SANTA CRUZ, Ca. – The UC Santa Cruz men's volleyball earned the 3-0 (25-19, 25-22, 25-17) sweep over the SUNY New Paltz Hawks to wrap up the Slug Slam Tournament in the West Field House on Sunday night. Riley Norman led the team with 10 kills and a .421 hitting percentage while AJ Contreras and Ethan Makishima chimed in for nine and seven respectively. With the victory, the Slugs are now 5-3 on the season and will travel to Mount Union for their next contest on January 24th at 4:00 p.m. PST.
 
How It Happened
Both teams started the night with service errors but quickly sorted things out as they went back and forth, working to an 8-8 tie before UCSC could go up 11-8 with a 3-0 run. UC Santa Cruz continued to move forward as they outscored the Hawks 4-3 to take a 15-11 lead and force the games first timeout. SUNY New Paltz was able to strike first out of the break, but UCSC outscored the Hawks 10-8 down the stretch to take set one 25-19.
 
New Paltz had the better start to set two as they jumped out to an early 8-4 lead and continued to charge forward as they outscored the Slugs 5-3 to extend the lead to 13-7 and force a UCSC timeout. UC Santa Cruz responded out of the break, using a 6-2 run to close the gap to 15-13 and force the Hawks to talk things over. The two teams traded attacks with UCSC outscoring New Paltz 10-7 to take a slight 23-22 lead and force New Paltz to call a timeout. The break was unsuccessful as the Slugs took the next two points to take the set 25-22 with Riley Norman earning a solo block for the final point.
 
The Banana Slugs started set three on a 3-0 and never looked back as they navigated their way to a 7-4 lead with kills from Noy Fisher, AJ Contreras, and Ethan Makishima. The Hawks struggled to gain momentum as the two teams went point for point to a 17-14 Slugs lead but UCSC made a quick 3-1 run to force a New Paltz timeout at 20-15. The Slugs soared to the finish line as they ended the night on a 5-2 run with Ethan Makishima, AJ Contreras, Dylan Foreman, and Riley Norman all recording kills to complete the sweep.