Not much, if anything, could be done to slow down middle attacker Cameron Thorne.
Thorne finished with a season-high 13 kills and zero errors on a .812 attack percentage as No. 1/1 UCLA defeated No. 2/2 Long Beach State 25-15, 23-25, 27-25, 26-24 on Friday in Los Angeles.
Thorne had seven kills in the final two games of the non-conference victory highlighted with a kill in the third-game overtime to set up a game-point. The middle attacker on the following play also had the game-winning block.
Along with the offensive performance, Thorne finished with a match-high six blocks in front of a home crowd of 4,842 people.
Thorne was one of two Bruins with more than a .600 attack percentage.
Outside attacker Sean Kelly had 13 kills and hit .632 against the Beach. Kelly also did not commit an attack error in the final two games and had a game-high five kills in the final game to secure the victory.
Setter Andrew Rown guided the offense to out-hit Long Beach State .447 to .277. In addition, the Bruins committed three attack errors through the first two games and had a match-best .625 attack percentage in the opening game.
Long Beach State pin-hitters Skyler Varga and Wojciech Gajek in the loss both had a match-high 18 kills.
The Beach also had an opportunity to potentially force a decisive fifth game.
Long Beach State rallied from a four-point deficit midway through the fourth game and took a 23-22 lead with a Varga kill. UCLA responded, though, with back-to-back kills from Zach Rama and then won the match in overtime on two consecutive Long Beach State errors.
Rama finished with 12 kills – one of three Bruins to have double-digit kills.
UCLA with this victory remains the only undefeated team in the nation and completes the home-and-home series sweep against the Beach. The Bruins rallied from a two-game road deficit to beat the Beach in five game earlier this month.