THOUSAND OAKS - A rejuvenated and healthy UC Santa Cruz squad had a pair of wins on Friday to open the Cal-Lu-fornia Tournament hosted by Cal Lutheran.
The Banana Slugs hit over .300 in both wins to improve to 5-12, and were able to use their depth after having some players out of action.

Match 1 UCSC 3 Baldwin Wallace 0 (25-15, 25-21, 27-25)
In the opener, the Banana Slugs hit .458 and .158 while holding the Yellowjackets to .133 and -.038 respectively in taking the first two sets.
In Set Three, it was tied at 14-all until the Yellowjackets went on a 6-2 run to lead 20-16. A kill by Aaron Fox and a block from Fox and Ethan Makishima got UC Santa Cruz to within 23-22 and forced a Baldwin Wallace timeout.
A cross court kill by Fox tied it 23-all and Baldwin Wallace called another timeout. The teams tied the next two points before consecutive kills by Cinjun Coe and Fox finished the comeback and gave UC Santa Cruz the hard-earned sweep.

Fox finished with a season-high 16 kills hitting .480. Dylan Foreman added 8 kills. Tennessee Fulks had 7 kills and 7 total blocks in his first match back from injury.  Mohan Duvvuri had 38 assists.

Match #2 UCSC 3 Aurora 1 (25-17, 26-24, 22-25, 25-18)
The second match began the same as the first, as the Banana Slugs hit .269 and .293 in the first two sets to take a 2-0 lead. Set Two saw UC Santa Cruz rally from an 18-12 deficit to tie it 19-all, and end it on consecutive kills by Fox and Colton Jeffrey. Set Three however was flipped, with Aurora closing on a 6-3 run after a 19-all tie.

The fourth Set was all Banana Slugs however, as they closed on a 12-5 run and held Aurora to -.034 hitting, while hitting .292. Overall the Banana Slugs hit .317 in the match. Fox and Jeffrey each had 13 kills to lead the offense while Zac Pittard had 12.

The Banana Slugs continue their weekend in Thousand Oaks with two matches Saturday, starting with a matchup against No. 10 St. John Fisher at 9am.