April 12, 2010

LONG BEACH, Calif. -

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 WRAPS UP REGULAR SEASON WITH PAIR OF HOME MATCHES: Long Beach State wraps up its regular season this week with a pair of tough Mountain Pacific Sports Federation matches against No. 3 Pepperdine on Thursday and No. 6 USC on Saturday at the Walter Pyramid. The Beach beat Pepperdine in Malibu in the first meeting between the two teams this year, while dropping the first match against USC in Los Angeles. Saturday's match will be senior night and mark the last time Dan Alexander, Dean Bittner, Conor Eaton and Tommy Pestolesi play for the 49ers in the Walter Pyramid.

LBSU STILL HAS SLIM CHANCE OF QUALIFYING FOR MPSF POSTSEASON TOURNAMENT: Long Beach State can still qualify for the MPSF playoffs, but the 49ers are going to need a lot of help to make it happen. The Beach enters the week in a tie for ninth place with UC Santa Barbara at 8-12 in MPSF play. The top eight teams advance to the postseason tournament and the 49ers are a game out of eighth and two games out of seventh.

To qualify for the tournament, Long Beach State needs to win both of its matches this weekend and then hope for some help. LBSU can claim seventh place with a pair of wins, two losses by both UCLA and UC Irvine and a loss by UC Santa Barbara. The 49ers also will qualify for the postseason if they finish in a two-way tie with UCLA for seventh or eighth or a three-way tie with UCLA and UC Irvine.

The Beach's hopes hinge on winless Pacific and Stanford beating UCLA and UC Santa Barbara losing at least one match to Hawaii; or on UCLA losing two and UC Irvine or UCSB losing at least one each.

BITTNER BECOMES JUST THIRD LBSU PLAYER WITH 1,800 CAREER KILLS: Senior Dean Bittner continues to reach milestones that very few Long Beach State players have accomplished. His latest achievement came at UC Irvine when he surpassed the 1,800 career kill plateau becoming just the third 49er to reach the mark. The Lakewood, Calif., native has 1,833 kills and joins Brett Hilliard (1990-93) and Brett Winslow (1988-91) as the only players in school history to reach the 1,800 kill plateau. Bittner ranks in the top five in three all-time categories at Long Beach State.

BITTNER MOVES INTO SECOND ALL-TIME IN KILLS AT LBSU; ALSO RANKS THIRD IN MOST MATCHES WITH AT LEAST 20 KILLS AND FOURTH IN SERVICE ACES: Dean Bittner passed Brett Winslow (1988-91) for second on the all-time kills list at Long Beach State in the home loss to UCLA last Saturday. The senior opposite now trails only Brent Hilliard (1990-93), who is the all-time leader with 3,034 kills. Bittner needs one more match with at least 20 kills to tie David McKienzie (1998-01) for second on the 20+ kills list. Hilliard is also the all-time leader on that list with 89 matches with 20-or-more kills.

Bittner also ranks fourth all-time in service aces at Long Beach State. He needs eight more to pass Hilliard for third and 11 to pass Paul Lotman (2005-08) for second all-time. Scott Touzinsky (2001-04) is the all-time leader with 158 service aces.

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 was 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 FOUR CATEGORIES: Dan Alexander is moving up the career charts in four separate career record lists--blocks, block assists, matches with at least 10 blocks, and service aces. Alexander moved into fifth all-time in blocks passing David Lee (2001-04) in the home win over Pacific. He now has 472 career blocks and needs 39 more to pass Matt Prosser (1998-01) for fourth. Alexander is just the eighth player in school history to record 400 blocks. He is currently third in block assists with 450 passing Robert Kutsch (1987-90) last week. He needs 10 more to pass Prosser for second. He also has seven career matches with at least 10 blocks, which ranks fifth all-time. He needs one more to tie Prosser (1998-01) for fourth on the list. Alexander is fifth all-time in service aces with 117. He is eight behind teammate Dean Bittner.

EATON MOVES INTO SIXTH IN CAREER ASSISTS AT LBSU: Conor Eaton has returned to the starting lineup during most of his senior season and as a result is climbing the all-time assists list at LBSU. The Dana Point, Calif., product passed Ryan Mennealy (1988-90) for sixth at UC Irvine last week and then passed the 2,500 career assist milestone against UCLA. Eaton started his freshman season and handed out 1,194 assists before combining for 127 assists as a sophomore and junior while backing up Mike Klipsch. This season, Eaton beat out Klipsch to return to the starting lineup and has tallied 1,182 assists.

KLIPSCH GETS CAREER ASSIST NUMBER 3,000; SITS FIFTH IN CAREER ASSISTS AT LBSU: Mike Klipsch is in the top five in career assists at Long Beach State. The junior from St. Louis, Mo., has 3,107 career assists and needs 20 assists to pass Steve Walker (1995-96) for fourth on the all-time list. Klipsch also became just the fifth LBSU player to ever record 3,000 assists. He has been second on the depth chart behind Conor Eaton at setter for most of the season and has seen limited time in the lineup.