What 2 Watch 4
With the conference starting the season 21-1 some tough non-conference road matches highlight the weekend. Friday sees No. 2 Long Beach State against George Mason followed by an away contest at No. t-13 Ohio State on Friday. No. 10 UC San Diego takes on No. 8 BYU twice in Provo while No. 7 UC Irvine travels to Malibu for a contest at No. t-3 Pepperdine. No. 12 CSUN also finds themselves on the road at Lindenwood and Purdue Fort Wayne with No. t-3 Hawai’i and No. 17 UC Santa Barbara staying home for matches on Friday.
Three contests on this week’s schedule are set for broadcast on ESPN+. Check listings for additional match information.
Last Week, Today
The Big West went 19-1 as five squads joined Hawai’i in opening the season and all six teams took to the court. The lone blemish came in a Rainbow Warriors split with No. 7 Loyola. Some highlights of the week included:
No. 7 UC Irvine (4-0, 0-0 BW)
The Anteaters opened the season with four consecutive sweeps including a tidy three-setter in the home opener against No. 18 Princeton. Middle blocker Micah Goss hit .778 with seven kills on nine swings and no errors in the match with Trevor Clark and Andrej Jokanovic each adding a team-best nine kills in Wednesday’s contest.
No. 2 Long Beach State (3-0, 0-0 BW)
Opening the title defense without dropping a set in the first week of play, Long Beach State has been firing on all cylinders with six players averaging at least 2.00 kills per set in their time on the court. Skyler Varga has compiled 22 kills on .405 hitting with 12 total aces (1.50 per set) for the offense. Big West Defensive Player of the Week Jackson Cryst was a force at the net during the opening weekend with nine total blocks as Lindenwood and McKendree hit a combined .157. Redshirt freshman Jake Pazanti’s collegiate debut from the setter position earned him Big West Freshman of the Week honors.
No. 10 UC San Diego (3-0, 0-0 BW)
The Tritons went 3-0 at the Asics Invitational, hosted by UC Santa Barbara, capping the weekend with a sweep over Rockhurst. Junior Josh Ewert provided 10 kills on .421 hitting in the three-setter. Defensively, Leo Weimelt was stalwart at the net with 15 total blocks (1.36 per set) while also chipping in 10 kills.
No. 12 CSUN (3-0, 0-0 BW)
Shane Nehm hit .500 over three matches to earn UCSB Asics Invitational All-Tournament team honors and guide the Matadors to a 3-0 start to the season. Nhem had 14 kills and just one error on 26 swings to go with six digs and three blocks.
No. 17 UC Santa Barbara (3-0, 0-0 BW)
Playing host in the annual Asics Invitational, the Gauchos opened the event with a sweep of Kentucky State before recording four-set wins against Maryville and Harvard. Big West Offensive Player of the Week George Bruening averaged 4.88 kills per set highlighted by a 26-kill performance on .455 hitting with a trio of blocks against the Crimson. Cole Schobel earned Big West Setter of the Week with 9.18 assists and 2.09 digs per set with nine total service aces in 11 sets on the court.
No. t-3 Hawai’i (5-1, 0-0 BW)
Hawai’i’s remained on O’ahu to start the season, splitting a pair of contests against No. 7 Loyola. The team hit an effective .426 as Kristian Titriyski led all players with 11 kills with Adrien Roure adding eight for the Rainbow Warriors in the victorious effort. Dropping the second contest against the Ramblers, UH rebounded with wins over Roberts Wesleyan and Rockhurst on Wednesday. The first match of the doubleheader against the Redhawks saw the ’Bows hit .410 where most of the reserves played the entirety of the match. Kainoa Wade led the way with a career-high 21 kills, hitting .514 in 35 attempts. In the nighcap, UH swept through Rockhurst with Titriyski and Roure combining for 30 kills with Roure tallying five service aces.
Poll Position
After a trio of sweeps to start the season, defending national champion Long Beach State bumped up to second in the AVCA National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Poll with four first-place votes. Hawai’i, UC Irvine and CSUN slipped one spot apiece, clocking in at No. t-3, No. 7 and No. 12, respectively. UC San Diego held firm to 10th with UC Santa Barbara checking in at 17th in the poll’s first edition of the regular season.
Be There at the Bren
UC Irvine’s Bren Events Center is home of The Hawaiian Islands presents the 2026 Outrigger Big West Men’s Volleyball Championship on April 23-25. All six conference members will head to Irvine to vie for The Big West’s automatic berth into the first year of a 12-team national postseason bracket. UCI will be playing host for the second time, also serving as the championship site in 2023, when the Anteaters finished as runners-up. Hawai’i reigns as Big West defending champion and has earned four total postseason crowns (2025, ’23, ’22, ’19). Long Beach State has three Big West titles to their name (2024, ’18) with UC Santa Barbara finishing atop the 2021 bracket.
National Superiority
Taking home the first four national championships when The Big West began sponsoring men’s volleyball in 2018 and a fifth in 2025, the league is looking to continue its strength on the national stage in 2026. With the Beach and the ’Bows claiming back-to-back national collegiate titles around the pandemic-shortened 2024 season and LBSU reigning supreme in the latest edition, The Big West has enjoyed at least one national finalist in each of the last seven seasons. Always dominant in the sport, the league opens the season with all six teams ranked in the national listings with four squads in the Top 10.
