The 12th-ranked UC Santa Cruz volleyball team split their two matches Saturday at the West Field House.
In the afternoon they swept Westcliff 25-19. 25-16, 25-22 but fell in the nightcap to Norcal neighbors Menlo College 21-25, 25-19, 20-25.
UC Santa Cruz is now 13-4 at the halfway point of the season.
Against Westcliff, UC Santa Cruz hit .364 and .500 in winning the first two sets. In Set Three, the Banana Slugs were up 4-0 before Westcliff ran off a 6-1 run to take the lead at 6-5. There were nine ties after that, but the Banana Slugs finished on a 4-1 run to win the match.
Noy Fisher finished with 14 kills and hit .478, plus a solo and assisted block.
Riley Norman had 10 kills and
Mohan Duvvuri had 33 assists. Both Norman and Duvvuri served a pair of assists. Overall, the Banana Slugs finished with a .322 hitting percentage.
It was a different story however in the nightcap vs. the Oaks, who outhit the Banana Slugs .242 to .117 and had 7 blocks to UC Santa Cruz's 3.Â
The Banana Slugs made it interesting in the third set. Facing Match Point at 24-16, Fisher and
Trevor Jackson combined on two blocks on either side of
Colton Jeffrey's ace as part of a 4-0 run to get to 24-20 before a Menlo kill ended the night.
Jeffrey had a team-high 11 kills and .280 hitting in the loss as well as the only Banana Slug service ace.
Maxwell Mednick had a team-high 12 digs.
UC Santa Cruz returns to Division III competition next weekend when they play at the Cal Lutheran Invitational in Thousand Oaks.Â
