THOUSAND OAKS (3/18)-- This morning UCSC traveled all the way to sunny SoCal to face the Nazareth Eagles and the Lasell Lasers. The Banana Slugs dropped the morning match 3-1 to Nazareth (22-25, 25-23, 18-25, 19-25). They however rallied to win in five against Lasell (25-19, 19-25, 21-25, 25-21, 15-6) to finish the Cal-Lu-fornia Invite 2-2.
Match 1
This game was a challenging one for the men's volleyball team. During the first set, both teams were motivated to win. However, the Eagles wanted to catch their prey. The first set appeared promising, as both teams were scoring points, always tying with each other. After an attack error shook the Banana Slugs' momentum and gave the Eagles a 12-9 lead.  After UC Santa Cruz took a timeout, they returned with better spirits. Two attack errors by the Eagles and a kill by Riley Norman, the Banana Slugs were within 1 point at 18-17. The Eagles did not want to give up their lead at 23-22 so they responded with two kills winning the first set.
Now knowing what to anticipate from the Eagles, the Banana Slugs came back determined. Both teams kept each other on their feet. Any opportunity that arose both teams scored a point to prevent a lead from either side. As the points increased to the 20s, the anticipation grew. A kill from the Banana Slugs' Leo Tuncer, and a bad set by the Eagles gave the Banana Slugs the lead 24-22 before another bad set from the Eagles' Alex Bertino gave the Banana Slugs the win.
The last two final sets were sadly unsuccessful for the Banana Slugs. The Eagles reached a 5-point lead against the Banana Slugs (16-11) during the third set. As Nazareth reached the 20s the Banana Slugs did not give up, with a kill and block from Colton Jeffery 20-14. Two back to back kills from the Eagles brought them to victory 25-18.
The last set was rocky for the Banana Slugs as they needed this set to stay in the game. A point from Tennessee Fulks initiated the set 1-0. Two kills from the Eagles Alex Bertino gave the Eagles the lead 14-8. After Slug timeout they came back hoping to catch up. That was not the case however as Nazareth did not want to let go of their lead. Kills by Andrew Bodensteiner and Max Stuver allowed for the Eagles to reach the win.
Colby Hurdle and Jeffrey each had nine kills to lead UC Santa Cruz, who hit just .117 overall in the match compared to the Eagles' .305.
 
Match 2
UC Santa Cruz came out firing on all cylinders against Lasell to get the taste of the morning match out of their mouths. They hit .480 in quickly taking the first set. However, the Lasers held them to .154 and .061 respectively in the next two sets to take a 2-1 lead.
Set Four began with a sense of urgency as the Banana Slugs opened with a 6-2 lead. The run could not be sustained as Lasell took away the Banana Slugs' momentum, slowly coming back before producing a 4-0 run that tied it at 17-all. However, the Banana Slugs regained their composure and closed on an 8-4 run, with Tennessee Fulks drilling a kill at the near pin to force a fifth set.
 
Fulks kept the offense going in the final set. He had a kill to make it 6-3 and make Lasell take a timeout. He then had a reverse-tip that fell for a kill that made it 8-4. After Ethan Makishima had consecutive kills, Fulks delivered an ace to close a 6-0 run and get UC Santa Cruz to 14-5 and match point. Noy Fisher delivered the last kill to complete the comeback for the Banana Slugs
Fulks had a team-high 14 kills, with seven in the final two sets. Fisher also had 14 kills along with a pair of aces. Mohan Duvvuri had 38 assists to go over 1,200 in his career and move to seventh place all-time at UC Santa Cruz.
The Banana Slugs are now 19-10 on the season. After a week off for Finals, they close the regular season in two weekends in Illinois.