LA VERNE- In their final test before the postseason, No. 24 UC Santa Cruz Women's Volleyball showed off their resilience with a thrilling comeback in a 3-2 win over La Verne (21-25, 17-25, 25-15, 25-22, 15-12).
 
The Banana Slugs improved to 18-4 after their ninth straight win. It was the second-straight year they defeated the Leopards (15-8) in La Verne after dropping the previous eight matchups at the Athletics Pavilion.
 
UC Santa Cruz fell behind 2-0 after hitting just .090 combined over the first two sets. However, they hit .352 overall in the third and fourth to tie up the match.

The Banana Slugs pulled away after a close start to Set Three. Consecutive combo blocks by Ashley Magley and Audrey Gilbert gave the Banana Slugs a lead, at 11-10, that they would never relinquish. Emily Pasion served six straight points to get to set point, including a kill by Samantha Taylor that was given to the Banana Slugs after a referee discussion.
 
Set Four started with another Magley/Gilbert combo block. Two more kills by Magley gave UC Santa Cruz an early 7-2 lead and forced a Leopard timeout. An Ace by Taylor gave the Banana Slugs their biggest lead at 22-14 and Magley's kill ended the set after the Leopards rallied to within one point.
 
In the pivotal fifth set, there were five ties before the Banana Slugs took the lead for good on a 4-0 run, served by Sinead Beaupain, to get to 9-5. After trading points, Taylor won a joust to make it 13-8 for UC Santa Cruz. The Leopards then fought off four match points until Peyton Tazelaar's kill ended the match.
 
Taylor finished with a team-high 16 kills to go with 3 aces and a career-high 20 digs. Magley added a season-high 14 kills, while Tazelaar and Sydney Ahrendt each had 11. Lauren Bliss had a team-high 30 assists, Beaupain had 27 assists to become the seventh woman in program history to go over 1,400 career assists. La Verne had a slight advantage hitting .232 total to UC Santa Cruz's .198, but the Banana Slugs had a 69-54 advantage in kills and totaled 92 digs to the Leopards' 82.
 
The Banana Slugs will host Cabrillo College for Senior Night next Saturday as their final prep for the Coast-To-Coast Conference tournament in two weeks.