First Serve!
What 2 Watch 4
No. 10 UC San Diego is the second Big West side to open the season, hosting Jessup and Daemen at LionTree Arena, with both matches slated for ESPN+. Then, host UC Santa Barbara is joined by UC Irvine and CSUN at the annual Asics Invitational beginning Thursday, Jan. 8. Each team is slated to take on the visiting Harvard, Kentucky State and Maryville during the three-day event, also set to air on ESPN+. Defending national champion and No 3 Long Beach State is last to hit the taraflex, hosting Lindenwood on Friday to open their title defense under new head coach Nick MacRae before welcoming No. 15 McKendree on Saturday. Already with two home sweeps under their belts, No. 2 Hawai’i hosts No. 7 Loyola for a pair on O’ahu in the first Top 10 matchup for Big West squads this season.
Fourteen contests on this week’s schedule are set for broadcast on ESPN+. Check listings for additional match information.
Last Week, Today
No. 2 Hawai’i opened the season sweeping through a pair of matches against RV NJIT. Big West Offensive Player of the Week Kristian Titriyski averaged 3.83 kills per set on .439 hitting and 5.17 points per set while finishing the weekend as the only player on either team to reach double figure kills in both matches. Tread Rosenthal picked up both Setter and Defensive Player of the Week honors with 1.83 blocks per set to go along with 9.33 assists and 1.77 digs per set. Under Rosenthal’s direction, UH hit a combined .517 in the series with only 11 attack errors in 118 attempts against the Highlanders. Making a collegiate debut in Sunday’s match, setter Magnus Hettervik was named Big West Freshman of the Week.
Also taking to the court in exhibition action at the North American Challenge was Long Beach State and UC San Diego. The Beach swept through Calgary twice and got two 3-1 wins against Alberta while the Tritons also picked up four exhibition victories to round out the international event in Long Beach.
Poll Position
Hawai’i begins the year ranked second in the AVCA’s National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball preseason poll, receiving seven first-place votes. Defending national champion Long Beach State opens in third with five first-place nods with UC Irvine landing in sixth and UC San Diego starting the season in 10th. CSUN follows at No. 11 with UC Santa Barbara checking in at 17th in the poll’s first edition of 2026.
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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