Women’s Volleyball Dominates in Third-Straight Win at Gargoyle Classic

Saturday, October 17

Chicago, Ill

11:30 AM PT | 1:30 PM CT

UC Santa Cruz Athletics

12-7,0-0CAC

North Park University

8-14,0-4CCIW

Team	1	2	3	Final F
UC Santa Cruz	25	25	25	3
North Park	18	12	15	0

Women’s Volleyball Dominates in Third-Straight Win at Gargoyle Classic

10/17/2026 2:29:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

CHICAGO, Ill – The UC Santa Cruz women's volleyball team won their third-straight match at the Gargoyle Classic in a 3-0 clean sweep over North Park University. Kate Lau led the way for UCSC with 12 digs, and Lau split the game high of kills with Alice Taylor as both Slugs swung nine on the day. Charlotte Skulte tied her career high of six aces in the afternoon, and Margo Melgoza helped her team and led the contest with 16 assists. Today's win gives UC Santa Cruz 12-7 record as the Banana Slugs continue to roll out an impressive 10 wins in their last 11 contests. UCSC will close out the Gargoyle Classic versus No. 14 University of Chicago in a Sunday morning contest on Oct. 18th.

How it Happened:
UCSC opened set one falling 1-5 before quickly responding with kills from a kill from Khloe Pavia and a service ace from Melgoza. After falling behind again, Taylor got the Slugs fired up on back-to-back kills as the Banana Slugs start edto hold a steady lead. UCSC continued to facilitate strong and clean points in the set as the offense set up Lau and Taylor for successful net swings. As the lead for the Banana Slugs began to grow, North Park started to make errors that they weren't making early on and allowed UCSC to run away with set one. UC Santa Cruz put together a 7-1 run to put the stamp on set one as Lau and Maddie Marshall put the final kills on for the Banana Slugs.

With a one set lead, UCSC began to capitalize on the confidence earned from set one's fight. Lau opened with a service ace to set the tone for set two, as UCSC fought to put North Park away in the set early on. After facing a 5-5 tie, a service ace from Olivia Phillips and a kill from Taylor helped put the Slugs on a 6-1 run to lead 11-6 midway through the match. UCSC continued to take advantage of North Park's errors while adding in kills of their own to maintain a strong seven-point lead as the set looked to close in favor of the Slugs. UC Santa Cruz went on a 7-0 run to put another statement on set two, including three kills from Skulte to close out the middle set.

Set three allowed UCSC to keep rolling their momentum as the Slugs took a 3-0 lead early on in what would be the final set of the contest. A few errors allowed North Park to steal points back from UC Santa Cruz, but back-to-back service aces from Melgoza brought the squad back to the lead. Taylor continued to swing consistent kills to help UCSC put away the contest as a 6-0 run helped give the Slugs a 14-6 lead midway through. Marshall and Lau hit heavy kills in the final points as UCSC began to close out the final set. Uncharacteristic mistakes gave North Park late points in the final moments of the set, but UC Santa Cruz still managed to pull out an impressive sweep with big set wins to end their day.