Feb. 17, 2010

Complete Release in PDF Format

49ERS ON THE WEB: All of Long Beach State's home matches and a handful of its road matches will be broadcast live on the internet at longbeachstate.com. Shane Nolan handles play-by-play duties.

BEACH STEPS OUT OF MPSF PLAY TO FACE NATION'S NO. 1 RANKED NAIA TEAM: Long Beach State hosts a non-league game Thursday night at the Walter Pyramid when California Baptist visits Long Beach. Cal Baptist enters the match with a 10-4 record and is the No. 1 ranked team in the NAIA. The Lancers' four losses have come against UC Irvine (3-0), Cal State Northridge (3-1), UC Santa Cruz (3-1) and Missouri Baptist (3-0)

LBSU LOOKINNG TO AVENGE A 3-2 LOSS TO CAL BAPTIST IN SEASON OPENER AT UCSB TOURNAMENT: In the season opener, LBSU dropped a tight five-game match to California Baptist 31-29, 27-30, 28-30, 30-28, 15-13 to fall into the loser's bracket of the Elephant Bar Tournament in Santa Barbara. Dean Bittner led the 49ers with 30 kills while hitting .320. Jim Baughman added 17 kills and Tommy Pestolesi had 10 kills. The Beach committed 20 service errors and 14 hitting errors, while hitting .300 for the match. Levi Cabral led Cal Baptist with 37 kills and a .430 hitting percentage.

BITTNER EARNS NATIONAL AND MPSF PLAYER OF THE WEEK HONORS: Dean Bittner was named the Sports Imports/AVCA Men's Division I-II National Player of the Week on Jan. 25, as well as the MPSF Molten Co-Player of the Week, after leading the 49ers to a split of their matches. Bittner recorded back-to-back 20-kill outings, while only playing in six games. He started things off by notching 20 kills on .356 hitting with six digs, three blocks and an ace in the 49ers loss to top-ranked USC. He followed by hitting a blistering .833 - a career-high - while registering 20 kills, three digs, one block and one ace in LBSU's sweep of then-No. 7 Pepperdine. For the week, Bittner averaged 6.66 kills, 1.50 digs and hit an efficient .522.

BITTNER'S FOURTH CAREER NATIONAL P.O.W. HONOR IS TIED FOR THE MOST IN LBSU HISTORY: Dean Bittner's national player of the week honor was the fourth of his career, with two coming in 2008, one in 2009 and one this season. His four national honors are tied for the most in school history with David McKienzie who won two in 1999 and two in 2001. Tyler Hildebrand has three national weekly honors, while Tom Hoff, Duncan Budinger and Paul Lotman had two each.

BITTNER'S 38 KILLS AGAINST UC SANTA BARBARA MARKED SIXTH TIME IN CAREER, AND SECOND THIS SEASON, HE HAS HAD 30 OR MORE KILLS IN A MATCH: Despite Long Beach State's loss to UC San Barbara on February 12, Dean Bittner had one of the best matches of his career. The senior finished with a season-high 38 kills and a .320 hitting percentage in leading the 49ers in a heart-breaking five-game loss. The 38 kills were the second-most in his four-year career, trailing only the 42 kills he had as a junior at BYU last year.

Earlier this season, Bittner had a 30-kill effort in the season opener against California Baptist. Bittner needs two more matches with 30 kills to tie Martin Wagner (94, 96) for the fifth most 30-kill matches in a career at Long Beach State.

BITTNER NEEDS SEVEN KILLS TO BECOME JUST SIXTH LBSU PLAYER TO RECORD 1,600 CAREER KILLS: Dean Bittner joined elite company at Long Beach State when he recorded his 1,500th career kill at Pepperdine on January 23. He is just seven kills away form joining even a smaller group of 49er greats with 1,600 career kills. Bittner will join Brent Hilliard, Brett Winslow, Matt Kerins, Scott Touzinsky, and David McKienzie as the only six 49ers to reach 1,600 kills during their career at The Beach.

BITTNER AMONG LBSU ALL-TIME LEADERS IN THREE CATEGORIES: Senior Dean Bittner already ranks among the all-time leaders in three separate career categories at Long Beach State. Bittner is fourth all-time with 35 matches with at least 20 kills. He needs three more to pass Tom Hoff (1995-96) for third on the list. Bittner also has moved into fourth all-time in service aces with 103. He needs 30 more to pass Brent Hilliard (1990-93) for third all-time. Bittner passed Robert Tarr (2003-06) for sixth on the all-time kills list list against UCSB on Feb. 12 when he had a season-high 38 kills. He needs 49 more kills to pass David McKienzie (1998) and tie Scott Touzinsky (2001-04) for fourth on the all-time list.

ALEXANDER MOVING UP CAREER CHARTS IN A PAIR OF BLOCKING CATEGORIES: Dan Alexander is moving up the career charts in both blocks and matches with at least 10 blocks. Alexander moved into seventh all-time in blocks passing Duncan Budinger (2003-06) in the 49ers' win at UC San Diego. He now has 414 career blocks and needs 16 more to pass Neil Mendel (1993-96) for sixth on the all-time list. He also became just the eighth player in school history to record 400 blocks. Alexander also has 10 career games with at least 10 kills, which ranks fifth all-time. He needs one more to tie Matt Prosser (1998-01) for fourth on the list.

KLIPSCH FIFTH IN CAREER ASSISTS AT LBSU: Junior Mike Klipsch is in the top five in career assists at Long Beach State. The junior from St. Louis, Mo., has 2,984 career assists and needs 143 assists to pass Steve Walker (1995-96) for fourth on the all-time list. Klipsch is currently second on the depth chart behind Conor Eaton at setter and hasn't started since the season opener against California Baptist.

LBSU PICKED SEVENTH IN PRESEASON MPSF POLL: Despite returning every starter except libero Dustin Watten, Long Beach State was picked to finish seventh in the preseason MPSF Coaches Poll. The Beach collected 58 points in a vote of the 12 league coaches. Defending MPSF Tournament champion USC edged defending national champion UC Irvine as the preseason pick to win the conference. The Trojans finished with 112 points and five first-place votes, while the Anteaters tallied 110 points and five first-place votes.