UC Santa Cruz Athletics
7-6,0-0CAC
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps
4-5,0-0SCIAC
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Final F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UC Santa Cruz | 25 | 15 | 18 | 25 | 15 | 3 |
| Claremont-M-S | 20 | 25 | 25 | 19 | 10 | 2 |
Slugs Expand Their Win Steak to Five in a Historic Day of Wins
9/19/2026 9:12:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif – The UC Santa Cruz women's volleyball brought home two more wins on Saturday evening, including a big-time victory against No. 25 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (25-20, 15-25, 18-25, 25-19, 15-10) in the opening match. UCSC came out on top of the Cal Lu Fornia Invitational with a perfect 4-0 record which boosts their current win streak to five straight victories. The opening game against CMS brought a historic victory for the Slugs, giving them their first win against the Athenas since 2011 and their first ranked victory since Sept. 21, 2023. Alice Taylor and Khloe Pavia brought the juice in game one, tallying 16 and 14 kills respectively. Margo Melgoza fell into another groove of assists, showcasing a game-high 36 in the matchup. Game two matched the intensity of game one, as the Banana Slugs pulled out another five-set victory (25-21, 20-25, 25-16, 22-25, 15-10) versus California Lutheran University. Marshall led the Slugs in game two with 16 kills, and 15 from Taylor totals her kill count for the day at 31. Miya Casci recorded an enormous 43 assists in the matchup, while Shiraz Benyoucef led the way defensively with 29 digs. The Banana Slugs will next face Monterey Peninsula College in a exhibition matchup at home in the West Field House on Sept. 23rd.
UC Santa Cruz 3, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 2
UC Santa Cruz opened the first matchup of the day with early kills from Taylor and Pavia. The Banana Slugs exploded to an 8-2 lead as they put solid points together to set up kill opportunities. CMS slowly worked points into the set without piecing together big runs, but Maddie Marshall did the same with her kills to give the Banana Slugs single points at a time. Three straight kills for the Athenas brought them within one of UCSC, but late points from Taylor and Shiraz Benyoucef gave the Banana Slugs a comfortable lead at 19-14. Pavia had three out of the last five kills for UCSC as they took set one.
CMS took a page out of UCSC's book and came out to an early 7-2 lead to begin set two as the Banana Slugs worked to figure out how to close their open gaps. A kill by Gabia Paliulis brought the score within four until the Athenas went on an 8-0 run to take a 12-point lead in the set at 17-5. Paliulis and Taylor sparked late points for UCSC, but CMS slowly worked the scoreboard to win a big set two.
Set three opened with the teams trading leads as Pavia and Taylor continued to be ever-present threats at the net and continued to stat kills for the Banana Slugs consistently. After a tie at eight apiece, CMS slowly put runs together that began to rattle UCSC enough to have the Banana Slugs make uncharacteristic errors that they haven't made so far in the matchup. Down by seven, UCSC tried to slowly make runs to take back the lead, but the gap was too large to recover from.
CMS opened set four with an early five-point lead, hoping it would be enough to take any energy left away from the Banana Slugs. UCSC did not waiver and took advantage of momentum plays and attack errors for the Athenas to begin their comeback. In a 5-0 run for UC Santa Cruz, Casci tripled three consecutive service aces as the Slugs started to carve a path to a set win with a 13-12 lead. After alternating between leads and ties, UCSC roped five straight points to put the dagger in set four where Casci closed things out with her fourth service ace of the set.
The Banana Slugs opened the final set with their eyes on the prize and took three straight points start things off in crunch-time. Taylor continued to be a pivotal piece of UCSC's offensive attacks in the final set to start things off, but each Banana Slug wanted in on the action as kills were coming from a different Slug in each point. UCSC strung together two different three-point runs alongside their strong defensive front to claim the final set and the match.Â
UC Santa Cruz 3 California Lutheran University 2
Game two opened on a slow start for UCSC as they fell into an early routine of errors. The Regals took advantage of the opportunity and exploded out to a 13-4 lead to attempt to set the tone for the match. Marshall and Pavia remained as the go-to killers for the Banana Slugs as they collected here-and-there points amongst Cal Lutheran's runs. Both teams fell into a spree of errors as they combined to stat the next 11-out-of-13 points earned off errors. Despite posting a comeback in the set, UCSC dropped set one.Â
UC Santa Cruz began set two forcing the Regals to make errors early on as CLU was swinging aggressively around the net. Â After taking a 6-5 lead, UCSC began to slip into errors of their own and needed to reset in a timeout. Pavia and Marshall reignited UCSC and sparked the Banana Slugs to fall back into their offensive routine of kills and service aces. Despite having late errors, the Slugs had a big enough lead to close out the set with a five-point favor on their side that finishing on a Casci kill.
Early errors in set three for Cal Lutheran put the Banana Slugs in great position early, taking a 5-2 lead to open things up. After CLU brought the game to a tie at six apiece, UCSC put together three straight points with kills coming from Marshall, Casci, and Pavia. Marshall led the Banana Slugs in the remainder of the set for kills with Pavia sharing the love at the net right along with her. UCSC found their rhythm and finished the set on an 11-5 run to take the lead with two sets to CLU's one.
Set four started with UCSC putting themselves in a tough position, falling down five points early on. A timeout to reset calmed down the team, which allowed Marshall to swing consecutive kills to regain some confidence for the Banana Slugs. Paliulis and Ella Sniezek snuck in service aces despite CLU continuing to slowly grow their lead. UC Santa Cruz remained focused, and three kills by Taylor brought the Slugs within two points of the Regals at 17-15. CLU remained with the lead as they kept the score fluctuating between one to four-points ahead, and took set four from the Banana Slugs despite putting together a noteworthy comeback.
In the 10th set of the day for UC Santa Cruz, the Slugs hoped to finish out another grueling and tough match with a strong set start. UCSC came out firing with kills from Pavia and Taylor to take a three-point lead to begin their final set of the night. The kills kept coming for the Slugs, and Kate Lau and Sydney Janowitz's kills gave UCSC a steady 6-3 lead. The Banana Slugs were locked in, and their offensive possessions reflected that late in the matchup. Their rallies put them in position continuously for kills, with Marshall and Pavia continuing to be weapons at the net as the Slugs stayed working to put the set to rest. With the lead at 13-6, the Slugs showed a small lapse as CLU brough the game within four, but kills from Casci and Taylor closed out the game for UC Santa Cruz to give end their 10 sets of action on the day.
