SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The No. 16 UC Santa Barbara Men's Volleyball team (11-10, 2-2 Big West) battles No. 1 Long Beach State (21-1, 3-1 Big West) this week, beginning Thursday night in the Thunderdome. The Gauchos are riding a three-match winning streak after a series sweep of CSUN, while the top-ranked Beach traded road sweeps with rival UC Irvine last weekend.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Santa Barbara began last week with a trip to Division III Cal Lutheran on Tuesday, somewhat surprisingly requiring five sets to beat the Kingsmen. They stayed on the road on Friday, staving off two fourth-set match points and winning the fifth to get their first Big West victory at then-No. 8 CSUN. The following night, the Gauchos were excellent, hitting .636 in a dominant 25-15 match-winning fourth set at home against the Matadors.
 
LOOKING AT THE GAUCHOS
Two massive contributors to the Gauchos' good form are Josh Aruya and Riggs Guy. Aruya, a middle blocker, had 17 blocks over the three matches last week, good enough to win Big West Defensive Player of the Week. Guy claimed Big West Freshman of the Week for his 36 kills—two match winners—15 digs, five blocks and two aces over the three matches.
 
Cole Schobel and Joe Wallace were instrumental in the wins over CSUN, too. Schobel set 86 assists (9.56 per set) across the two matches and had seven kills. His nine digs on the road and eight digs at home were only behind the libero Wallace, who had 10 and eight, respectively. Wallace's work contributed to the Matadors hitting .100 in the crucial fourth and fifth sets of the two matches.
 
Fans have shown up well of late in support of the Gauchos. Even during spring break, almost 400 people attended Saturday's match against CSUN. Over 1,000 fans watched UC Santa Barbara host No. 2 UCLA a month ago, with this highly anticipated matchup against the Beach expected to draw a similar, electric Thunderdome crowd.
 
SCOUTING THE BEACH
The Beach are top-five in the nation in nearly every major statistical category, but hold the top spot in hitting percentage (.401) and aces per set (2.45). Undefeated until this past weekend, only current-No. 8 Pepperdine had even taken the Beach to five sets previously. No. 5 UC Irvine handed them their first loss of the year last Friday—in a sweep, nonetheless—but Long Beach turned around and swept the Anteaters the following night.
 
Freshman setter Moni Nikolov is a household name among volleyball fans. A native of Sofia, Bulgaria, his older brother, Alex, was named 2022 AVCA National Player of the Year as a freshman at Long Beach State—Moni has a chance to achieve the same thing. The younger Nikolov is an incredible server, logging a best-in-the-nation 1.11 aces per set at speeds up to 84 miles per hour. He also leads the team in, naturally, assists (9.68 per set), digs (110), and blocks (58), and is third in kills (117).
 
Canadian pin hitters Daniil Hershtynovich and Skyler Varga are the main beneficiaries of having Nikolov at setter. Hershtynovich has 194 kills (3.18 per set) this season, complemented by Varga's 184 (3.07 per set). Varga is also a distant, but still very respectable, second to Nikolov in aces (19) and digs (73), while Hershtynovich is third in blocks (48), also behind senior middle blocker DiAeris McRaven (57).
 
FOLLOW ALONG
First serve for Thursday's home match is scheduled for 7 p.m., as is Friday's road match at Walter Pyramid. Fans not attending can watch both matches on ESPN+ and follow along via live stats at ucsbgauchos.com/MVBLiveStats.