LONG BEACH, Calif. \u2013 The No. 1 UCLA men’s volleyball team earned a reverse sweep over No. 2 Long Beach State on Friday night, winning 3-2. Set scores on the night were 16-25, 22-25, 25-22, 25-19, 15-10.<\/p>\n
The No. 1-ranked Bruins (9-0, 2-0 MPSF) handed No. 2 Long Beach State (8-1, 0-0 Big West) its first loss of the season.<\/p>\n
Despite dropping the first two sets, the Bruins battled back, taking the third, fourth and fifth sets, while limiting Long Beach to a .193 hitting percentage on the day.<\/p>\n
Setter Andrew Rowan<\/a> paced the Bruins offense with 45 assists, while Zach Rama<\/a> tallied 21 kills, and Sean Kelly<\/a> added 14 kills for the Bruins. Skyler Varga led The Beach with 12 kills on the night.<\/p>\n With the match tied at 2-2, the Bruins carried their momentum from sets three and four into the fifth set. UCLA took an early 5-2 lead after kills from Rama and Cameron Thorne<\/a> forced a Long Beach timeout.<\/p>\n Back-to-back aces by Varga got Long Beach State even at 5-5. Decker and Hersh responded with a block to push the Bruins up 7-5.<\/p>\n Long Beach then took an 8-7 lead in the final set before the Bruins rattled off four-straight points to make it 11-8, forcing a LBSU timeout. A block from Rowan and Hersh, followed by a Rama kill, forced the Long Beach timeout.<\/p>\n The Bruins pushed the lead to 13-10 before closing out the night. Rama recorded his 21st kill of the evening to make it 14-10 before Rowan ended the match with an ace, giving the Bruins the set 15-10, and the match 3-2. \u00a0<\/p>\n In the final set, the Bruins hit .529 while limiting Long Beach to -.062 hitting.<\/p>\n As for the fourth set, UCLA raced out to a 13-9 lead, after an attack error from Long Beach State. A kill from Hersh off an assist from Rowan made it 17-14, and then the Bruins forced another attack error from Long Beach to make it 18-14.<\/p>\n With the Bruins leading 23-18 in the set, Kelly and Rama tallied kills to give the Bruins the fourth set 25-19, forcing a decisive fifth set. \u00a0<\/p>\n After dropping the first two sets 16-25 and 22-25, the Bruins rallied back in the final three sets. After struggling offensively in the opening sets, the Bruins earned a hard-fought third set win, 25-22.<\/p>\n