UCLA
Long Beach State
Top-Ranked Bruins Upset by Long Beach State in Five
February 14, 2012 | Men's Volleyball
Feb. 14, 2012
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Long Beach, Calif. - After dropping the first two sets, the top-ranked UCLA Bruins fought hard and managed to push the match to a deciding fifth set, but were unable to complete the comeback as they were upset by the Long Beach State 49ers in five sets on Tuesday night.
UCLA dropped to 12-2 overall and 7-1 in MPSF play with the loss while also seeing their 10-match winning streak snapped. Meanwhile, the 49ers improved to 6-6 overall and 2-5 in conference play. Set scores were 25-16, 25-18, 20-25, 25-27 and 15-9.
In the first set, Long Beach State came out and set the tone as they jumped out to an early 9-3 lead on the Bruins. Eventually UCLA was able to chip away at the lead and got it down to three points at 13-10 forcing Long Beach into a timeout, but after the timeout the 49ers took the next four points and went on to take the first set 25-16. It was the first time all year that the Bruins have dropped the first set to an opponent. Set two featured much of the same for the Bruins as the 49ers jumped out to an early lead and never allowed the Bruins to get things going as they took set two by the score of 25-18, putting UCLA in a 2-0 hole in the match.
The third set would be a different story though, as this time the Bruins prevented the 49ers from jumping out to an early lead in the set. The beginning of the set was tightly contested as the two sides traded points through much of the early going, but when the score got to 11-11 UCLA turned up the attack and won four straight points behind kills from seniors Jeremy Casebeer and Weston Dunlap and sophomore Gonzalo Quiroga. The rest of the set the Bruins were able to keep Long Beach from getting any closer than three points as they took set three and stayed alive in the match.
UCLA again took an early lead in the fourth set and eventually pushed their lead to four points at 16-12. However, Long Beach State fought back and won the next four points to even the set at 16-16. UCLA called timeout and the rest of the set went back-and-forth until the set was tied at 24-24. The 49ers got a block to make it 25-24 and give them a match point, but the Bruins would not be denied and after a kill by senior Thomas Amberg, a block by sophomore Spencer Rowe and senior Kyle Caldwell, and another kill by Gonzalo Quiroga, UCLA evened the match at two sets each after taking set four by the score of 27-25. Unfortunately for the Bruins the fifth set belonged to Long Beach State as they hit an astounding .647 in the final set to thwart UCLA's comeback and win the match in five.
Overall, Jeremy Casebeer led the Bruins with 13 kills and added four block assists to give him a team-high 15 points. Casebeer also had six digs on the night. Gonzalo Quiroga and Weston Dunlap also had double-digit kill nights, recording 12 and 11 kills respectively. Quiroga registered a team-high nine digs as well while Dunlap added two block assists at the net. Thomas Amberg was second to Casebeer in points, recording 14 points on 10 kills, one solo block and six block assists. Finally, setter Kyle Caldwell had 40 set assists in the match and scored four kills, a service ace and seven digs as well.
The Bruins were held to a .204 hitting percentage in the match while the 49ers hit .333 and UCLA was outblocked at the net 12.5-10.5. John La Rusch led Long Beach State with 21 kills on the night
UCLA will now fly west to Honolulu, Hawai'i to take on the Hawai'i Warriors in a two-game set on Fri., Feb. 17 and Sat. Feb. 18. Both matches will begin at 9 pm PT.
