MEQUON, WISC. - Tenth-ranked UC Santa Cruz split their matches on the first day of the Concordia (Wisconsin) Invite on Friday afternoon.
The Banana Slugs swept Milwaukee School of Engineering (25-18, 25-23, 25-23) but fell in a five-set thriller to Mount Union (22-25, 25-21, 26-24, 23-25, 10-15).
UC Santa Cruz now is 8-3 on the season.

MATCH ONE
The Banana Slugs never trailed in the first set and took an 11-5 lead with a 7-1 run that was bookended with kills from Leo Tuncer. Set Two had 16 ties before the Engineers took a 22-20 lead. The Banana Slugs responded and finished with a flurry. A kill and ace from Noy Fisher was part of the closing 5-1 run that gave UC Santa Cruz the set and a 2-0 lead. The third set began with the Engineers up 6-3 before kills from Trevor Jackson, Colton Jeffrey and Tuncer helped produce a 4-0 run which put the Banana Slugs up 7-6. Two Engineer kills gave them the lead back before another Tuncer kill tied it at 8-all. An 8-2 Engineer run made it 18-12, but consecutive kills by Jeffrey got UC Santa Cruz back in it and was the start of an 11-3 run topped by a Tennessee Fulks block that gave UCSC the lead back at 23-21 before Ethan Makishima finished the set and match for the Banana Slugs.
Jeffrey had a match-high 13 kills in the win while Tuncer had 11. Mohan Duvvuri led the offense with 19 assists, and Fulks had 15 assists and 2 blocks in his second match of the year. Makishima had 3 blocks, while Libero Maxwell Mednick had a season-high 20 digs.

MATCH TWO
Mount Union took the first set after holding the Banana Slugs to .156 hitting. However, UC Santa Cruz hit a combined .346 in the next two sets to win both and take a 2-1 lead. The third set had fifteen ties before a cross court kill by Jeffrey and a freeball slam from Riley Norman gave UC Santa Cruz the win. Mount Union was up 22-16 in the fourth before a 7-1 Banana Slugs run would tie it at 23-all. However, Mount Union pulled out the win with the last two points to send the match to five sets.
In the deciding set, Norman's block closed a 4-0 run which gave UC Santa Cruz a 6-5 lead. However, Mount Union answered with an 8-2 run that gave them a 13-8 lead and they held off the Banana Slug attack to win the match. 
Zachary Thompson had a career-high 16 kills on 28 swings to lead UC Santa Cruz. Norman had 13 kills to go with five total blocks and Colby Hurdle added 11 kills.

The Banana Slugs conclude the CUW Invite on Saturday afternoon taking on Trine and then the host Falcons.