MONI NIKOLOV, LONG BEACH STATE UNIVERSITY, S, FR.

• Nikolov earns the award after a remarkable freshman season in which he has helped Long Beach State spend all but the first two weeks of 2025 as the No. 1 team in the AVCA Poll.
• The setter’s win marks the eighth season in which The Beach has had an athlete be named national AVCA Player of the Year.
• He averages 10 assists per set and has guided Coach Alan Knipe’s squad to a nation-leading .395 hitting percentage heading into the National Collegiate Championship semifinals.
• He has 97 aces and has established both school and Big West single-season records in the category. Entering the NCAA semis, he needs four aces to set the all-time National Collegiate record.
• Nikolov’s average of 0.94 aces per set is tops in the nation, and The Beach’s 2.2 aces-per-set average also ranks first nationally.
• In addition to being the 2025 AVCA Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year, he earned those same awards from the Big West Conference.
• The only other freshman to be the national AVCA Player of the Year is Moni’s older brother, Alex, who won the award in 2021 when he played at Long Beach State.

2025 Stats (as of May 9): 1,030 Assists, 10.0 A/S,  97 Aces, .395 Team Hitting %, 161 Kills, 1.51 D/S, 78 Blocks

 

AVCA NATIONAL COLLEGIATE PLAYERS OF THE YEAR

1991: Bryan Ivie, USC, Sr.
1992: Brent Hilliard, Long Beach State, Jr.
1993: Canyon Ceman, Stanford, Jr.
1994: Jeff Nygaard, UCLA, Jr.
1995: Jeff Nygaard, UCLA, Sr.
1996: Yuval Katz, Hawai‘i, So., and Stein Metzger, UCLA, Sr.
1997: Ivan Contreras, Penn State, Sr.
1998: George Roumain, Pepperdine, Jr.
1999: George Roumain, Pepperdine, Sr.
2000: Donald Suxho, USC, Sr.
2001: Costas Theocharidis, Hawai‘i, So.
2002: Brad Keenan, Pepperdine, Jr.
2003: Costas Theocharidis, Hawai‘i, Sr.
2004: Carlos Moreno, BYU, Sr.
2005: Sean Rooney, Pepperdine, Sr.
2006: Jayson Jablonsky, UC Irvine, Jr.
2007: Jonathan Winder, Pepperdine, Jr.
2008: Matt Anderson, Penn State, Jr., and Paul Lotman, Long Beach State, Sr.
2009: Paul Carroll, Pepperdine, Sr.
2010: Kawika Shoji, Stanford, Sr.
2011: Murphy Troy, USC, Sr.
2012: Tony Ciarelli, USC, Sr.
2013: Taylor Crabb, Long Beach State, Jr.
2014: Taylor Sander, BYU, Sr.
2015: Thomas Jaeschke, Loyola Chicago, Jr.
2016: Nicolas Szerszen, Ohio State, So.
2017: TJ DeFalco, Long Beach State, So.
2018: Josh Tuaniga, Long Beach State, Jr.
2019: TJ DeFalco, Long Beach State, Sr.
2020: Gabi Garcia Fernandez, BYU, Sr.
2021: Rado Parapunov, Hawai‘i, Sr.
2022: Alex Nikolov, Long Beach State, Fr.
2023: Jakob Thelle, Hawai‘i, Sr.
2024: Hilir Henno, UC Irvine, Jr.
2025: Moni Nikolov, Long Beach State, Fr.