No. 2 Long Beach State Comes Up Short AT No. 4 UCLA

Thursday, February 9

Los Angeles, Calif.

8:00 p.m.

Long Beach State University

6-1,0-0Big West

UCLA

10-1,0-0MPSF

Long Beach St.

UCLA

2/9/2023 11:49:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

LBSU suffers their first loss, but will have the chance to bounce straight back with the home return match Friday night in the Walter Pyramid.

By: Roger Kirk, Associate Athletics Director, Communications & Broadcast

LOS ANGELES – Sotiris Siapanis led Long Beach State on the road at UCLA with 13 kills, but the Beach couldn't find an answer for UCLA's Ido David as the Bruins took down the Beach 25-19, 25-21, 25-20 in Pauley Pavilion.

                Long Beach State (6-1) started off the night on a bright note as UCLA (10-1) began the match with an error and Siapanis followed with a quick service ace to put UCLA in an early hole. Evening the score at 8-8, a kill from J.R. Norris and an attack error from Simon Torwie put the Bruins in front 10-8, and the Beach couldn't ever pull back the service edge. Leading 21-18, a solo block from Andrew Rowan gave UCLA a four-point edge and the Bruins went on to take the first set.

                Tied 7-7 in the second set, UCLA took the first key run with three straight points to open up a 10-7 lead, forcing a Long Beach State timeout. The Beach stopped the momentum with that timeout, but an Alex Knight kill followed by an ace from David helped push the lead to 15-9. Two kills from Siapanis brought the Beach back within striking distance, but the Beach couldn't close the gap any further on the way to a 25-21 second set defeat.

                In the third set, the Beach got a lift from Siapanis who finished with five kills, but the Beach fell behind 9-5 after a triple block from the Bruins. The Beach were unable to capitalize on serve through the set as UCLA held on the rest of the way for a 25-20 win to close out the victory.

                Siapanis led Long Beach State with 13 kills on .304 hitting while Simon Torwie hit .44 with six kills, but the Beach ultimately hit just .190 on the night to UCLA's .551, carried by .696 hitting from Ido and .579 hitting from Knight.

                The Beach will get another crack at the Bruins with a quick turnaround, hosting UCLA inside of the Walter Pyramid at 7 p.m. on Friday, February 10. Live coverage of the match will be provided by ESPN+.