THOUSAND OAKS –The 16th-ranked UC Santa Cruz Banana Slugs bounced back at the Cal-Lu-fornia Tournament with a 3-0 win over Baldwin Wallace (25-22, 25-16, 29-27).
 
The first set was close, and tied 12-all before a 4-1 run capped by a Dylan Freeman-Ethan Makishima combo block gave them the lead for good at 16-13. Riley Norman ended a set with a kill that careened into the bench to give UC Santa Cruz a 1-0 lead.
Kyle Ownbey had an ace in the second set to give the Banana Slugs an 11-6 lead. The lead stretched to 16-8 after consecutive blocks by Norman and Makishima, causing a Baldwin-Wallace timeout. The Banana Slugs kept the defense going and finished the set on another pair of blocks from Norman and Makishima.
 
The Banana Slugs were down early in the third but pulled to within 1 at 19-18 on consecutive kills by Nico Espinoza. The Yellow Jackets got the next point after a timeout and were still up 21-19, but three consecutive Ownsbey kills down the middle gave the Banana Slugs a 22-21 lead. Six ties followed that before UC Santa Cruz reached match point after Jalen Suwa's dig fell into Baldwin-Wallace's back row away from any defenders. After a Yellow Jacket attack error, the Banana Slugs won the set and match.
 
Espinoza had a team-high 11 kills. Ownbey added nine kills. Norman had seven kills, seven digs, and a season-high six total blocks. Suwa had a team-high eight digs
Overall, UC Santa Cruz outhit the Yellow Jackets .392 to .194 and had nine total blocks to four, The Banana Slugs are now 11-8 on the season and finish the tournament on Saturday with a pair of matches, starting at noon against top-ranked Wentworth.