the listings. Up from honorable mention selection a year ago, sophomore setter Tread Rosenthal leads the league and rates third in national collegiate volleyball with 10.65 assists per set.  

Freshman hitting tandem of Adrien Roure and Kristian Titriyski made the first and second team listings, respectively. Hailing from Lyon, France, Roure produces 3.14 kills per set on .341 hitting for the Rainbow Warriors, and was named the Most Valuable Player of The Hawaiian Islands presents the 2025 Outrigger Big West Men’s Volleyball Championship. Titriyski, a native of Sofia, Bulgaria, hasn’t played since April 4, but prior to that time averaged a team-high 5.05 kills per set on .325 hitting. 

UC Irvine outside hitter Hilir Henno is back for three consecutive first team selections after leading the league and ranking in the top three nationally in both kills (4.40) and points (5.47) per set. Henno is the only Anteater to dot the first team listings since men’s volleyball became a conference-sponsored sport in 2018, and the senior from Pornichet, France, was additionally honored as 2024’s AVCA National Player of the Year.  

Fellow UCI senior Nolan Flexen earned second-team honors after ranking in the conference Top 10 in a variety of statistical categories, including hitting percentage, kills, points, aces and blocks average. The product of Rio Rancho, N.M., is making a first All-American team. 

CSUN's Jalen Phillips used a powerful redshirt sophomore campaign to become the Matadors’ first first-team selection since Big West sport sponsorship. Phillips swung voluminously with a league-high 9.10 attacks per set producing 4.22 kills and 4.76 points per set, both good for second in The Big West and seventh nationally. 

UC San Diego senior Anthony Cherfan helped guide the Tritons to 18 wins and their most successful season in national collegiate men’s volleyball, which began in 2001. The Los Angeleno capped the season in third in The Big West in both kills (3.74) and points (4.44) per set, only trailing All-Americans Henno and Phillips. 

Along with the 10 first- and second-team selections, The Big West placed 12 on the honorable mention lists to bring the total tally to 22 student-athletes earning distinction from five of six conference programs.  

The awards selections were made by the AVCA National Collegiate Men’s All-America Committee, with veteran Big West head coaches Alan Knipe of Long Beach State and UC Irvine’s David Kniffin on the committee, of which Knipe serves as chairperson.    

The Big West will begin its quest for the title on Thursday in the quarterfinals of the 2025 National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Championship inside the Covelli Center in Columbus, Ohio on Thursday, May 8.  

Second-seeded Big West champion Hawai’i (26-5) takes on No. 7 seed Penn State (15-15) at 10:30 a.m. PT/7:30 a.m. HT. The Nittany Lions advanced to the contest after winning their opening-round matchup last Friday, downing Daemen in three. Top-ranked and No. 1 seed Long Beach State (27-3) meets No. 8 seed Fort Valley State (16-9) at 2 p.m. PT.  
 
The Big West has been a finalist in each of the last six National Collegiate Championship brackets, claiming four of the last six national collegiate titles. Hawai’i hoisted consecutive trophies in 2021 and ’22 and Long Beach State earned the championship in both 2018 and ’19. In both 2019 and ’22, the championship finale featured both the Rainbow Warriors and the Beach in an All-Big West showdown for the title and should the bracket hold true, 2025 will see the same. 

AVCA Coach and Assistant Coach of the Year are set for announcement on Wednesday with National Player of the Year honors coming on the evening of Friday, May 9. The Big West has claimed the AVCA’s top individual award every year since Big West sport sponsorship in 2018.