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    Long Beach State to face Hawaii in Big West men’s volleyball final
    • April 26, 2025

    HONOLULU — The field for next month’s NCAA men’s volleyball tournament is coming into focus, and Long Beach State is all but certain to be the top seed when the bracket is revealed on Sunday afternoon.

    LBSU took another step in that direction by sweeping its way into the Big West Tournament title match on Friday night. Top-seeded Long Beach dismissed fourth-seeded UC San Diego, 25-18, 25-23, 25-17, behind record-setting freshman setter Moni Nikolov at the University of Hawaii’s Stan Sheriff Center.

    LBSU (27-2) will face second-seeded Hawaii (25-5) in the Big West final on Saturday at 10 p.m. PT. The Rainbow Warriors defeated third-seeded UC Irvine in four sets, 25-21, 15-25, 25-21, 25-23. Saturday’s winner clinches the Big West’s automatic berth in the NCAA field, with the loser a lock to receive one of the two at-large berths in the nine-team bracket.

    Hawaii and UCI (21-7) are the only teams that have beaten Long Beach this season, with Hawaii and LBSU splitting their two regular-season meetings two weeks ago in Honolulu. Long Beach won the first meeting, 3-1, and Hawaii won the rematch the following night, 3-2.

    Freshman outside hitter Alex Kandev had a team-high 14 kills on a .600 attack percentage (14-2-20) in Friday’s win. He also was the team leader in digs (eight) to go with two blocks and two assists. Nato Dickinson added eight kills and Skyler Varga had seven.

    Nikolov served up four aces to bring his career total to 90, a new Big West single-season record. Nikolov is just 10 shy of the NCAA single-season record and has helped Long Beach record 213 for the season, which is a new program record.

    Junior middle blocker Ben Braun contributed five kills and five blocks, while hitting .571.

    Long Beach hit .400 for the match, and held UCSD (18-11) to .253.

    UCI finds itself hoping for an at-large berth after its four-set loss to Hawaii, though UCLA’s loss to Pepperdine in an MPSF Tournament semifinal on Friday night might have blocked the Anteaters’ path.

    UCI senior Hilir Henno had six aces, giving him 255 for his career to match the NCAA record set by UC Santa Barbara’s Evan Patek from 2004-07. Henno added nine kills and a match-high 12 digs.

    Outside hitter Nolan Flexen had a team-high 15 kills to go with five digs, two aces and two block assists for the Anteaters, but Hawaii’s blocking was the key, besting the Anteaters 14.5 to 6.5 at the net.

    UCI had 12 aces, but hit .234. Hawaii hit .306 and had eight aces.

    In the MPSF Tournament semifinals …

    Pepperdine 3, UCLA 2: The top-seeded Bruins had more kills, blocks, aces and digs and a better hitting percentage, but fourth-seeded Pepperdine rallied for an upset win, 19-25, 25-22, 15-25, 25-23, 16-14, at Firestone Fieldhouse in Malibu.

    Cooper Robinson led the Bruins (20-6) with 16 kills, while Sean Kelly and Zach Rama each added 12. Andrew Rowan had 45 assists for UCLA, which hit .366. Cameron Thorne had six blocks for the Bruins.

    UCLA trailed 24-23 in the fourth set, but the Waves (19-9) closed out the set following a long rally to force a fifth set.

    In the final set, the two sides traded points as neither team could extend a lead. Pepperdine took a 10-9 lead into the closing stages, and then took a 13-11 lead before a Zach Rama kill pulled the Bruins within one, 13-12.

    With Sean Kelly at the service line, the Bruins rallied off two more points for a 14-13 advantage and a match point, but Pepperdine ran off three straight points to win the match.

    USC 3, Stanford 1: Second-seeded USC (21-6) dropped the first set before defeating sixth-seeded Stanford, 23-25, 25-23, 25-22, 25-19, in the second semifinal in Malibu. Jack Deuchar had 17 kills and four blocks while hitting .419 to lead the Trojans. Dillon Klein added 16 kills and seven blocks, while Guy Genis had six blocks and Caleb Blanchette had 34 assists and six digs.

    Freshman Parker Tomkinson contributed seven kills and seven blocks (two solo) and hit .455.

    USC and Pepperdine will square off Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in Malibu for the MPSF title and an automatic berth in the NCAA field.

    NCAA BRACKET REVEAL

    The NCAA volleyball selection show is Sunday at 1 p.m. PT on NCAA.com.

    The tournament will be held May 8-12 at the Covelli Center in Columbus, Ohio. The quarterfinals are May 8, with the semifinals scheduled for Saturday, May 10 and the title match on Monday, May 12.

    ​ Orange County Register 

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