UC Santa Cruz men's volleyball improved to 5-0 on the season with two more sweeps at their Slug Slam tournament held at Kaiser Permanente Arena.
The Banana Slugs defeated Illinois Wesleyan Saturday morning 25-21, 25-14, 25-11 before finishing off Fontbonne in the afternoon 25-21, 25-18, 25-22.
"Incredible opening weekend for us with some great competition," said Interim Coach Jacob Landel. "Five matches in three days is no joke and we were able to prove a level of resiliency that has been our focus since November. Yet, this is the tip of the iceberg, we've got a lot of work to do if we are to continue being successful down the stretch of this long season."
Against the Titans, UC Santa Cruz took a while to find their form until an 8-1 run midway through the first set gave them a 16-11 lead en route to taking the first set. The Banana Slugs kept the momentum going the rest of the match, hitting a combined .340 in the last two sets while holding IWU  to - .020 to seal the win. Riley Norman led the Banana Slugs with ten kills and three aces in the match, while fellow First Year Noy Fisher had seven kills.

Against Fontbonne, the two teams started off strong. There were eight ties before UC Santa Cruz scored the last four points to take the set. Zachary Thompson finished off the frame with an assisted block with Norman and an emphatic kill. Set Two was also played hard. The visitors had a 7-3 lead before two errors started a 6-2 Banana Slug run that tied the set at 9-all. Fontbonne got the lead back temporarily at 10-9, but the Banana Slugs answered with a 9-0 run behind the serving of Colby Hurdle, who served a pair of aces during the run. Norman also added another ace before finishing the set with a kill to put UC Santa Cruz up 2-0. Set Three was close as well before UC Santa Cruz finished the match and flawless weekend with the last three points, courtesy of a kill by Colton Jeffrey and consecutive blocks by Hurdle and Leo Tuncer.

Overall, UC Santa Cruz hit .296 in the match, including .571 in the last set. Norman again had ten kills to lead UC Santa Cruz, while Jeffrey added nine. The Banana Slugs served ten aces, with Fisher having four while Hurdle and Norman had three each.
The Banana Slugs have three home games next week, starting with UC Merced on Thursday afternoon at the West Field House.

2023 SLUG SLAM ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Cal Lutheran - Taylor Marks 
Edgewood- Gavin Patterson
Fontbonne- Cameron Graves
Ill. Wesleyan- Michael Eastman
North Park-  Emmanuel Eugene
UC Santa Cruz- Riley Norman (MOP) & Leo Tuncer