STEVENS POINT, Wi -  The UC Santa Cruz men's volleyball team earned a dominant 3-0 (25-15, 25-23, 25-16) sweep over the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Pointers. Dylan Foreman led the Slugs in kills with 13 and .522 hitting percentage. Caio Valente set up the strong offense with 31 assists while Marcus Donchuanchom led the team in digs with 12. As a team, the Slugs continued their offensive attacks, recording a .310 hitting percentage while holding the Pointers to a .080 clip.

The Slugs earned their fourth straight sweep later in the day as they defeated the Marian Sabres 3-0 (25-17, 25-21, 25-19), hitting .411 as a team with AJ Contreras leading the team with 10 kills while Kyle Ownbey had nine with a .750 hitting percentage. Caio Valente continued to set up the offense with 34 assists while picking up eight digs. The Slugs are now 11-5 on the season and will return to the West Coast as they take on Pacific Union and Simpson University in Redding, Ca. on Feb. 16 at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.

UC Santa Cruz 3, UW Stevens Point 0
UWSP struck first with the game's opening kill but a 4-0 run gave the Slugs the early momentum as AJ Contreras recorded a block while Dylan Foreman recorded a kill to get the attack going. The run sparked an early surge as UCSC jumped to a 10-3 lead to force the Pointers to call a timeout. Out of the break, UWSP closed the gap to 11-6 but UC Santa Cruz quickly countered as they outscored UWSP 9-5 to go up 20-11.Caio Valente, Riley Norman, and Ethan Makishima all recorded kills down the stretch to give UCSC the 25-15 set one win. 

The second set started with a 9-2 run from the Slugs that featured kills from Norman and Contreras with UCSC capitalizing on six UWSP errors. Despite the early advantage, UWSP managed to storm back into the set as they outscored the Slugs 18-11 to tie things at 20-20. The game saw the Slugs go up 22-20 following a service error from UWSP and a Dylan Foreman kill but UWSP quickly tied things at 22-22 and later 23-23. The Slugs were able to hold off the late pressure as Dylan Foreman put the team up 24-23 with another kill before a costly UWSP attack error gave UCSC the 25-23 set two win. 

The third set featured a 3-1 run from the Pointers to get the action going but it was UCSC who had the early edge as they responded with a 7-2 run with kills from Foreman, Kyle Ownbey, and AJ Contreras to take an 8-5 lead. From there, the Slugs were in the driver seat, leaving the Pointers behind as they made a quick run to a 15-10 lead before going up 20-12 with a 5-2 run. UCSC held the Pointers to just three more points in the match as they outpaced UWSP to take set three 25-16 and earn their third straight sweep. 

UC Santa Cruz 3, Marian 0
The Slugs got off to a quick start as Riley Norman earned the opening kill of the match to spark a 7-2 run. The Banana Slugs didn't look back as they increased their lead to 14-7 with kills from Dylan Foreman, Nico Espinoza, and Ethan Makishima. The margins got tighter down the stretch as UCSC outscored Marian 11-10 from that point on, taking set one 25-17.
 
In set two, the Sabres had the early advantage as they started the game on a 4-0 run but UCSC quickly erased the deficit with a 7-2 run that saw kills from AJ Contreras and Caio Valente, giving the Slugs a 7-6 lead. The set remained close as the two teams went back and forth to an 11-11 tie but UCSC broke things open with a 5-0 run to go up 16-11. Marian made a late push to cut the Slugs lead to three at 22-19 and later 24-21 but a kill from Dylan Foreman put the finishing touches on a 25-21 set two victory for the Slugs.
 
Both teams traded two point swings in the early going in set three with UCSC leading 2-0 and later 4-2 after a brief tie at 2-2. The Sabres managed to rally back to tie things at 6-6 but a 6-2 run from UCSC put the Slugs back on top 12-8. The remainder of the set featured back and forth action, but the Sabres couldn't erase the Slugs lead as a Kyle Ownbey kill ended the set 25-19 to give the Slugs their fourth straight sweep of the weekend.