Banana Slugs Drop Battles With Whittier and Puget Sound

Saturday, September 12

Whittier, CA

12:30 PM

UC Santa Cruz Athletics

2-5,0-0CAC

Whittier College

5-2,0-0SCIAC

Team	1	2	3	4	5	Final F
UC Santa Cruz	31	23	25	20	12	2
Whittier	29	25	21	25	15	3

Team	1	2	3	Final F
UC Santa Cruz	23	25	22	0
Puget Sound	25	27	25	3

9/12/2026 5:54:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

WHITTIER, Calif – The UC Santa Cruz women's volleyball opened the day with a loss (31-29, 23-25, 25-21, 20-25, 12-15) in their first five-set match of the year against Whittier College. Throughout the matchup, both teams found themselves battling back-and-forth for points and leads in the five sets, including the thrilling opener where the Banana Slugs faced five set points before they were able to secure a set win. As the game continued, UCSC began to make more errors on their attacks that put them in deficits they could not catch up to. Alice Taylor posted an impressive 17 kills and 17 digs to lead her team in game one with Khloe Pavia swinging 16 kills of her own.

UC Santa Cruz lost game two to University of Puget Sound in three sets (25-23, 27-25-22). The Banana Slugs found themselves with leads late in all three sets but struggled to convert when it was time to close them out. Miya Casci posted a game-high 20 assists, and Taylor added a game-high 12 kills to bring her total to 27 for the day. Up next, UC Santa Cruz will travel to Los Angeles to play Occidental College on Sept. 17 at 6:00pm.

Whittier 3, UC Santa Cruz 2
The Banana Slugs opened the match with three points for the early lead, but the teams soon began their first of many back-and-forth lead changes. Whittier and UCSC featured long rallies as both teams were fighting for early advantages in the match. The Poets found themselves on a 5-0 run midway through the set, but a service ace from Taylor helped the Banana Slugs fight back to tie things up once again at 15-15. The Banana Slugs put a late 4-0 run together to take the lead at 23-22, forcing Whittier to take back-to-back timeouts with the set on the line. The set was forced into extras with no team able to string consecutive points together. After facing five set points, the Banana Slugs finally secured the first on a Whittier attack error.

Whitter came out firing in the second set, taking an early 6-2 lead to attempt to rattle UCSC. Back-to-back service aces from Charlotte Skulte and Rylan Vlasich brought the Slugs back within one before the Poets strung together a 3-0 run to expand their lead once again. After a UCSC timeout to reset, the Banana Slugs pieced together a 6-2 run of their own to tie Whittier at 11 apiece featuring a duo of kills from Olivia Phillips. Late in the set, it was Skulte, Pavia, and Sydney Janowitz who were spiking multiple kills each as the Banana Slugs fought their way back to a 20-20 tie after being down as many as three. A clutch block from Skulte and Phillips gave UCSC the 21-20 lead, but four offensive errors in the final points cost the Banana Slugs the second set.

Set three began just as the opening set did with both teams trading leads early. The Banana Slugs fought back from a 4-8 deficit to take their first lead of the set at 10-9 with a kill by Janowitz. UCSC and Whittier found themselves in another battle, knowing that a 1-1 set tie means the contest is still anyone's game to win. The Slugs took the lead at 16-15 with a service ace by Taylor and held onto it for the remainder of the set to take the third, ending with two attack errors by the Poets.

UCSC and Whittier found themselves in yet another tight set battle in set four's opening. Early kills by Maddie Marshal and Taylor helped to propel UC Santa Cruz with consecutive kills early in set. With the score at 10-8, Whittier shot ahead on a 6-1 run that the Banana Slugs couldn't fight back from despite late runs of kills by Marshal, Pavia, and Phillips. Late points in the set were lost on runs of attack errors and service errors for the Banana Slugs, a characteristic they had rarely showed in the game to this point.

With the game on the line, set five began with long rallies and narrow margins-of-error. UCSC leaned on big-time kills from Marshal, Phillips, and Pavia in the set to help surge momentum for the Banana Slugs. As the pressure intensified with the game on the line, UCSC began swinging errors on serves and attacks to put themselves in disadvantages late in the contest that they couldn't find the points to come back from.

Puget Sound 3, UC Santa Cruz 0
UC Santa Cruz fell behind to start their second match of the day but was able to string points together mid-set to come back to the Loggers. A run of service aces by Riley Sawyer and Casci in addition to a Kate Lau kill helped the Banana Slugs reach a 13-13 tie to force a Puget Sound to take a timeout. UCSC took over the lead and led by as many as four up until a 23-23 tie. Back-to-back kills for the Loggers gave the Banana Slugs a loss in the opening set.

Puget Sound opened set two 2-0, but Taylor responded with a strong spike to help get the Banana Slugs started with some momentum. Shiraz Benyoucef boosted UCSC to take the first lead of the set at 4-3 with a service ace that prompted the Loggers to reevaluate. A 7-7 tie was soon followed, but a Sawyer kill put the Banana Slugs back on top at 8-7 with their lead growing to as many as seven at 22-15. In their run was a commanding Alessandra Ponzo, and a big-time block by Taylor. Puget Sound immediately responded and put together a 9-2 run to cut UCSC's lead and tie up the set at 24-24. Service errors by the Banana Slugs gave the Loggers a path to win the set in extra points and finish on a 12-3 run.

The Banana Slugs looked to bounce back in set three, setting the tone with a 10-6 lead in the first half of the set. After attack errors by UCSC, the Loggers came back to steal the lead on a 6-1 run. UC Santa Cruz found themselves down 13-15 but leaned on plays from Skulte and Casci to help bring back the lead in a 6-0 run. With the Banana Slugs facing the Loggers in a tie at 21, Puget Sound hit back-to-back service aces and swung a kill to close out the match.