LA VERNE - No. 19 UC Santa Cruz dropped a pair of matches Friday in La Verne.

The Banana Slugs lost the early match to Pomona-Pitzer 3-1 (16-25, 25-17, 19-25, 22-25), and lost the nightcap to unbeaten La Verne by the same score (25-21, 21-25, 18-25, 18-25).

In the first match, UC Santa Cruz rallied after going down 1-0 to take the second set helped by two aces and five blocks. The Sagehens however held off the Banana Slugs in the final two sets to win the match.
Peyton Tazelaar had a team-high 11 kills. Kelly Ann Greene added nine. Sydney May had a team-high 33 assists while Alessandra Ponzo had six. Emily Pasion had a team-high 17 digs. Pomona ended up with a slight 47-46 edge in kills and 80-75 in digs. Both teams had nine total blocks

In the second match, the Banana Slugs took the first set before the host Leopards steadied themselves and took the next three sets in front of a raucous crowd.
Olly Gordon and Tazelaar led the Banana Slugs with nine kills each. May and Ponzo had 20 and 13 assists respectively.
Greene added seven kills and a team-high eight blocks, along with the team's only ace. Pasion added a career-high 34 digs. She now has 684 in her career and passed Katherine Grow for 8th on the school career chart.

Now 6-2, UC Santa Cruz concludes their Los Angeles trip on Saturday in the Whittier Classic when they play Chapman and the host Poets.