BUFFALO, NY– UC Santa Cruz men's volleyball bounced back from a wild Friday night with a pair of wins Saturday morning to close out the Buffalo State Invitational.

The Banana Slugs made quick work of SUNY Potsdam with a 3-0 sweep (25-7, 25-15, 25-13) before defeating Hobart 3-1 (25-23, 25-15, 32-30, 25-12)

The Banana Slugs improved to 5-7 with the two relatively easy wins after twice going the distance less than 24 hours earlier.

The Banana Slugs hit .413 and .417 respectively in the two victories for their best hitting percentages of the season.

Match 1

The Banana Slugs opened a 12-1 lead in the first set, helped by a pair of aces by Marcus Donchianchom, and were never threatened. It was the same in the second set, where the Banana Slugs opened with a 16-6 start before Cebrian Carter's kill ended the set and gave UC Santa Cruz a 2-0 lead.

The Banana Slugs led 2-1 in the third before two aces by Leo Tuncer jump started a 14-6 run that put UC Santa Cruz in control, at 16-7, before winning the match on kills by Nico Espinoza and Carter.

Tuncer finished with three of the ten Banana Slug aces, while Espinoza led the offense with a season-high 10 kills to go with six digs.

Match 2

UC Santa Cruz rolled to a quick 2-0 lead after hitting .333 and .737 in the first two sets. The third set had 13 ties, however, and the Statesmen were able to get two kills to take the set. However, the Banana Slugs regained their offense in the fourth set, including a 7-0 run, capped by Andrew Pak's ace, to go up 17-6 before coasting to take the set and match.

Tuncer and Riley Norman each had 16 kills to lead UC Santa Cruz. Ethan Makishima had 10 kills along with four blocks to move to sixth on the school's all time career chart with 153. Pak had 53 assists.

UC Santa Cruz returns home to the West Field House for their next match when they play UC Merced on Sunday afternoon at 2:00 pm