In front of a raucous home crowd, junior Colton Jeffrey had a season-high 20 kills and senior Cinjun Coe had 17 as UC Santa Cruz broke a six-match losing streak in an exciting 3-1 win over Concordia of Wisconsin.
The Banana Slugs (1-6) hit .218 in the match.
The Banana Slugs hit .440 to quickly take the first set 25-16. The Banana Slugs were up 24-21 in the second, but the Falcons rallied for the next four points to force a set point of their own. After that, there were eight ties as both teams completed a full rotation of servers to try and get the advantage before Concordia held on to win the set 34-32 and tie the match.

The third set was close too until three straight kills by Jeffrey sparked a 4-0 run that made it 18-11 in an eventual 25-19 Banana Slug win.
The Falcons led the close fourth set 13-12, before a kill from Coe and consecutive kills from Jeffrey pushed UCSC ahead 15-13 and the Banana Slugs never trailed again. Zach Thompson closed the match with a kill, ending the set 25-20.

Thompson finished with nine kills and four block assists. Aaron Fox had a team-high 14 digs while Mohan Duvvuri had a double-double with 37 assists and 12 digs. Freshman Braden Collins finished with six assists, two blocks and an ace in his college debut.
Spencer Herman, the nation's leader in kills per set, had 19 kills to lead the Falcons.
The two teams will face each other again at Kaiser Permanente Arena 1pm Saturday.