AURORA, ILLINOIS - In the regular season finale, UC Santa Cruz dropped a hard-fought match to hosts Aurora 3-1 (11-25, 25-18, 21-25, 21-25).

UCSC closes their season 7-2, with every match played over a ten-day Midwest trip.

Before the game, the hosts honored all the seniors playing in their last match, including UCSC's senior quartet of Quinn Barrett, Rowdy Lennon, Ian Pizzuti and Sam Wittert.

The visiting Banana Slugs never led in the first set, with Aurora closing on a 13-3 run to take the set. UCSC found their rhythm in Set Two however,  never trailing and hitting .375 with 15 kills to tie the match 1-1. Set Three saw UCSC run to an 11-6 lead before an Aurora run tied it at 12-all. UCSC got the lead back with the next two points before Aurora closed with a 13-7 run to win the set.

In Set Four, there were two ties before Aurora took an early lead. An ace by Ethan Makishima got UCSC back to within one at 6-5. However, Aurora answered with a 6-1 run for a 12-6 lead. UCSC fought back, and two kills from Lennon put the Banana Slugs within 2 at 22-20 before the hosts finished with a 3-1 run to take set and match.

Overall, the Spartans (10-6) outhit UCSC .260 to .137 and had 11 total blocks to UCSC's 4.

Lennon finished with a team-high 14 kills, with Pizzuti adding 10 and Barrett with 9. Wittert had 27 assists to place third in program history with 1,699 career assists. Maxwell Mednick had 16 digs.