MEQUON, WISC.-
Tenth-ranked UC Santa Cruz finished the Concordia Invite with a pair of wins. They first swept Trine 25-16, 25-18, 25-16 before turning around and outlasting hosts Concordia 3-1 (25-17, 28-26, 24-26, 25-20). The Banana Slugs are now 10-3 on the season.
Match One
UC Santa Cruz overwhelmed the Thunder in every facet. The Banana Slugs hit a season high .343, and also compiled a season high 11 blocks.
Riley Norman had a team-high eight kills. Zachary Thompson hit .700 with seven kills and no errors, and also delivered a career-high three aces.
 
Match Two
Against the host Falcons, UC Santa Cruz opened an 8-4 off a 6-0 run, helped by the serving of Noy Fisher who had a pair of aces. Concordia stayed close until a 3-0 run finished the set in UC Santa Cruz's favor. Concordia had more momentum in the second set, as they built leads of 14-8 and 18-12. The Banana Slugs made a small dent, but the Falcons got to set point at 24-20. That's when the Banana Slugs played probably their best rally of the road trip, when two kills by Colton Jeffrey, one from Thompson and an attack error tied the set at 24-all. After two more ties, Colby Hurdle's serving forced two consecutive mishits by Concordia to give the Banana Slugs the win and a 2-0 lead.
However, the situation was reversed in Set Three. After ten ties, UC Santa Cruz went on a 3-0 run- highlighted by a quick freeball kill from Mohan Duvvuri- to get to Match point at 24-21. However, the Falcons erased that with a 5-0 run to take the set themselves and extend the match.
UC Santa Cruz didn't let up in the fourth set, starting with a 5-0 lead and never trailing before four Concordia errors ended the set and the match.
Norman, Jeffrey and Fisher each had 10 kills in the win and combined for all four UC Santa Cruz aces. Norman also had a team-high nine digs. Jeffrey added four total blocks and was named to the All-Tournament team. Duvvuri finished with 29 assists to hit exactly 900 for his career.
 
The Wisconsin roadtrip finishes on Sunday with two more matches, starting with Lakeland University at 8:00am Pacific.