{"id":1433,"date":"2010-04-18T03:20:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-18T03:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/sports\/lbsu-vball-niners-say-goodbye-to-senior-class-w-photos\/"},"modified":"2010-04-18T03:20:00","modified_gmt":"2010-04-18T03:20:00","slug":"lbsu-vball-niners-say-goodbye-to-senior-class-w-photos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/lbsu-vball-niners-say-goodbye-to-senior-class-w-photos","title":{"rendered":"LBSU VBall: Niners Say Goodbye To Senior Class (W\/Photos)"},"content":{"rendered":"


Photos by Mike Guardabascio<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

“Yeah they’re a special group,” Long Beach State men’s volleyball coach Andy Read said of his graduating quartet of seniors.  <\/span>The 49ers had just capped a disappointing finish to their 2010 campaign with a 30-25, 30-25, 30-23 loss at home to USC in the Pyramid.  <\/span>The loss was their seventh in a row, and tenth in their last eleven matches. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Read said he wasn’t sure what derailed his team, which finished 12-17 overall and 8-14 in the powerhouse MPSF conference.  <\/span>“We played hard all the time,” he said, “and we had plenty of opportunities.  <\/span>Sometimes it comes down to serving the ball, passing\u2026it just seemed like when we were getting going, one wheel would fall off.”  <\/span>Those obstacles included injuries, the difficulty of adjusting to the absence of departed-for-the-Olympics Alan Knipe, some plain bad luck (five five-set losses) and perhaps whatever malaise seems to have generally fallen over Long Beach State this year.  <\/span><\/o:p><\/p>\n

The loss to USC was academic, with a five-set heartbreaker to Pepperdine in their last match having already eliminated the 49ers from the postseason tournament.  <\/span>Senior Night seemed almost more about the seniors and their teammates enjoying one last night together in the Pyramid.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Senior Dean Bittner had 11 kills, but no other 49er finished with double-digit kills, and the team hit just .174 (while USC hit .471) in the three-set defeat.  <\/span>Bittner said after the game it was strange suiting up for the last time after five years.  <\/span>“I don’t really know how to explain it,” he said.  <\/span>“I had a great five years here, I got up there in some records.”  <\/span>Bittner says it’s definitely his goal to join Knipe in the Olympic program (he and several other 49ers were on the Pan-Am team last year, and Bittner says he’s on the Pan-Am and World League rosters for the Summer).<\/o:p><\/p>\n

With the departure of Bittner, Dan Alexander, Tommy Pestolesi, and  <\/span>Conor Eaton, the team will have some big holes to fill\u2014but they do have talent coming back, as well.  <\/span>“Obviously Antwain Aguillard, Jim Baughman will be key pieces in that,” said Read, who will have the unenviable task of replacing his setter and best two offensive weapons.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

PHOTOS:<\/o:p><\/p>\n

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Members of the women’s volleyball team join Westside Rentals Guy<\/o:p><\/p>\n

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Dan Alexander and family<\/o:p><\/p>\n

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The Bittners<\/o:p><\/p>\n

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The Bittners<\/o:p><\/p>\n

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The Eatons<\/o:p><\/p>\n

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The Pestolesis (Tommy was a third-generation 49er athlete)<\/o:p><\/p>\n

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Seniors and their families<\/o:p><\/p>\n

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The team<\/o:p><\/p>\n

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Bittner and his high school coach, Lakewood’s Mike Wadley<\/o:p><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 49ers season ended with a sweep loss to USC, as the team says goodbye to a special quartet of seniors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1433\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1433"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=1433"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}