No fewer than 17 current and former men’s volleyball standouts across The Big West are on long-list rosters for the 2026 FIVB Men’s Volleyball Nations League (VNL), with representation on seven of the 18 participating countries’ rosters.
Seven of the 30 men on the U.S. Men’s National Team's preliminary roster holds ties to The Big West, featuring a competitive mix of Olympic veterans, seasoned pros, national champions and rising stars representing four Big West programs.
Reigning Big West Player of the Year and 2026 national champion setter Tread Rosenthal and Hawai’i alumnus middle blocker Taylor Averill are joined by Long Beach State alums libero Mason Briggs, opposite hitter Kyle Ensing and outside hitter and 2017 and ’19 AVCA Player of the Year TJ DeFalco on Team USA. CSUN middle blocker Daniel Wetter and UC Irvine outside hitter Nolan Flexen round out the seven who will be wearing the red, white and blue in the international competition.
From the 30-player preliminary list, U.S. coaches helmed by Karch Kiraly will select 14 athletes to compete at each of the three preliminary round stops where the team will play four matches each week vying to advance to the VNL Final Round: Ottawa, Canada (June 10-14), Orleans, France (June 24-28), and an anticipated homestand in Hoffman Estates, Illinois (July 15-19).
LBSU’s Briggs and Averill of UH will be on hand in Canada beginning tomorrow with matchups against Türkiye, Germany, host Canada and Italy. The U.S. men are currently ranked No. 5 in the world and have medaled four times in VNL history, including silver medals in 2019, 2022 and 2023 and bronze in 2018.
Playing in the same pool in the first week of action will be some familiar faces across the net with the national champion trio of Skyler Varga (LBSU), Quintin Greenidge (UH) and Daniil Hershtynovic (LBSU) suiting up for Canada. UC Irvine’s Francesco Sani takes to the court for Italy with Beach alum Simon Torwie holding down the front line for Germany.
Additionally, 2024 AVCA Player of the Year Hilir Henno of UC Irvine is set to compete for France with three Long Beach State alumni in former AVCA Players of the Year Alex and Moni Nikolov and Lazar Bouchkov competing for Bulgaria and former Hawai’i player Guilherme Voss again competing for Brazil.
The world’s top 18 men’s teams clash over three weeks of preliminary play around the globe, with the top eight advancing to the final round, set to take place July 29-Aug. 2 in Ningbo, China. Last year, with the finals also hosted in Ningbo, Poland beat Italy for the title with Brazil taking home he bronze. Alex Nikolov rated as the fourth-best attacker and scorer in the 2025 tournament preliminary rounds with 177 kills on .498 hitting with 15 total blocks and 16 service aces for Bulgaria.
France beat Japan for the title with Poland and Slovenia matching up in the third-place showdown. Matches will be shown live and on-demand on VBTV. Complete rosters and schedules can be found here >>>.
In addition to VNL competition, seven current Big West student-athletes are on the 24-player U.S. U21 National Team roster as they ready for international competition this summer. The group will train June 12-21 at the Olympic & Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs where 14 athletes will be selected to compete at the 2026 NORCECA Men’s U21 Pan American Cup, June 21-29, in Guatemala City, Guatemala.
From 2026 National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Championship victors Hawai’i, Trevell Jordan, Roman Payne and Kainoa Wade are joined by national runner-up Cameron Kosty of UC Irvine, Big West Champion duo from Long Beach State Jackson Cryst and Myles Jordan and Noah Douphner of CSUN. UH assistant coach Donan Cruz will serve as the Team USA U21 head coach.