Box Score MERCED, CA -- UC Santa Cruz finished its January portion of the schedule as they took on NAIA opponent UC Merced in Merced. Just like the two schools' match on January 9th, the Banana Slugs swept the Golden Bobcats 3-0.
The Banana Slugs were coming off a 3-0 victory over Santa Barbara City College on Friday while the Golden Bobcats were coming off a 3-0 loss to Concordia University of Irvine on Sunday in Merced.
In the first set, the two teams played a back and forth match but the Banana Slugs would, in the end, double the amount of kills as their opponent as the Banana Slugs won the first set 25-17 and would lead the match 1-0. The second set belonged to the Banana Slugs from the very start. The Banana Slugs forced six errors and a negative hitting percentage by the Golden Bobcats for the 25-13 second set victory and a 2-0 match lead. In the third set, the Banana Slugs played a balanced set while committing only two errors during the course of the set. The Banana Slugs won the third set 25-15 and won the match 3-0.
For UC Santa Cruz, Jake Howard had a match high ten kills and for UC Merced, Cole Smith had seven kills. Ryan McLaughlin had a match high twenty five assists for UC Santa Cruz and Scott Livesay had thirteen for UC Merced. McLaughlin led the Banana Slugs with a match high seven digs and Livesay had five digs for the Golden Bobcats.
For the match, UC Santa Cruz had a .391 hitting percentage with the best percentage coming in the third set at .474 while UC Merced had a .000 hitting percentage with the third set having the best percentage at .074. UC Santa Cruz had eight service aces to UC Merced's one.
The Banana Slugs' next game will be Thursday as they take on Elmira College in Elmira, New York. The first serve is set for 2 pm.
