The562’s coverage of Long Beach State athletics for the 2024-25 season is sponsored by Marilyn Bohl.
The Long Beach State men’s volleyball team had just one thing in mind after they were swept by UC Irvine at home in front of a record crowd on Friday night: respond. The Beach weren’t happy with how they responded in that match, dropping a close first set and then not being in it in the second or third. Whatever else happened Saturday night in a rematch at Irvine’s Bren Center, the Beach wanted to respond. They did just that in an impressive 25-23, 25-19, 29-27 victory.
“We needed that, not just as much for the win as we needed to respond for the way we played last night,” said LBSU coach Alan Knipe. “Bottom line. I’m super proud of the guys about that, because we were significantly more invested in every point tonight.”
Knipe credited the injured Sotiris Siapanis with being one of the major voices pushing the team from within, as well as star players Moni NIkolov and Skyler Varga.
Varga said there wasn’t a big rah-rah speech after the Friday night loss.
“We were all disappointed and we honestly didn’t really need to talk about it,” said Varga. “We knew we wanted to bring it to them tonight and we wanted to be better in serving, blocking, in literally every single area. And I thought we competed well as a team, I’m very proud of the guys for battling through adversity.”
The crowd in the Bren was loud and rowdy, with near as many Beach fans as fans there for the home team. The sellout audience of 4,758 saw the Beach take a close first set, dominate the second, and then show the type of grit and resiliency they lacked Friday night in the third. The Beach trailed all third set and found themselves down 22-19. They would end up fighting off a set point, earning a match point, then seeing it slip away before ultimately a magic moment happened: Nikolov striding to the end line up 28-27 for match point.
It seemed another predestined moment for a special player. The gym held its breath as he tossed the ball, then let out a roar as it pinpointed down on the Irvine back-line for a match-winning ace. Nikolov strutted around the court urging the crowd to relax as his teammates flooded onto the court losing their minds.
“I was just thinking our best server is serving before their best server gets a chance, let’s end this thing,” said Knipe.
Nikolov had a great match, with 10 kills on .643 hitting, 35 assists, four blocks, six digs, and the match-winning ace. But his serve wasn’t ‘on,’ as evidenced by the fact that he only notched once ace in the match when he normally averages one per set.
“My serve is going very bad during the game, but I know that, when it matters most, that somebody’s training and somebody’s personality shows the most,” he said. “So I just trusted myself, and I knew I was acing that.”
Alex Kandev starred in a big spot after replacing Sebastian Sani in the lineup Friday night. He got the start Saturday and had 15 kills on .609 hitting. The Beach hit .424 in the match to Irvine’s .286, and they also outblocked the Anteaters as well as out-dug them. Reigning National Player of the Year Hilir Henno had 21 kills on .350 hitting to lead Irvine.
The Beach will travel to UC Santa Barbara Thursday at 7pm then host the Gauchos Friday at 7pm this week.
