FREDERICKSBURG, Va. – The UC Santa Cruz women's volleyball team dropped the opening match of the C2C Invitational 3-1 (25-16, 23-25, 25-20, 25-21) to the Salisbury Seagulls on Saturday afternoon. The Banana Slugs were held to a .162 hitting percentage while Salisbury hit at a .272 clip. Kelly Ann Greene and Ashley Magley both had impressive offensive showings in the match with 15 kills and 13 kills respectively. Margo Melgoza dished out 29 assists in the game while also earning 16 digs. Against the Captains, the UC Santa Cruz Banana Slugs earned a 3-1 (26-24, 25-15, 18-25, 25-16) victory to go 1-1 on the day. Ashley Magley led the team in kills with 15 while Greene recorded nine of her own. Melgoza led the team in assists with 26 while Kate Lau anchored the team's defense with 20 digs with Anna Hospodar following closely behind with 18. UC Santa Cruz will be back in action tomorrow morning when they take on CNU and Mary Washington.
 
UC Santa Cruz 1, Salisbury 3
The Banana Slugs started out on top in set one, using a 4-1 run to take the early lead with kills from Gabia Paliulis, Ashley Magley, and Kelly Ann Greene. Salisbury was able to erase their deficit, working to a 7-7 tie before jumping out to a 14-9 lead with a 7-2 run. The Slugs were held to just six more points in the set as the Seagulls took set one 25-16.
 
In set two, the Slugs flipped the switch, storming to a 7-0 lead with two aces from Audrey Gilbert and two kills from Kelly Ann Greene to force a Salisbury timeout. The Banana Slugs continued to push forward, working to a 10-2 lead before Salisbury managed to cut the deficit to five points at 15-10. The Seagulls continued to apply pressure, closing the Slugs' lead to 18-17 and later took the lead at 22-21. Despite the heavy pressure, UCSC used back-to-back kills from Olly Gordon to take the set 25-23.
 
The Slugs started the third set with two kills from Gilbert and one from Greene, but Salisbury began to heat up, working to a 6-6 tie before taking the lead at 13-9 to force a UCSC timeout. The Seagulls maintained their pressure after the break with the two teams trading attacks to a 21-16 Salisbury lead. UC Santa Cruz made a late push to cut the lead to 24-20 but dropped the set 25-20 following an attacking error.
 
The Seagulls jumped out to an early 5-2 lead in the fourth set, but the Slugs leveled the playing field at 5-5 and battled to a tie on five more occasions before taking the lead at 15-12. Salisbury was able to battle back and regain the lead, using a late surge to take the fourth set 25-21 and defeat the Banana Slugs 25-21.
 
UC Santa Cruz 3, Christopher Newport 1
CNU led early in set one, working to an 8-4 lead before the Slugs rallied back with a 6-2 run to tie the contest at 10-10. The set featured a tight back and forth battle with CNU narrowly holding an edge over the Slugs all the way to a 23-21 lead and later a 24-22 lead. A timeout from the Slugs gave them a chance to regroup and they responded with four-staight points out of the break with Anna Hospodar ending the set with an ace to give UCSC a 26-24 victory in the first set.
 
The Slugs struck first and briefly trailed at 4-2 but after a 4-4 tie, the Slugs held the lead the rest of the way in the second set. UCSC used a 3-0 run to go up 7-4 with CNU closing the lead to two points at 11-9. From there, the Slugs charged forward, forcing a CNU timeout at 15-9. UC Santa Cruz continued to pressure the Captains, ending set two on a 10-6 run, using kills from Greene, Heidi Collins, Magley, Drew Bryant, and Olly Gordon to take set two 25-15.
 
The Captains managed to respond in the third set and avoid a sweep after taking a lead at 7-6 and slowly working to a 12-11 lead. The Slugs began to fall behind from that point on with CNU extending their lead to 19-13 before UCSC called a timeout. CNU maintained momentum out of the break and earned a 25-18 set three win.
 
After falling behind 3-0 in set four, UCSC used a 6-0 run to go up 6-3 before the Captains answered right back, tying the set at 9-9. From there, UC Santa Cruz took over, quickly working to a 21-14 lead with a 12-5 run that saw kills from Greene, Magley, and Paliulis. UC Santa Cruz swiftly cleaned up the rest of the match as Gordon and Paliulis recorded kills down the stretch to cap off the 25-16 set win and seal the 3-1 victory over CNU.