UCLA
Long Beach St
UCLA Drops Five-Game Match to Long Beach State
January 23, 2003 | Men's Volleyball
Jan. 23, 2003
The third-ranked UCLA men's volleyball team lost its second straight five-game match to No.8 Long Beach State Thursday night in Pauley Pavilion.
Long Beach State won, 22-30, 31-29, 26-30, 30-17, 15-13 in two hours and 15 minutes before 647 fans.
The loss drops UCLA to 3-3 overall, 0-2 in conference play. Long Beach State improves to 6-1 overall and 2-0 in league play.
Junior J.T. Wenger led the Bruins with a career-high of 18 kills, followed by sophomore Jonathan Acosta who added 17 (.333). Senior setter Rich Nelson spiked a career-high of seven kills (.778) and junior Chris Pena added a season-high of 12 kills (.526) and six block assists.
Junior Jeff Wootten led the Beach with 25 kills.
After taking the lead two games to one, the Bruins dug a hole for themselves in Game 4 by falling behind 10-2. Long Beach never let UCLA start a rally, and won the game by 13 points.
Late in Game 5, a crucial service error and two hitting errors led the Bruins' demise.
Next match for UCLA is Sat., Jan. 25 at 7 p.m. in Pauley Pavilion against UC San Diego.
