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Freshman Moni Nikolov obliterated the Long State record book for serving – and there is still one month left in the regular season.
Nikolov set a single-season program record with 62 aces during a seven-ace performance in a sweep against No. 7/6 CSUN on Friday.
The setter surpassed the previous school record of 60 aces that Paul Lotman set in 2008. In addition, Nikolov moved past his older brother Alex Nikolov who had 59 aces for the Beach in 2022.
Nikolov had three aces in both the first and third games en route to the 25-17, 25-14, 25-18 home victory to keep No. 1/1 Long Beach State undefeated.
The Beach finished the conference match with 13 aces – 12 more aces than the Matadors.
Along with Nikolov, pin-hitter Skyler Varga contributed a season-high four aces. Sebastiano Sani also had two aces in front of a home crowd of 3,165 people.
Long Beach State limited CSUN to a negative attack percentage through the first two games and for the match out-hit the Matadors .387 to .016.
Pin-hitter Danii Hershtynovich finished with a match-high 12 kills on a .348 attack percentage, including seven kills in the opening game. Varga added six kills and zero errors on a .600 attack percentage, while pin-hitter Nato Dickinson had six kills and hit .500.
CSUN pin-hitter Jalen Phillips in the loss had a team-high 10 kills. Phillips, though, was the only Matador to have more than five kills.
Long Beach State with this victory moves into a tie for first place in the Big West. The Beach also remains the only undefeated team in the nation.