In front of the biggest crowd of the season, UC Santa Cruz Men's Soccer finished Thursday's Coast-To-Coast (C2C) Conference Tournament match against the University of Wisconsin Whitewater with a final shootout score of 5-4.  It was a big rematch for the Banana Slugs, who lost 1-0 to Whitewater with a late penalty in last year's C2C tournament.

From the start, the UC Santa Cruz Men's Soccer team started the game with high intensity and good possession of the ball. The Banana Slugs were first to the ball and made perfect passes. There was almost a goal after 14 minutes from Torin Volkamer after a cross by Tyler Allred, but it was saved by the Whitewater keeper. The Banana Slugs continued to make shots at the goal, but they were blocked or saved by the keeper as the first half ended with the score 0-0.

Banana Slug goalkeeper Kian Van der Meer made an outstanding save in the last three minutes of regulation ensuring no goals would come in. The second half ended with the score being 0-0, moving on to two overtime periods of 10 minutes.

For the penalty kicks, the Banana Slugs switched out Van der Meer at keeper for Chris Jamrok. UW Whitewater was the first to start off penalty kicks and made the first two shots as did the Banana Slugs. However, Jamrok made a fabulous save on the third penalty kick helping the Banana Slugs secure a lead. It was now a tied match and Luca Bravo was the last person to shoot for the Banana Slugs to win the whole match. It was silent as the crowd waited for Bravo to shoot. Bravo converted and the Banana Slugs moved on to the next round.
 

UC Santa Cruz's next match will be against second-ranked nationally Mary Washington on Friday November 3rd at 11:00 AM (PST).