Long Beach State will look to run its season-high win streak to four matches Thursday night when the 49ers travel to No. 1 Cal State Northridge, and on Friday night in the ‘Myd against UC Santa Barbara. The Beach has put together back-to-back 3-0 wins over Pepperdine and UC San Diego and a 3-1 win over UC San Diego.

LAST MEETING: Cal State Northridge 3, Long Beach State 0: Dean Bittner had 19 kills and hit .351 but it wasn’t enough as Long Beach State dropped a 30-26, 30-23, 30-27 decision to the Matadors at the Walter Pyramid on Jan. 15. The Matadors won behind the strength of a .366 hitting percentage as well as 9.5 team blocks. Theo Edwards led CSUN with 17 kills, while Kevin McKniff added 14. JuniorAntwain Aguillard paced Long Beach State with an .899 (8-0-9) hitting percentage, while Dan Alexander hit .545 (7-1-11). Conor Eatonfinished with 44 assists. Long Beach State (2-3, 1-1 MPSF) hit .272 for the match.

LAST MEETING: Long Beach State 3, UC Santa Barbara 2: Long Beach State rallied from a 2-1 games deficit against UC Santa Barbara to win its Mountain Pacific Sports Federation opener 23-30, 30-24, 24-30, 30-26, 15-9 in Santa Barbara on Jan. 13. The Beach trailed 5-3 in the deciding fifth set when senior Dan Alexander stepped up and almost single handedly led the 49ers to the win. Long Beach State scored points on six straight serves by Alexander, including four aces by the middle blocker. Sophomore Jim Baughman added a fifth ace and two kills in the final set, while senior Dean Bittner capped the comeback with back-to-back kills. LBSU finished with seven aces in the match, five coming in the fifth game. Alexander had five aces and 10 kills (.421 hitting percentage) to lead the 49ers, while Baughman had two aces, a team-best 19 kills and a team-high 10 digs. Bittner chipped in 19 kills for the 49ers who won despite hitting just .200 for the match. Conor Eaton had 53 assists. The 49ers also beat UCSB 3-2 in Santa Barbara on Jan. 7 in the UCSB tournament.

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 30 KILLS IN OPENER MARKED FIFTH TIME IN CAREER SENIOR HAS HAD 30 OR MORE KILLS IN A MATCH: Despite Long Beach State’s loss against California Baptist in this season’s opener, senior Dean Bittner got off to an impressive start to the season with the fifth 30-kill match of his career. Bittner needs three 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 had four 30-kill matches last season, including a career-high 42 at BYU.

BITTNER BECOMES JUST SEVENTH LBSU PLAYER TO RECORD 1,500 CAREER KILLS: Dean Bittner joined elite company at Long Beach State when he recorded his 1,500th career kill at Pepperdine on January 23. Bittner joined Brent Hilliard, Brett Winslow, Matt Kerins, Scott Touzinsky, David McKienzie and Robert Tarr as the only seven 49ers to reach 1,500 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 34 matches with at least 20 kills. He needs four more to pass Tom Hoff (1995-96) for third on the list. Bittner also has moved into fourth all-time in service aces with 102. He needs 31 more to pass Brent Hilliard (1990-93) for third all-time. Bittner is also seventh in career kills with 1,540. He needs 17 more to pass Robert Tarr (2003-06) for sixth 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 407 career blocks and needs 23 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. 

Reports From LBSU