Women’s Volleyball Records a Clean 2-0 Start at the CLU Invitational

Friday, September 18

Thousand Oaks, CA

1:00 PM

UC Santa Cruz Athletics

4-6,0-0CAC

Pomona-Pitzer

6-4,0-0SCIAC

Team	1	2	3	4	Final F
UC Santa Cruz	25	25	23	25	3
Pomona-Pitzer	16	16	25	17	1

Women’s Volleyball Records a Clean 2-0 Start at the CLU Invitational

9/18/2026 11:40:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif – The UC Santa Cruz Women's Volleyball team opened the Cal Lu Fornia Invitational with wins against Pomona-Pitzer (25-16, 25-16, 23-25, 25-17) and the University of Redlands (25-20, 30-28, 25-20, 25-21). Maddie Marshall was a demanding force at the net as she recorded 21 total kills on the day to lead UCSC offensively, but the momentum was sparked by a game-leading 14 kills by Khloe Pavia in the opener against Pomona-Pitzer. The Banana Slugs collected 14 service aces in game one as Shiraz Benyoucef led the way with six, and Margo Melgoza followed closely behind with five. In game two of the day, Benyoucef swapped her focus to the defensive side as she earned her season-high 22 digs. Melgoza also showcased a well-rounded day with 76 assists, including her 40-piece against Pomona-Pitzer, with many of those assists going to Gabia Paliulis who led the Banana Slugs with 12 kills and four service aces versus Redlands. A clean day for the Banana Slugs earned the squad their third straight victory. Up next, the Banana Slugs will close out their tournament against Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and California Lutheran University on Saturday, Sept. 19th.

UC Santa Cruz 3, Pomona-Pitzer 1
The game opened with in a tight back-and-forth battle up until UCSC broke through midway through the set. The Banana Slugs broke through a 14-14 tie with an explosive 8-0 run supported by kills from Sydney Janowitz, Pavia, and Alice Taylor as well as a trio of services aces from Melgoza. Pomona-Pitzer was forced to call a time and regroup, but the lead for UC Santa Cruz was too large to come back from, and the Banana Slugs closed out the set with a Shiraz Benyoucef service ace.

The Sagehens came out with a vengeance in set two, taking a 6-0 lead against UCSC and apply some pressure to the Banana Slugs. Janowitz won the first point for the Slugs on a kill, but Pomona-Pitzer returned the lead to six on the next point and kept a high lead through 13-6. Pavia ignited a 6-0 run for UCSC, where Melgoza strung together another pair of service aces together to bring the Banana Slugs within one. As UC Santa Cruz began to rattle the Sagehens, the Banana Slugs overtook the lead at 15-14 and held onto it for the rest of the set. Benyoucef paired together two service aces in their 8-1 run to close the set and take a two-set lead in the match.

Pavia opened set three with back-to-back kills before Pomona-Pitzer went on a 5-0 run from kills and UCSC errors. The teams traded kills until they both ran into a streak of attack errors and services errors, but the Slugs managed to bring the score within two midway through the set. Four straight kills for UC Santa Cruz, including back-to-back from Marshall, brought the set to a 23-23 tie with match point on the horizon for the Banana Slugs. Sagehens swung a kill and capitalized on an attack error for UCSC to claim set two and avoid a sweep.

Pomona-Pitzer opened set four with a kill, but the Banana Slugs brought the juice in set four to explode with six straight points and take a five-point lead. Though they dropped occasional errors, kills from Pavia and Marshall assisted in keeping their lead as the Banana Slugs began to heat up on offense as they looked to close the match. Pavia and Taylor continued to find the gaps and tally up more kills as UCSC expanded their lead. Pomona-Pitzer attempted to challenge the Banana Slugs late, forcing long sets and errors for UCSC late in the set. An eight-point lead proved to be enough to keep the Banana Slugs calm to close out the match, as two kills from Pavia sealed the deal for UC Santa Cruz.

UC Santa Cruz 3, University of Redlands 1
A rocky start for both teams opened with attack errors and service errors as UCSC and Redlands hoped to relax into their final matchups of the night sooner rather than later. After falling behind initially, UC Santa Cruz began to settle in with early kills from Paliulis and Pavia as they found the gaps in the Bulldog's defense. Redlands stayed persistent on the Banana Slugs and forced back-to-back service errors to retake the lead at 15-12. UCSC responded to tie things up and the momentum was certainly beginning to grow in favor of the Banana Slugs. Though UCSC fell behind on the next point, their response was deafening as UC Santa Cruz closed the set on a 10-4 advantage with a commanding kill from Janowitz.

The Banana Slugs demonstrated control to open set two as they showcased strong kills and aces to open the set, but they were also met with making offensive errors on their own accord. UCSC earned a steady 11-7 lead with Marshall and Paliulis showcasing a strong offensive effort so far, but were challenged on a Redlands 6-0 run where the Bulldogs overtook the lead by three at 15-12. The Banana Slugs fought for small pockets of points to keep the set within reach of taking back until they strung three in a row and took a 21-20 lead. UC Santa Cruz was met with set point at 28-27, but three straight points on kills and an ace let Redlands earn their only set win of the match in the second.

Now with a 1-1 set tie, UC Santa Cruz locked in and began to slowly clean up their offensive errors to set themselves up for a better start to set three. Their pressure forced Redlands to start making errors of their own as they gave the Banana Slugs six points off errors in the first half of the set alone. In addition to Bulldog errors, Paliulis, Marshall, and Charlotte Skulte were swinging kills left and right deep into the set. After stringing together four straight points to take a 15-13 lead, the Banana Slugs held onto the lead for the remainder of the set to comfortably win set three on a Paliulis kill.

Kate Lau scored the first point of set four for UCSC as the kills kept coming for the Banana Slugs. Back-to-back kills from Paliulis boosted the Banana Slugs to take an 8-5 lead early in the set and continued to round out her dominant presence around the net. The teams traded runs of points in the middle of the set, and Redlands continued to try to rattle the Banana Slugs with multiple runs of three-straight points. Melgoza continued to facilitate the offense as she set up her teammates for kills in crunch-time, and swung a kill of her own to put the winning stamp on the match for UC Santa Cruz.