Long Beach State University’s men’s volleyball team will hold a short victory parade to celebrate its fourth national championship in program history.
The parade kicks off at 11 a.m. Wednesday at the intersection of Fifth Street and Pine Avenue.
Following a march down Pine Avenue to Third Street, Altar Society Brewing Company will host a community reception for the team with speeches by Executive Director of Athletics Bobby Smitheran, Head Coach Alan Knipe and National Player of the Year Moni Nikolov.
The Beach swept UCLA Monday night in the NCAA Men’s Volleyball National Championship with scores of 25-17, 25-23 and 25-21 in the three sets.
Nikolov sealed the win with a kill and was named the NCAA All-Tournament MVP, capping a season in which he also won Big West Player of the Year.
“It’s such a relief. I wanted this win more than anything else,” Nikolov told the 562. “It was the first time I actually started crying tears of joy, so it truly meant so much to me.”
This year’s title is the first since the school went back-to-back in 2018-19.
Knipe has been a part of each national championship with the program. He won one as a player in 1991 and has captured three as a coach with Long Beach State.
This title came in the Beach’s 11th championship game appearance in program history. The team was ranked No. 1 in the nation for the final 14 weeks of the season.