MPSF
honors Beach volleyball players
By Todd Leland
On-line Forty-Niner
 Tuesday
afternoon Tyler Hildebrand got the news
everyone in the conference already knew
he would get. Hildebrand was named Mountain
Pacific Sports Federation Freshman of the
Year.
Anyone who watched Hildebrand play is not
surprised because he set his teammates up
all season. The award is confirmation of
one of the best seasons by a setter in Long
Beach State volleyball history.
The road to the accolade had its potholes.
Hildebrand was one of five setters vying
for the starting spot before the season
began in the fall.
“There were five guys at the setter spot
in the fall,” Hildebrand said. “The starter
from last year ended up not playing, then
the guy that was supposed to start the season
at setter ended up not playing as well.”
That left Hildebrand as the best of the
remaining three setters and the rest is
history.
History making that is, Hildebrand went
on to disperse a freshman single-season
record 1,593 assists surpassing Chris Seiffert’s
mark of 1,578. Hildebrand had a league high
88 assists against Pacific April 3 and posted
80 or more assists twice, while posting
70 or more assists on five ocassions. The
freshman setter also led the MPSF and the
nation in assists per game at 15.17 assists
a game.
All of this would not have been possible
if Hildebrand’s resolve had faultered early
on. With five setters on the practice roster
the temptation to redshirt the season was
great.
“It was up to us to make the decision to
redshirt,” Hildebrand said. “There was no
way I was going to redshirt. I didn’t and
everything turned out a pretty good.”
Hildebrand credits much of his success to
the experience of his teammates.
“A lot of those guys have been big names
in volleyball for a long time,” Hildebrand
said. “This was my first year here and they
helped me a lot with the little things on
the court.”
What could not be helped was Pepperdine’s
domination of The Beach all year. The No.1
seeded Waves swept the season series and
knocked the No.8 seeded 49ers out of the
MPSF playoffs in the first round.
“Pepperdine knocked us out of the MPSF’s
so our season’s over,” Hildebrand said.
With the season over Hildebrand and the
49ers will look to build on the strength
of this season and excel next year.
“We haven’t lost anyone. Everyone is coming
back next year,” Hildebrand said. “There
were no seniors on our team this year so
I’m looking forward to going to Hawaii and
the championships next year.”
Along with Hildebrand’s Freshman of the
Year award several other 49ers garnered
MPSF recognition.
Junior David Lee was named to the All-MPSF
Second Team. Lee led the team and the conference
with a .483 hitting percentage and recorded
a team-high 1.18 blocks per game. Junior
Scott Touzinsky was a Third Team All-MPSF
honoree as he led The Beach with 4.64 kills
per game and became just the 12th player
in Long Beach State history to record over
1,000 kills in his career.
Sophomore Paul Munoz finished the list as
an All-MPSF Honorable Mention. Munoz averaged
1.78 digs per game as the Libero and posted
double-digit digs seven times.
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