Meet the team who brought the championship back to CSULB's 'Volleyball Nation'
Long Beach State’s Men’s Volleyball players, less than 24 hours after an on-court victory celebration during which they literally jumped for joy while spectators cheered at the top of their lungs, returned to their home campus with a souvenir that only they could carry — the 2025 National Championship trophy.
“The volleyball national championship trophy has returned to its rightful place at Long Beach State University,” Executive Director of Athletics Bobby Smitheran exclaimed May 13 when a cheering crowd welcomed triumphant volleyballers back to campus.
“This is the third national championship of the past seven seasons, and that means some signs on Atherton and Seventh Street are getting updated,” Smitheran said, one day after the team won its latest championship.
The signs he mentioned declare to passing motorists they are within sight of “Volleyball Nation” and list each of Long Beach State’s past national titles in the sport. A May 12 victory over the UCLA Bruins at Covelli Center in Columbus, Ohio secured The Beach’s fourth championship in men’s volleyball.
The team followed up on its celebration at Walter Pyramid with a May 14 parade along Pine Avenue. The events closed out a season in which the squad started out as a contender, being ranked second in the nation before winning the season’s first 20 games.
The basic numbers tell a story of near invincibility. The Beach spent 14 weeks ranked No. 1 and posted a 30-3 record. Smitheran listed these and other accomplishments during the squad’s triumphant return to the Pyramid.
The men’s team also met and overcame a series of challenges. For one, the team’s first match was postponed because of January’s calamitous wildfires in the areas of Pacific Palisades and Altadena. Men’s Volleyball also played with a rebuilt roster, filling 10 vacancies at the outset of the season before having to adjust to multiple injuries, Head Coach Alan Knipe said during the Pyramid celebration.
"They just came in and there’s a cliche out there, as coaches, that ‘our team is a next-man-up team,’ and these guys lived that,” Knipe said. “I’m so proud what they did and the way they played and the way they went about their business.”
All-around excellence
Long Beach State’s athletics history began in 1950; teams representing the campus have now won 16 national championships. In addition to the four titles claimed by the men’s team, Women’s Volleyball has won five championships.
Beach Athletics today fields 19 teams competing at the intercollegiate level. All Beach Athletics teams have met NCAA Academic Progress Rate standards for the last two years for which complete data is available.
The Men’s Volleyball roster includes Moni Nikolov, a pre-psychology freshman who earned NCAA All-Tournament MVP honors after receiving recognition as the 2025 AVCA National Collegiate Player of the Year. Additionally, transfer student Georgi Binev, majoring in kinesiology, won the NCAA Elite 90 award. Binev's prize honors student athletes who have the top cumulative GPAs among competitors who reach the final venue for their sport’s championship round.
Binev has a 4.0 GPA and is the second Long Beach State student-athlete to win this award. Women’s Volleyball player Kobi Pekich claimed the prize in 2017.
The Men's Volleyball roster has four players who, by virtue of their high GPAs, earned placement on the President’s List for the fall term. Another quartet reached the Dean’s List. Two players — sociology major Sotiris Siapanis and kinesiology major Skyler Varga — earned Big West Academic All-Conference honors in 2024. This year’s awards for spring sports have yet to be announced.
A championship tradition
Long Beach State first won a national volleyball title when the women’s team won the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women championship at the conclusion of the 1972 season. The women’s team repeated for the 1973 campaign and their successors in 1989, 1993 and 1998 won additional championships.
The entire 1989 and 1998 teams earned induction into the Long Beach State Hall of Fame, with multiple players on both rosters also being honored as individual hall of famers. They include Misty May-Treanor, among the nation’s most famous volleyballers thanks to her Olympic victories in beach volleyball.
Long Beach Men’s Volleyball won its first championship in 1991 and more recently, claimed back-to-back titles in 2018 and 2019. Beach volleyballers won the 2019 championship on their home court at Walter Pyramid.
This year’s final match took place all the way over in the Eastern Time Zone, and Coach Knipe thanked the Beach fans who watched the championship round on television, as well as those who supported the team throughout the season.
“Watching the sold-out crowds at the Pyramid, we have, by far, the best fans,” Knipe said. “I know there’s a couple other institutions that like to claim that. That’s not even close. You guys are amazing. You can feel the energy in all of our matches.”
