SALISBURY, MD– UC Santa Cruz Women's Volleyball split their two matches Friday at the Coast-To-Coast Conference tournament.
In the quarterfinal, UC Santa Cruz broke an eleven-match losing streak with a 25-19, 25-14, 25-11 sweep of Pratt Institute. In the semifinal held in the afternoon, the Banana Slugs lost to 22nd-ranked Mary Washington 20-25, 23-25, 12-25.
 
Match One
The first set had four ties, before Kelly Ann Greene's ace gave UC Santa Cruz a 5-4 lead. The Banana Slugs maintained a close lead and finished on 5-1 run to win the set.
Pratt was up 12-10 in the close second set before Drew Bryant's kill jumpstarted a 15-2 Banana Slug run the rest of the way.
UC Santa Cruz never trailed in Set Three, opening a 6-2 lead with kills by Peyton Tazelaar and Greene forcing Pratt to take a timeout. The lead was stretched to 14-7, and from that point UC Santa Cruz finished on an 11-4 run, winning the match on consecutive aces by Sydney May
 
Greene had a match-high ten kills, while Tazelaar and Olly Gordon each had six. Overall, the Banana Slugs hit .306 compared to Pratt's .013. UC Santa Cruz also had an 11-3 advantage in service aces, led by May with four.
 
Match Two
Playing the top-seeded Eagles for the third time this season, UC Santa Cruz opened the match with two blocks by Gordon to stay tied at 2-all. After a 4-0 Eagles run, UC Santa Cruz tied it at 7-all on Ashley Magley's kill. Another Eagles run gave them a 14-9 lead before UC Santa Cruz responded and tied it at 20-all on a combo block by Greene and Magley. The Eagles however closed with five points in a row to win the first set.
The second set was just as competitive as the first. There were six ties total, but the Eagles were able to take the last two points and win another set. In the third set, Mary Washington did not allow the Banana Slugs to find their momentum, and the Eagles took the set to survive and advance to Saturday's Conference final.
 
Greene had a team-high nine kills while Tazelaar had six. Gordon had five blocks and May added 15 assists. Emily Pasion had a match-high 16 digs to become the third Banana Slug ever with over 1,000 career digs.
UC Santa Cruz will play Christopher Newport in the third-place match at 10:30am on Saturday to finish the tournament.