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Long Beach State, UCLA cruise into NCAA men’s volleyball semifinals

May 9, 2025

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Long Beach State and UCLA men’s volleyball teams moved one step closer to a potential national championship rematch with quarterfinal sweeps at the NCAA tournament on Thursday, while Pepperdine extended its late-season magic.

Top-seeded Long Beach (28-3) defeated No. 8 seed Fort Valley State, 25-21, 25-16, 25-16, while third-seeded UCLA (21-6) dismissed sixth-seeded Belmont Abbey, 25-18, 25-21, 25-19.

LBSU will face fifth-seeded Pepperdine (21-9), which outlasted fourth-seeded Loyola-Chicago in four sets, in a semifinal on Saturday at 2 p.m. PT. Two-time defending national champion UCLA will square off with second-seeded Hawaii (27-5), which defeated No. 7 seed Penn State in four sets, in the second semi at approximately 5 p.m.

Freshman setter Moni Nikolov paced Long Beach to a .367 hitting percentage as he dished out 31 assists. The 6-foot-10 Nikolov added eight kills, eight digs, three aces, and one block, moving three aces from tying the national single-season record.

Senior outside hitter Nato Dickinson had 12 kills, two blocks and five digs while hitting .429, and middle blocker Ben Braun had nine kills while hitting .800. Long Beach hit .450 in the second set and .476 in the third, closing the match on a 5-0 run.

Freshman libero Kellen Larson (seven digs) anchored a defense that held Fort Valley State (16-10) to a .129 hitting percentage.

UCLA hit .455 in its match and three Bruins finished in double-digit kills: Zach Rama had 13, while Cooper Robinson and Sean Kelly each finished with 11. Setter Andrew Rowan paced the offense with 37 assists.

Belmont Abbey (17-9) held leads of 8-5 and 14-12 in the third set, but a Rama service ace sparked a UCLA run. Rowan dumped the ball over the net to tie the score at 16-all, before a block by middle blocker Cameron Thorne and Robinson gave the Bruins their first lead of the set at 17-16. Rama hammered home a kill on the following point, and the Bruins eventually extended their lead to 24-19 with a triple block at the net before closing it out.

Playing in the last match of the day, Pepperdine dropped its first set against Loyola before rallying for an 18-25, 28-26, 25-13, 25-20 win to advance to the semifinals for the first time since 2019.

Ryan Barnett had 17 kills and 2.5 blocks and Cole Hartke had 11 kills, five digs and three aces to pace the Waves, who sprung a pair of upsets against UCLA and USC to win the MPSF Tournament last month.

Pepperdine hit .295 and held MIVA champion Loyola (25-4) to a .218 showing. Parker Van Buren had 15 kills to pace the Ramblers, while Daniel Fabikovic had nine kills and six digs.

Pepperdine lost its only regular-season meeting with Long Beach State this year, dropping a 3-2 decision in Malibu in late January.

Big West Tournament champion Hawaii hit just .238 but defeated the Nittany Lions, 25-19, 21-25, 25-23, 25-23, in its match.

Freshman opposite hitter Finn Kearney led the Rainbow Warriors with 16 kills, 10 digs, four aces and three blocks, but also committed 11 attack errors and two blocking errors on a day when Hawaii played well below its recent level.

Penn State (15-16) took advantage in the second set, but the Warriors did just enough to eke out set wins in the third and fourth frames, with middle blockers Kurt Nusterer (nine kills while hitting .571) and Justin Todd (eight kills, four block assists while hitting .800) helping anchor the attack. Setter Tread Rosenthal had five kills and 38 assists.

Matthew Luoma had 17 kills on .195 hitting to lead EIVA champion Penn State, which hit just .211.

Hawaii and UCLA did not meet during the regular season.

Orange County Register

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Long Beach State, UCLA cruise into NCAA men’s volleyball semifinals

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