Coaches’ Corner
The Big West coaching lineup is decorated by national champions as players and coaches, national coaches of the year, one newcomer and 855 career wins heading into the 2026 campaign. Long Beach State alumni and long-time assistant Nick MacRae took the reigns from Hall of Fame coach Alan Knipe in December ahead of the 2026 campaign. Uniquely, five of the league’s six head coaches have only been the leader of their current team, with UCSB's Rick McLaughlin the only coach to have two stops on the resume.
Preseason Prognostications
For the third straight season, defending national champion Long Beach State was voted atop the 2026 Big West Men’s Volleyball Preseason Coaches’ Poll. The Beach are coming off a Big West regular-season championship and a third national title since men’s volleyball became a conference-sponsored sport in 2018.
The Beach earned top billing with four first-place votes and 24 total points in the voting, edging out 2025 Big West champions and National Collegiate Championship semifinalists, Hawai’i. The Rainbow Warriors are just two points back with 22 total points and the remaining two first-place votes in the polling of the league’s six head coaches.
Long Beach State (IN 2025: 30-3, 8-2 BW) won their third national collegiate trophy in The Big West era in May, sweeping through defending champion UCLA to hoist the trophy. The win marked the Beach’s fourth overall title, also claiming distinction in 1991. Hall of Fame head coach Alan Knipe retired in December, handing the reigns over to LBSU alumnus Nick MacRae before the start of the 2026 campaign. Opening the year ranked third in the national polling, the Beach see two student-athletes on the Preseason Coaches’ Team: Skyler Varga and Alex Kandev.
Varga, a redshirt senior opposite hitter, is the lone senior on the preseason listings. The native of Muenster, Saskatchewan, and 2025 AVCA All-American averaged 2.73 kills per set while hitting an effective .368 last season to go along with 33 aces from the service line. Kandev, a sophomore outside hitter from Sofia, Bulgaria, led LBSU is points per set during the freshman campaign contributing an average of 3.87 for the national champions. Kandev put down 210 total kills in 65 sets on the court.
Defending Big West champions Hawai’i (IN 2025: 28-6, 7-3 BW) enter the season ranked second, both nationally and in the league polling. The Rainbow Warriors enjoy three players on the preseason team listings in junior setter Tread Rosenthal and sophomore scoring duo of Adrien Roure and Kristian Titriyski. All three student-athletes are coming off of All-American seasons with Rosenthal and Roure earning first-team acclaim with Titriyski on the second team.
Hailing from Austin, Texas, Rosenthal assisted on 10.50 plays per set to lead The Big West last year, good for fourth in national collegiate volleyball. Roure, a Lyon, France, native, hit .327 in 2025 with 3.10 kills and 3.65 points per set from the outside position. Titriyski closed a first year of collegiate volleyball as UH’s offensive leader with 4.24 kills and 5.05 points per set on .325 hitting to go along with 34 service aces for the national semifinalists. Titriyski marks a second native of Sofia, Bulgaria on the seven-member preseason team, joining LBSU’s Kandev.
UC Irvine (IN 2025: 21-7, 6-4 BW), hosts of The Hawaiian Islands presents the 2026 Outrigger Big West Men’s Volleyball Championship, occupy third in the polling with 17 total points. The Anteaters open the year ranked sixth in the AVCA preseason listings. UCI will have to replace the services of 2024 AVCA and Big West Player of the Year and 2025 AVCA Distinction of Excellence Award winner, Hilir Henno. The Anteaters will rely on a youthful squad with just one senior and four juniors on the 18-player roster.
A three-way tie for fourth between CSUN, UC San Diego and UC Santa Barbara rounds out the polling with the Matadors, Tritons and Gauchos knotted at nine points apiece. All three squads find themselves in the AVCA’s preseason poll with UC San Diego opening in 10th, followed closely behind by CSUN in 11th. UCSB opens in 17th nationally.
CSUN opposite hitter Jalen Phillips makes an appearance on the preseason team after 2025’s All-American season. The redshirt junior from Anaheim, Calif., paced the Matadors with 4.22 kills and 4.76 points per set, both figures second in The Big West and seventh in national collegiate volleyball, only trailing UCI’s Henno in the league statistics.
UCSB redshirt sophomore George Bruening rounds out the seven-player preseason team. The All-Big West honorable mention outside hitter from Newport Beach, Calif., posted 2.97 kills and 1.10 digs per set playing in 18 matches in 2025.
2025 in Review
Long Beach State held serve in the national postseason, upholding their No. 1 ranking for much of the season by claiming the crown at the 2025 National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Championship in Columbus, Ohio. The Beach swept through back-to-back defending champion UCLA to hoist their fourth national title trophy.
The Beach were joined by Big West champion Hawai’i on the national stage, where the Rainbow Warriors advanced to the semifinal round as the No. 2 seed in the brackets.
Long Beach State freshman phenom Moni Nikolov was named AVCA National Player of the Year, giving The Big West five straight awards. Nikolov was also named National Newcomer of the Year.
UC Irvine senior Hilir Henno earned the AVCA’s Distinction of Excellence Award whose contribution to the sport extends beyond accolades, uniting generational athletic excellence with personal integrity, academic commitment, and a long-term impact.
All six league programs were ranked in every poll throughout the season and finished up in the AVCA listings as: No. 1 Long Beach State, No.3 Hawai’i, No. 5 UC Irvine, No. 9 CSUN, No. 10 UC San Diego and No. 17 UC Santa Barbara.
Including honorable mention selections, a total of 22 Big West men’s volleyball players earned recognition on the AVCA’s All-American listings. Six men representing four member-institutions were named to the first team.
A total of six men’s volleyball student-athletes representing four member-institutions were tapped for the CSC Academic All-District listings. |
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