The Carthage College men's volleyball team (5-3, 3-0 Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League), ranked No. 5 in the Feb. 17 American Volleyball Coaches Association NCAA Division III poll, fell to No. 7 University of California-Santa Cruz (11-3), 3-0, on Friday, February 20 at the Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis. The winning set scores for the Banana Slugs were 25-12, 25-18, and 25-15.
 
The Red Men kept it close at the beginning of the first set, opening with only a one-point deficit at 5-6 with a kill by Griffin Shields (So., Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley) followed by a service ace from Will Craft (Jr., Crete, Ill./Chicago Heights-Marian Catholic). However, UC-Santa Cruz kept their attack strong and created leads of 6-11 and 10-18. The Red Men could not close the gap and the Banana Slugs took the first set, 25-12. In the second set, UC-Santa Cruz came out strong again opening with a five-point lead at 6-11. Carthage pulled within three points, 10-13, with a kill by Zach Lillig (Fr., Northbrook, Ill./Glenbrook North). The Banana Slugs, however, remained dominant throughout the remainder of the set, only allowing the Red Men to ever come within three points of them. UC-Santa Cruz won the second set, 25-18.
 
The Red Men started off slow in the third set, however, kept close behind the Banana Slugs. UC-Santa Cruz took the lead right away with a score of 4-7, but Carthage pulled within one point, 8-9, with a kill by Ryan Paull (So., Chicago, Ill./Brother Rice). However, The Banana Slugs kept strong and created leads of 11-15 and 12-19, until finally closing out the third set, 25-15.
 
"We competed, but we didn't execute very well," said head coach L.J. Marx, "We knew Santa Cruz was a very good team that was fundamentally sound. It wasn't that they did anything we didn't expect; they just did it at such a significantly higher level than we did."
 
Paull and Lillig led the Red Men with eight kills each, Paull with a .294 attacking percentage and Lillig with a .250 attacking percentage. