Number one ranked Long Beach State hosted the number three UCLA Bruins in front of a sold-out Walter Pyramid on Friday night. The match had it all; over 70 miles per hour serves, creative setters, backrow attacks, middles terminating the ball, high level out of system swings and solid defense. The Beach serving and passing ultimately were the deciding factor. They remain undefeated (9-0) in the season beating the Bruins (6-2) in four sets (25-21, 20-25, 25-16, 25-22). “Statistically we were right there with them or beat them in many categories. It ultimately came down to the serve and pass game. Unfortunately, we lost that battle. Moni Nikolov went on some service runs that made a big difference,” said UCLA Head Coach John Hawks.
Heading into the match there were plenty of storylines to draw in an audience. The last time these teams faced off was at the Walter Pyramid at the 2024 NCAA National Championship and UCLA was crowned the champs winning in four sets. The Bruins are now led by Coach John Hawks, who over a decade ago was a former assistant coach under Alan Knipe at Long Beach State. Both programs have had the former USA men’s national team head coaches in John Speraw and Alan Knipe. Many men’s volleyball fans love to debate who is the better setter, the Long Beach State freshman from Bulgaria Moni Nikolov or junior Andrew Rowan who runs the Bruins offense.
Early in set one Nikolov, the current leader in aces in the country served two straight aces to give Beach the 7-4 lead. They used that momentum and got great contribution from all their pin hitters to control most of the set. The Bruins made a late three point run but fell 21-25.
Opposite, David Decker who hails from Winston-Alem, North Carolina continued to provide offense for UCLA in the second set and outside Zach Rama had some timely kills. Throughout the set the Bruins had control and eventually won the set.
The balanced offense and continued service pressure from Long Beach propelled them to win the next two sets and the match. Pin hitters Skyler Varga, Sotiris Siapanis and Daniil Hershtynovich all made great contributions for the Beach. Varga finished with 12 kills and hit .333. Hershtynovich added 10 kills and Siapanis chipped in eight kills while hitting .583. Nikolov did a fine job evenly dishing the rock with 35 assist and had seven of the Long Beach State nine aces. Coach Knipe was able to discuss the depth of his team’s offense, “All of our attackers are very capable of putting the ball away and hitting for a high percentage. We feel like we have quality attackers in every position, and we feel we have some solid depth at each position. We look forward to using it when needed.”
After the match Coach Knipe was able to go over his thoughts on the match, “I thought it was a really good match, especially for a match played in February. We feel like there’s a lot of things we can be better at, but I love the progression of this squad.” Coach Knipe did agree with Hawks that the primary difference was the serve and pass game. “The game was very much determined in the serve and pass battle and we expect that to be the case next week.”
The match presented a final four like feel with a sold-out crowd, Long Beach State marching band playing in the stands, an energetic student section in pink wigs and dressed as hot dogs. During timeouts and breaks during the match a DJ was blast beats to add to the excitement. “The pyramid is a special place and even more so when it’s packed! We really appreciate all the support from the students and LB nation. These matches between these two teams have become an annual event and tonight’s match did not disappoint,” said Coach Knipe.
UCLA was led by pin hitters Zach Rama with 15 kills and Cooper Robinson added 10. Decker started the match red hot with six kills in set one and finished the night with a total of nine. When the Bruins were in system the transfer middle blocker from GCU Cameron Thorne was able to put the ball away with seven kills and a .500 hitting percentage. Rowan ended the night with 33 assist and ran the offense with a .304 hitting percentage.
These two squads will spend the rest of the weekend resting and preparing for a rematch on Wednesday, February 12th. “I like the fight in our guys, and I am looking forward to the to battle Long Beach in Pauley Pavillion in a few days. We will have our home crowd and we will be ready,” said Coach Hawks.
Kevin Pratte has enthusiastically been involved in volleyball for over 23 years. Pratte started playing in middle school and was fortunate enough to play NCAA Division 1 volleyball at The University of the Pacific. After his playing career Pratte got involved in coaching volleyball. In 2009 Pratte was the graduate assistant coach for the University of Nebraska women’s volleyball program. Later in his career Pratte made coaching stops at University of the Pacific, multiple community colleges and coached at WAVE Volleyball Club for seven years. Currently Pratte is a physical education teacher in the San Diego Unified School District, San Diego Downtown Breakfast Rotary member, a college volleyball recruiting coordinator, hosts a volleyball podcast show, the owner of the Middle Hitter website and runs a non-profit organization to help raise funds to give boys’ high school volleyball students scholarships to play club volleyball. He is excited to continue writing for Volleyball Magazine and is eager to cover the game.
