LB Picked 7th in Poll

49ers Picked t-7th in MPSF Pre-Season Poll
MVB Season Starts in January

November 24, 2006

WOODLAND, CA -- In this second annual MPSF Men’s Volleyball Preseason Coaches Poll, UC Irvine topped the coaches ballots with seven first-place votes to earn the top ranking. UCI finished the 2006 season as the MPSF regular season champion and the fourth-place team at the NCAA Men’s Volleyball Championship Tournament after losing to Penn State in a semifinal. The Anteaters return MPSF Player of the Year, Jayson Jablonsky, to lead Coach John Speraw’s veteran crew. No. 2 BYU garnered three first-place votes in a bid to return to last year’s form where they started out the preseason as the No. 1 ranked team in this same Preseason Poll. In a three-way tie for third-place were Hawaii, Pepperdine and UCLA, all checking in at 41 points apiece with the Warriors and Waves each generating one first-place tally. In 2006, the Bruins won out their final 14 matches to take both the MPSF and the NCAA Men’s Volleyball Championship Tournaments. UC Santa Barbara followed in No. 6 before a tie for No. 7 between CS Northridge and Long Beach State. USC, Pacific, Stanford and UC San Diego have been projected to finish out 2007 in the same positions where they ended 2006.

49er Capsule:
2006: (23-10 overall; 14-8 MPSF 2006) – Long Beach State loses a bulk of its offense with the departure of two-time All-
Americans, Robert Tarr and Tyler Hildebrand. The 49ers also lose depth at middle blocker, Duncan Budinger, a third-team All-American last season. LBSU returns junior outside hitters Norm Hutton at OH and Paul Lotman. Both averaged 2.96 and 2.00 kills per game last season.

MPSF Pre-Season Coaches Poll
No. 1 UC Irvine
No. 2 Brigham Young
No. 3T Hawaii
No. 3T Pepperdine
No. 3T UCLA
No. 6 UC Santa Barbara
No. 7T Cal State Northridge
No. 7T Long Beach State
No. 9 USC
No. 10 Pacific
No. 11 Stanford
No. 12 UC San Diego

Long Beach State University Athletics

Related News

Related Videos