What 2 Watch 4
The Big West continues its non-conference slate with five squads coming into the week after a win and two - No. 2 Long Beach State and No. 5 UC Irvine - sitting at 7-0 on the season. Nine of the 11 matches on the week are against ranked opponents on both home and away courts.
No. 3 Hawai’i (7-1) sees their first road action of the season, playing at Saint Francis and No. 14 Penn State. Also in the Midwest for matches is No. t-11 UC San Diego (3-3), set to tussle with a pair of Top 10 teams in No. 9 Lewis and No. 7 Loyola. Rounding out the road teams is LBSU, making the drive up the 5 to No. 6 Pepperdine in their lone match of the week.
UCI welcomes No. 16 Stanford to the Bren while No. 15 UC Santa Barbara sees two against No. 8 BYU on the slate. Finally, No. 17 CSUN’s one-match week is at home against Edward Waters.
Four contests on this week’s schedule are set for broadcast on ESPN+. Check listings for additional match information.
Poll Position
The Big West sees three teams in the top five for the second straight week with No. 2 Long Beach State, followed by No. 3 Hawai’i and No 5 UC Irvine holding firm in the latest AVCA National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Poll. UC San Diego edged down to a tie for 11th with UC Santa Barbara up to No. 15 and CSUN clocking in at 17th. Both the Beach and the Anteaters are receiving first-place votes in the latest listings.
We’re No. 1
Various teams and individuals are ranked in the top 10 nationally highlighted by multiple list leaders:
• Long Beach State leads the nation in team blocking with 3.030 per set, team aces per set at 3.32 on opponent hitting percentage at 0.126.
• Individually, Long Beach State’s Skyler Varga serves up 1.375 aces per set to lead national collegiate volleyball.
• Hawai’i setter Tread Rosenthal averages 10.34 assists per set to lead the career charts.
The Big West teams and players top the individual match high charts in eight categories.
Weekly Winners
The Big West weekly winners went to the UC Irvine trio of William D’Arcy (offensive), Trevor Clark (defensive) and Andrej Jokanovic (freshman) after the Anteaters claimed a pair of five-set victories at No. 8 BYU. Setter honors went to first-time winner Owen Douphner of CSUN after guiding the Matadors to a midweek sweep of LIU.
Last Week, Today
The Big West picked up seven wins in nine matches, including ranked victories at BYU and Stanford. Some highlights on courts around the country included:
No. 2 Long Beach State (7-0, 0-0 BW)
The Beach took down Fort Valley State and LIU in sweeping efforts on the home court, with senior Skyler Varga continuing to lead the way on offense. Varga averaged 2.83 kills per set on .500 hitting and an eye-popping 10 aces (1.67 per set). Varga drilled seven aces in the contest against Fort Valley State, as the team served up 16 total aces in the match. Both numbers are good for NCAA-leading marks. The LBSU foes hit a combined .088 on the weekend and finished with the 13.5 to 2.0 block advantage, led by six denials for Jackson Cryst.
No. 3 Hawai’i (7-1, 0-0 BW)
The Rainbow Warriors were idle last week, returning to action with their first road tests of the season at Saint Francis and No. 14 Penn State. Last time out, UH picked up a pair of wins against both Rockhurst and Roberts Wesleyan with three sweeping efforts. Sophomore opposite Kainoa Wade started three of the team’s four matches, averaging 5.33 kills per set on .451 hitting to go along with 13 digs, five blocks and four service aces. In the nightcap against Roberts Wesleyan, Wade pounded 21 kills on .514 with five digs in the three-setter. Tread Rosenthal played in the two contests against Rockhurst, averaging 11.57 assists per set while directing the offense to a combined .439 hitting in the series.
No. 5 UC Irvine (7-0, 0-0 BW)
The Anteaters gutted out a pair of five-set victories at No. 8 BYU and picked up three weekly awards in the process. William D’Arcy (offensive) and Andrej Jokanovic (freshman) earned consecutive nods with Trevor Clark claiming a first career Defensive Player of the Week honor. On Friday, the Anteaters found themselves down 2-0 before pulling off a reverse sweep punctuated by a 7-1 run in the fifth. Jokanovic led the offensive efforts with 19 kills on .436 hitting (19-2-39) with Clark adding 13 with no errors on 20 swings to go along with five blocks. D’Arcy powered UCI in the rematch with a career-high 22 kills including four kills on six swings in the deciding frame.
No. t-11 UC San Diego (3-3, 0-0 BW)
Hosting national No. 1 UCLA in their lone match of the week, Sebastiano Sani powered the Tritons both offensively and defensively. The junior outside hitter finished with 11 kills on .391 hitting, a team-best five digs and three of service aces. The double-figure kill effort was his fifth of the season. Cameron Wurl dished out a season-high 31 assists in the loss.
No. 15 UC Santa Barbara (5-1, 0-0 BW)
The Gauchos secured a split at Stanford, first pushing the Cardinal to the bring in a five-setter on Thursday before ripping off a sweep in Friday’s rematch. Riggs Guy averaged 3.25 kills per set with 11 kills on .474 hitting in the victory. Ben Pearson was active on the back line with 2.25 digs per set including a 10-dig performance to match a career high with a pair of service aces in each contest.
No. 17 CSUN (6-1, 0-0 BW)
Playing mid-week matches, the Matadors earned a Wednesday sweep of LIU and opened up this week with a 3-0 decision against Fort Valley State. Setter of the Week honors went to Owen Douphner who handed out 32 assists alongside seven digs, two blocks, one ace, and five kills on six swings to hit .833 against LIU. In Monday’s match, Jalen Phillips led the way with 15 kills on .650 hitting (15-2-20) as the team hit a combined .557 in the win.
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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