THOUSAND OAKS - Despite dropping the first set, UC Santa Cruz women's volleyball kept their focus and responded with three rousing sets in a 3-1 (23-25, 25-19, 25-15, 25-17) victory over Cal Lutheran.
The 20th-ranked Banana Slugs improve to 14-1 and won their 13th straight match.
Coupled with their win over CLU on September 4th, it's the first time in program history that UC Santa Cruz swept the series against the Regals (6-12).

"It felt really good to come out so strong in the 2nd set and maintain our intensity to win the next 3," said head coach Gabrielle Houston. "We played really disciplined defense and made some crucial in-game adjustments that made a big difference. Great teamwork tonight by everyone!"

UCSC started the first set slow, and trailed 18-12 to force a timeout. The Regals had set point at 24-20, but UCSC came back with kills by Samantha Taylor and Isabella Hoglund - sandwiched around a block by Hoglund and Audrey Gilbert- to get within one before Cal Lutheran finally finished the set to win 25-23 and  take a 1-0 lead.
After two ties in Set Two, UCSC ran off 5 straight points, highlighted by a pair of aces from Giovanna Martins and another Gilbert/Hoglund block for a 9-4 lead and forcing a CLU timeout. The Banana Slugs led as much as 8 before the hosts rallied and got within 3 at 22-19. However, UCSC closed out with the last three points to tie the match.

The last two sets were all Banana Slugs, who hit .324 and .382 in the final two sets to take the win. Overall, UC Santa Cruz outhit the hosts .229 to .114. 
Claire Okerlund had a team-high 14 kills, while Taylor and Sydney Ahrendt each had 11. Lauren Bliss has 24 assists, while Sinead Beaupain had 21 plus four of the Banana Slugs' ten service aces.
UC Santa Cruz finishes the weekend at the University of Antelope Valley Saturday at 1pm.