UC Santa Cruz women's volleyball gave Division II Fresno Pacific all they could handle, but fell 3-1 (22-25, 25-21, 15-25, 21-25) to the Sunbirds Tuesday night in the West Field House.
The Banana Slugs go to 12-13 on the regular season.

UC Santa Cruz opened the first set trailing 7-0 until Kate Lau's kill brought them their first point. The Banana Slugs continued to chip away, and got within two at 20-18. Fresno Pacific got to set point, but a kill and ace from Peyton Tazelaar put the Banana Slugs within 24-22 until the Sunbirds got the last point to take the set.

The Sunbirds took the first point of Set Two, but UC Santa Cruz then ran off 4 straight points, helped by a pair of aces by Emily Pasion. Fresno Pacific tied it at 4-all, but a 7-3 Banana Slug run capped by Olly Gordon's block gave UC Santa Cruz the lead for good at 11-7. Fresno Pacific got within two at 22-20, but three consecutive errors gave the set to UC Santa Cruz and tied the match.

The third set saw the Banana Slugs open with another 4-1 lead before Fresno Pacific tied it again. The visitors were up 13-9 before closing the set on a 12-6 run to take a 2-1 lead. The fourth set had four ties before an 8-1 run by Fresno Pacific gave them an 18-11 lead. UC Santa Cruz had a late 5-0 rally helped by a pair of Gordon blocks and a pair of aces from Kelly Ann Greene. That made it 23-19 before the Sunbirds were able to take the two points they needed to close out the match.

Tazelaar led the Banana Slugs with 11 kills. Lau added seven. Pasion had 21 digs and is now fifth on the school's career chart with 927. Makena Ogas had a match-high 17 kills to lead Fresno Pacific, who finished with 48 kills to the Banana Slugs's 36. UC Santa Cruz had a 10-3 advantage in service aces, led by Saku Yoshioka's career-high four. UC Santa Cruz finished with 11 blocks to Fresno Pacific's 8, led by Gordon's career-high seven.

UC Santa Cruz next heads to Michigan this weekend for the Calvin Tournament.