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Long Beach State libero Mason Briggs is capping off his sophomore season with a major college men’s volleyball honor.
Off the Block announced Monday that a nationwide voting committee selected Briggs as the recipient of the 2022 Erik Shoji Award.
The Erik Shoji Award, which is named after the former Stanford All-American and U.S. Olympian libero, is presented to the nation’s best libero in NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball during the regular season.
Briggs led the Big West and was fifth in the nation with a 2.51 digs per game average, including having double-digit digs in 12 matches. The libero also had more than 500 service receptions and a 95.8 percent successful pass rating.
The voting committee for the Erik Shoji Award was comprised of about 20 college men’s volleyball head coaches and volleyball reporters from around the nation. The top three vote-getters were named finalists for the Erik Shoji Award.
Briggs received 48 votes — more than double the combined vote total of the other two finalists. UC San Diego libero Matt Palma finished in second place with 11 votes, while Stanford libero Justin Lui ended in third place with 10 votes.
This is the seventh year that Off the Block has presented the Erik Shoji Award. Previous winners are former Stanford libero Evan Enriques in 2016, former Long Beach State libero Andrew Sato in 2017 and Concordia-Irvine libero Jacob Weiser last season.
Off the Block annually presents several end of season awards. Among the other national awards includes the Lloy Ball Award to the nation’s top setter, the Bryan Ivie Award to the nation’s top opposite, the Karch Kiraly Award to the nation’s top outside attacker and the Ryan Millar Award to the nation’s top middle attacker.
Off the Block is a national award winning website that launched in 2011 and is the nation’s leader in college men’s volleyball coverage.
2022 Erik Shoji Award voting results
1. Mason Briggs, Long Beach State – 48 votes
2. Matt Palma, UC San Diego – 11 votes
3. Justin Lui, Stanford – 10 votes
T-4. Nicklas Eichenberger, Stanford – 4 votes
T-4. Troy Gooch, Purdue Fort Wayne – 4 votes
T-6. Nicola Iannelli, St Francis Brooklyn – 3 votes
T-6. Will Bantle, Penn State – 3 votes
T-8. Brett Sheward, Hawai’i, 2 votes
T-8. Victor Scherer, Central State – 2 votes
T-10. Jason Shen, Harvard – 1 vote
T-10. Grady Hoffman, Fairleigh Dickinson – 1 vote
T-10. Cole Pender, UCLA – 1 vote