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No. 2/3 UCLA was nearly flawless in the decisive fifth game to pull off its biggest win so far this season.
UCLA did not commit an attack error and had one service error in the fifth game as it defeated No. 1/1 Long Beach State 25-20, 25-23, 23-25, 21-25, 15-12 on Saturday in Los Angeles.
This is the second consecutive season and the third time in John Speraw’s head coaching tenure at UCLA that the Bruins have defeated a top-ranked team. The victory also comes one week after Long Beach State hit .400 to sweep UCLA in the opener of the home-and-home non-conference series.
UCLA (8-2, 0-0 MPSF) in the series finale limited Long Beach State to a .286 attack percentage – its second lowest attack percentage this season. Long Beach State (7-2, 0-0 Big West) played this match with Eric Beebe at setter instead of its typical starting setter Aidan Knipe, who was out with a non-coronavirus illness.
Setter Miles Partain had 47 assists and guided the UCLA offense to hit .331, including a .441 attack percentage in the final game.
Partain also had an ace midway through the fifth game as part of a 6-1 run that helped the Bruins erase a deficit and extend their lead to three points.
Three Bruins had double-digit kills with middle attacker Guy Genis having 11 kills and one error on a team-best .667 attack percentage. Outside attacker Ethan Camplin led the Bruins with 13 kills and hit .308, while outside attacker Ido David added 12 kills.
Outside attacker Alex Nikolov in the loss had a match-high 19 kills. In addition, Long Beach State outside attacker Spencer Olivier contributed 15 kills.
UCLA out-blocked Long Beach State 11 to 8 as Genis had a team-high five blocks.
Middle attacker Grant Marocchi led all players with seven blocks against UCLA Long Beach State libero Mason Briggs also had a match-high 12 digs