Long Beach State University
6-0,0-0Big West
Pepperdine
3-1,0-0MPSF
Long Beach State Men’s Volleyball Wins A Five Set Thriller In Malibu
1/26/2025 7:55:00 PM | Men's Volleyball
The Beach battled back from being down 2-1 to winning a dominant fifth set.
MALIBU, Calif. – Down two sets to one on the road at No. 11 Pepperdine, No. 1 Long Beach State rallied back, forcing a fifth set and then controlling the decider in a 3-2 win on the road over the Waves, 25-14, 24-26, 18-25, 25-17, 15-7. Skyler Varga led Long Beach State with 18 kills while Moni Nikolov finished with 41 assists and eight aces, tied for the second-most in a match in school history.
Nikolov's eight aces tied with teammate Sotiris Siapanis for the second-most in school history, filling the stat sheet with eight kills, eight digs and seven blocks to go with his assists and aces. The Beach had 17 blocks to just four for the Waves and hit .356 in total for the match. Skyler Varga led the team with 18 kills and a .444 hitting percentage. Daniil Hershtynovich and Sotiris Siapanis also had double digit kills to end the night.
Long Beach State Men's Volleyball started the match strong offensively, rolling to a 25-14 victory in the opening set. They went on two 3-0 scoring runs with the offensive power being spread evenly. All players were hitting over .500 through the first set, with Skyler Varga hitting a perfect five for five. Setter Moni Nikolov even snuck in three kills of his own along with an ace to force a Pepperdine time out. A missed serve from Pepperdine gave the Beach set point, and the set was won by another kill from Varga.
The second set got off to a much tighter start as Pepperdine quickly racked up points from kills. The Long Beach defense was struggling to get going as The Waves were finding their rhythm. A kill by Barnett tied the game at 6-6 followed by a kill by Dyer to give Pepperdine their first lead of the night. It stayed a close set until another important 3-0 scoring run from Long Beach put them back up 12-9.
Pepperdine pulled within one at 13-12 with back-to-back kills from Cole Hartke who fired up the Waves' offense. The Long Beach lead was short-lived as a few errors again gave Pepperdine the lead at 14-16. Skyler Varga remained aggressive on offense as his kills brought Long Beach back within a point at 16-17. Connor Bloom stepped in to serve and pushed Long Beach to a 19-18 lead. The fourth 3-0 scoring run from The Beach shot them to 23-20. Pepperdine put together a scoring run of their own to tie the game 23-23. A service ace by Hartke gave Pepperdine their first set point. Sotiris Siapanis got a much-needed kill to bring the score to 24-24 and push the set into extra points. A missed serve from Nikolov gave Pepperdine their second set point. They took advantage of the opportunity and pushed two more points to take the second set with a kill.
Tied at a set each, the third set was very close early, trading points until the Beach were able to open up a 12-10 lead. Pepperdine quickly recovered, tying the set at 13-13 and then a service push helped the Waves take a 17-14 lead. The Beach had their lowest hitting percentage of the night for the set, as the Waves pulled ahead and finished with a 25-18 win in set three.
Pepperdine opened the fourth set with a 3-0 lead. Hershtynovich gave Long Beach their first point of the set with a kill, and the Beach pulled all the way back as a service ace from Moni Nikolov tied the set 4-4. A double block from Siapanis and McRaven gave Long Beach their first lead of the set at 6-5. Nato Dickinson got his first kill of the night to take an 11-8 lead. Moni Nikolov hit a fourth service ace to push the lead to 15-10, forcing a Pepperdine timeout. Skyler Varga continued to fight to force a fifth set by bumping them all the way to 20-12 with four of five points being kills from the junior. Long Beach held one of their largest leads of the evening at 22-12 before closing out the set with a 25-17 win.
Fighting hard to keep their winning streak alive, Long Beach started the fifth set up 4-0 with back-to-back kills from Varga. Maintaining that advantage, a kill from Varga turned the rotation over to Nikolov serving, and the freshman closed out the match with a pair of aces, seven and eight on the night to finish the match with a 15-7 set five win.
No. 1 Long Beach State will head to Reno next week, taking part in the Silver State Showdown where they will face two teams familiar to Beach fans from last year's NCAA Tournament in the Walter Pyramid. The Beach will start by taking on Fort Valley State on Friday, January 31 before playing Belmont Abbey on Saturday, February 1.
