BEREA, Oh. – The UCSC men's volleyball team suffered a 3-1 (19-25, 25-20, 26-24, 25-23) loss to the Baldwin Wallace Yellow Jackets on Saturday night. The Slugs hit at a .297 clip as a team, but the Yellow Jackets swung at a .373 hitting percentage as they picked up the victory. With the loss, the Slugs are now 6-4 on the season and will be back in action tomorrow with games against MSOE and No. 11 St. John Fisher at 7:00 am and 9:00 am Pacific Time. Tomorrow's match versus St. John Fisher is one of AVCA's highlighted Matches to Watch this weekend.
 
How It Happened
The two teams battled early in set one with the Slugs and Yellow Jackets working to an 8-8 tie. UC Santa Cruz was able to push forward to gain momentum, taking a 12-9 lead before jumping out to a strong 16-12 lead with kills from Riley Norman and AJ Contreras.  Baldwin Wallace briefly closed the gap to 19-18 but UCSC ended the set on a 6-1 run to take set one 25-19 with Ethan Makishima earning a solo block to cap off the set.
 
The Yellow Jackets and Slugs battled through three tight sets, but Baldwin Wallace managed to take all three to earn the 3-1 victory despite UCSC's opening set win. In set two, the two teams were neck and neck all the way to a 20-20 tie but five straight points from the Yellow Jackets gave them the 25-20 set two win. UC Santa Cruz had the early advantage in set three as they coasted to an 11-5 lead, but Baldwin Wallace carefully clawed their way back to tie things at 18-18 before going back and forth to the tune of six more ties. The Yellow Jackets were able to earn two kills at the end of the set to take a 26-24 third set victory. In set four, the two teams continued to fight neck and neck but following a 12-12 tie, the Yellow Jackets began to pull away, taking the lead at 19-15. UCSC fought to the very end, pulling within one at 23-22 but Baldwin Wallace prevailed with a 25-23 set four win to take the match 3-1.