No. 1 UCLA Sweeps No. 11 UC San Diego, 3-0

Friday, January 23

La Jolla, CA

7:00 pm (PT)

UCLA

6-0,1-0MPSF

No. 11 UC San Diego

3-3,0-0Big West

UCLA

UC San Diego

No. 1 UCLA Sweeps No. 11 UC San Diego, 3-0

January 23, 2026 | Men's Volleyball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

SAN DIEGO – The No. 1 UCLA men's volleyball program earned a 3-0 sweep of No. 11 UC San Diego on Friday evening from LionTree Arena on the campus of UC San Diego. Zach Rama paced the Bruins with 16 kills on the night.

The Bruins (6-0, 1-0 MPSF) hit .429 as a team on the night, while limiting the Tritons (3-3, 0-0) to .238 on Friday.

With a 2-0 set lead, the Bruins were down 24-22 in the third set in front of a big crowd of almost 3,000, and clawed their way back to tie the set at 24-24. With setter Andrew Rowan at the service line, the Bruins put pressure on the Tritons, forcing an overpass which allowed Rowan to find Sean Kelly to get the Bruins within one, 24-23. After digging the Tritons' next attack, Rowan found Rama, who slammed his kill home to tie the set at 24-24.

In overtime of the third set, UCSD took a 26-25 lead before the Bruins earned three points in a row to take the set 28-26, and the win, 3-0. Rama hammered home his 16th kill of the night to put the Bruins up 27-26 before an attack error from the Tritons gave UCLA the set win, 28-26.

In the opening set, the Bruins fell behind 6-3 early on before roaring back. Rama tied the set at 9-9 before the Bruins earned their first lead of the set since early on when a Kelly serve forced an attack error from the Tritons, giving UCLA a 18-17 advantage.

The Bruins closed out the set on 8-4 run, capped by Rowan ace and a Cameron Thorne kill, giving UCLA the set one win, 25-19.

As for the second set, UCSD took an early 6-5 lead before the Bruins earned back-to-back points. A kill by Rama and a block by Micah Wong Diallo gave UCLA a 7-6 lead.

A Thorne kill and a Rama kill edged the Bruins in front, 17-14, before Kelly added another kill to make it a 3-0 run for the Bruins, and UCLA led 18-14.

The Bruins then closed the set on a 3-0 run courtesy of a UCSD service error, followed by a Trent Taliaferro ace, before the Bruin block stuffed UC San Diego to give the Bruins set two, 25-21.

UCLA closed it out from there in a back-and-forth third set to clinch their fifth sweep in their first six matches of the 2026 season.

Up Next: UCLA returns to Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom Financial on Tuesday night, hosting Vanguard in an MPSF match. First serve is set for 7 pm PT, and the match will be broadcast on B1G+.