History was working against the Bruins Tuesday night.

Facing off against a Long Beach State team that took it to five sets three times last year in a building where it has struggled in the past, the No. 1 UCLA men’s volleyball team suffered a 3-2 loss – the team’s first in 10 matches.

The Bruins seemed lost on offense all night, hitting just .204 for the match.

“Well, our passing wasn’t very good tonight,” coach Al Scates said.

“We couldn’t really run our offense. Long Beach State is a very good serving team. But we just didn’t pass well, we didn’t defend well, we didn’t dig well.”

UCLA’s defense also struggled, allowing No. 10 Long Beach State (6-6, 2-5 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) to hit .333, while also being outblocked 12.5 to 10.5.

UCLA (12-2, 7-1) got off to an uncharacteristically slow start to the match, falling behind 3-0 to start the first set.

That deficit eventually grew to nine, as the Bruins lost 25-16. It was the first time they have dropped the first set this year and their largest margin of defeat.

It was the quick start of the 49ers that haunted the Bruins the rest of the night.

“It was just a terrible start,” said redshirt senior quick hitter Weston Dunlap. “We put ourselves behind the rest of the game.”

The second set began much as the first one did, with the 49ers jumping out to a quick 2-0 lead and eventually winning 25-18, as the Bruins continued having difficulties stringing points together.

“We didn’t have the start we wanted,” said redshirt senior outside hitter Jeremy Casebeer.

“They’re a very good serving team, so it was hard to get things going, and we weren’t serving as well as we normally do, so we weren’t able to score in bunches.”

With their backs against the wall in the third set, the Bruins were able to rebound, scoring the first three points.

Long Beach State rallied to tie the set at 11 before UCLA scored eight of the next 11 points to take a 19-14 lead. The Bruins went on to win the third set 25-20.

The teams took turns going on runs throughout the fourth set, with the 49ers earning a match point at 25-24.

However, the Bruins, fueled by three huge blocks, fought back to win 27-25 and tie the match at two games apiece.

But in the fifth set, any momentum the Bruins might have built was quickly staunched.

The 49ers again struck first and, after trading a few points, jumped ahead to a 10-6 lead. They went on to win 15-9 and hand the Bruins their first MPSF loss of the season.

“We put ourselves in a position where we could have won,” Casebeer said.

“Unfortunately, in that fifth game we went down. It wasn’t our best match, but we were still able to put ourselves in position to win, which is what we want to do. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to capitalize on it.”

Long Beach State was due for a big match after losing its previous match in another five-set thriller against No. 4 Stanford.

With that momentum, aided by playing on home court and the added motivation to knock off the top-ranked team in the nation, the 49ers made the Bruins look lucky to be even making the match close.

UCLA will continue its road trip with two matches against Hawai’i this weekend. Starting Friday, the Bruins will play the Warriors again Saturday as well.