Add another national award to the list of accolades for Long Beach State freshman setter Moni Nikolov.
Off the Block announced Friday that a nationwide voting committee selected Nikolov as the recipient of the 2025 Nicolas Szerszen Award.
The Nicolas Szerszen Award is presented to the best non-U.S. born player in NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball during the regular season. The annual award is named after the former Ohio State All-American outside attacker who led the Buckeyes to back-to-back NCAA championships.
This is the only national award in college men’s volleyball recognizing the outstanding individual performances of international players who are pursuing their volleyball career and higher education in the United States.
Nikolov guided Long Beach State to a nation-best .398 attack percentage, including the Beach hitting .354 in a sweep against UCLA in the NCAA Tournament finals. The Bulgarian setter also set a NCAA single-season record with 106 aces and had at least four aces in 14 matches.
Along with the offensive performance, Nikolov was in the top 10 of the Big West with a 0.74 blocks per game average.
The voting committee for the Nicolas Szerszen Award was comprised of more than 25 college coaches and media members from around the nation. The top three vote-getters were named finalists for this national honor.
Nikolov received 66 votes to edge out the runner-up UC Irvine outside attacker Hilir Henno, the 2024 winner of this award. Long Beach State outside attacker Skyler Varga finished in third place with nine votes.
This is the ninth year that Off the Block has presented the Nicolas Szerszen Award.
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.
2025 Nicolas Szerszen Award voting results
1. Moni Nikolov, Long Beach State (Bulgaria) – 66 votes
2. Hilir Henno, UC Irvine (France) – 37 votes
3. Skyler Varga, Long Beach State (Canada) – 9 votes
4. Gabriel Vieira, St. Thomas Aquinas (Brazil) – 5 votes
T-5. Adrien Roure, Hawai’i (France) – 2 votes
T-5. Louis Sakanoko, Hawai’i (France) – 2 votes
T-5. Aleksander Sosa, Quincy (Serbia) – 2 votes
T-5. Kristian Titriyski, Hawai’i (Bulgaria) – 2 votes
T-9. Stilian Delibosov, CSUN (Bulgaria) – 1 vote
T-9. Alex Kandev, Long Beach State (Bulgaria) – 1 vote
T-9. Oguzhan Oguz, Lewis (Turkiye) – 1 vote