March 8, 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.

BUSY WEEK AT THE BEACH IN MEN'S VOLLEYBALL: Long Beach State kicks off a busy week on Tuesday night when the 49ers host Loyola-Chicago at 7 p.m. at the Walter Pyramid. The Beach then turns around to host the four-team Active Ankle Tournament on Friday and Saturday. The Beach will play the late game both nights, facing St. Francis at 7 p.m. Friday and Penn State at 7 p.m. on Saturday. BYU faces Penn State at 5 p.m. on Friday and then tangles with St. Francis on Saturday at 5 p.m.

BITTNER MOVES INTO FOURTH IN ALL-TIME KILLS AT LBSU, ALSO RANKS FOURTH ON TWO OTHER CAREER LISTS: Dean Bittner moved into fourth all-time in career kills at Long Beach State on the 49ers road trip to Pacific and Stanford last weekend. The 49er opposite passed 49er greats David McKienzie (1998-01) and Scott Touzinsky (2001-04) in the Pacific match and then added 24 more kills at Stanford to run his career total to 1,666 kills. Bittner needs 35 kills this week to pass Matt Kerins (1987-90) for third on the all-time list. He also needs just 34 kills to become just the fourth 49er to ever total 1,700 kills during his career.

Bittner also ranks fourth all-time in service aces and matches with at least 20 kills at The Beach. His 24 kills at Stanford ran his career total to 36 matches with 20 or more kills, one behind Tom Hoff (1995-96) for third on the all-time list. He also sits 21 service aces behind Brent Hilliard (1990-93) for third all-time on the aces list.

BITTNER BECOMES 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 joined an even smaller group of 49er greats with 1,600 career kills against Cal Baptist on February 18. Bittner joined 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'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 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 have two each.

PESTOLESI NAMED NATIONAL AND MPSF PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Tommy Pestolesi has been named the Sports Imports/AVCA Division I-II Men's National Player of the Week after igniting his team to a pair of key Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) triumphs Feb. 24 and Feb. 26. He also earned co-MPSF Player of the Week honors for his efforts. In the 49ers' first match, a hard-fought 3-2 win over then-No. 11 UC Irvine, Pestolesi narrowly missed a double-double, smashing 24 kills (.488) while chipping in nine digs, one block and one ace. In LBSU's next match, a 3-0 blanking of then-No. 3 UCLA, the senior came away with 15 kills, five digs and one block on .431 hitting. For the week, Pestolesi hit an efficient .431, while averaging 4.88 kills and 1.75 digs per game.

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 a tie for sixth all-time in blocks with Neil Mendel (1993-96). Alexander heads into the Loyola-Chicago match with 429 blocks and needs 18 more to pass David Lee (2001-04) for fifth. Alexander is just the eighth player in school history to record 400 blocks. He also has 10 career games with at least 10 blocks, which ranks fifth all-time. He needs one more to tie Matt Prosser (1998-01) for fourth on the list.

KLIPSCH NEEDS FOUR ASSISTS FOR 3,000 DURING CAREER; ALSO SITS 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 2,996 career assists and needs 131 assists to pass Steve Walker (1995-96) for fourth on the all-time list. Klipsch also needs just four assists to become the fifth LBSU player to ever record 3,000 assists. He is currently second on the depth chart behind Conor Eaton at setter and has only played sparingly since starting 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.