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Long Beach State University

TJ DeFalco

TJ DeFalco Named AVCA National Player of the Year

5/1/2019 9:10:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

DeFalco earns the honors for the second time in his career

NCAA Championship Banquet Photo Gallery

LONG BEACH, Calif. –
Long Beach State senior outside hitter TJ DeFalco was announced as the AVCA National Player of the Year at the NCAA Championship Banquet on Wednesday night which was held at the Terrace Theater in downtown Long Beach.

DeFalco earns the honors for the second time in his career after having taken home the award during his sophomore campaign in 2017. He is just the fourth player in Division I-II Men's Volleyball history to win the honor twice joining the likes of Jeff Nygaard (UCLA), George Roumain (Pepperdine), and Costas Theochardis (Hawaii).

This is the third consecutive season the award has gone to Long Beach State as DeFalco won in 2017 and teammate Josh Tuaniga earned the honors in 2018 marking the first time in history that a program has accomplished that feat.

The national award comes of the heels of DeFalco claiming his fourth First Team AVCA All-American honor, becoming just the third player in Division I-II Men's Volleyball history to do so.

The 6-foot-4 DeFalco has had an outstanding senior season leading the Beach to their fourth-straight NCAA Final Four appearance. He averages 3.43 kills per set to rank second on the team and 26th in the nation. His .386 attack percentage leads the team and is good for 13th in the NCAA. In his career, DeFalco has accumulated 1,624 kills to rank seventh all-time at the Beach.

DeFalco has been a solid at the endline all season racking up 52 service aces in his senior campaign en route to becoming Long Beach State's all-time aces leader with a total of 178 in his career. His 0.54 service aces per set lead the Big West Conference and are good for fourth in the country.

An extraordinary player on both sides of the ball, DeFalco averages 1.62 digs per set and 0.65 blocks per set. His digs per set average ranks him in the top 10 in the conference. He has amassed 763 digs in his career to rank seventh at the Beach.

DeFalco and the Beach will be back in action Thursday, May 2 in the NCAA Semifinals as No. 2 Long Beach State takes on No. 3 Pepperdine at 7:30 p.m. at the Walter Pyramid.