Long Beach State University Athletics
TJ DeFalco Earns National Player of the Week Honors
1/18/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Volleyball
LONG BEACH - Freshman TJ DeFalco (Huntington Beach, Calif.) has been named the AVCA/Sports Imports National Player of the Week and the MPSF/Molten Player of the Week for his performance in a pair of conference wins last weekend.
DeFalco averaged 5.00 kills, 2.12 digs and 1.12 aces per set in his MPSF debut. The 6-foot-4 outside hitter opened the weekend with a season-best 21 kills on .432 hitting, while narrowly missing out on a double-double with nine digs in a 3-1 win over Cal Baptist (Jan. 15). He added six aces against the Lancers, which is tied for third in program history and are the most by a 49er in a match since 2001.
One night later, DeFalco put down a match-high 19 kills (.361) in a four-set victory against No. 13 USC. He filled out the stat sheet with eight digs, four blocks and three aces.
On the young season, DeFalco leads the Beach in kills (77), kills per set (4.53) and aces (12). He is also hitting .371 with 1.82 digs and 0.76 blocks per set. DeFalco is the first 49er to earn both AVCA and MPSF Player of the Week honors since Taylor Crabb in 2014.
This is the 26th time in program history a Long Beach State student-athlete has garnered AVCA/Sports Imports Player of the Week honors.
No. 2 Long Beach State, which is off to a 5-0 start for the first time since 2008, is back in action this weekend when it welcomes third-ranked BYU to the Walter Pyramid on Friday, Jan. 22, and Saturday, Jan. 23. First serve for both matches is 7 p.m.
