UCLA
Long Beach State
Bruins Get Fourth Straight Shutout By Beating Long Beach St. 3-0
February 29, 2012 | Men's Volleyball
Feb. 29, 2012
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Los Angeles, Calif. - The top-ranked UCLA men's volleyball team was able to exact revenge for their earlier loss to Long Beach State on Wednesday night, as they swept the 49ers in three sets at the John Wooden Center.
UCLA improved to 16-2 overall and 10-1 in MPSF play, good for first place in the conference. It was also the Bruins' fourth consecutive sweep of an opponent dating back to Feb. 17. The 49ers dropped to 8-8 overall and 4-7 in conference play. Set scores were 25-18, 25-20, and 25-21.
The Bruins were eager to make up for their earlier loss to the 49ers, and showed it as they quickly jumped out to a 10-5 lead in the first set. UCLA would keep the pressure on and saw their lead get as big as eight points en route to a 25-18 first set victory.
The second set started out competitively and then at 7-7, UCLA was able to garner a lead behind a Jeremy Casebeer kill, a Weston Dunlap ace and a Long Beach attack error to make it 10-7 Bruins. The 49ers fought back and were able to tie the set at 15-15, but UCLA quickly put a stop to any comeback as they took the next three points behind kills from Kyle Caldwell and Gonzalo Quiroga and an ace from Nick Vogel. From there the Bruins were able to coast to a 25-20 second set win and put the 49ers in a 2-0 hole.
After falling down two points in the third set, the Bruins bounced back and regained the lead after taking five straight points to make it 11-8. Once again the 49ers would fight back though and were able to tie the set at 14-14, but UCLA took the next two points off back-to-back errors by Long Beach. At 23-21, the Bruins called timeout to stop another Long Beach surge and were able to close out the set after Dunlap hammered home a kill and served ace to give UCLA a 25-21 third set win and seal the match in three.
Vogel led UCLA with 10.5 points on the night after recording seven blocks, an ace and five block assists. Dunlap was right behind him with 10 points on six kills, two aces, a solo block and two block assists. Quiroga and Casebeer tied with Vogel for the team lead in kills in the match, hammering seven apiece against Long Beach. Finally, Caldwell again had a great night setting, recording 28 set assists and setting the Bruins to a .315 hitting percentage. He also contributed six digs in the match, which was tied for the match-high with teammate Evan Mottram.
Overall, the Bruins held the 49ers to just a .141 hitting percentage and outblocked Long Beach 7.5-3.5. Jim Baughman led Long Beach State with 13 kills on the night.
The Bruins will now head just up the 405 freeway to take on the Cal State Northridge Matadors on Fri., Mar. 2 at 7 pm in the Matadome.
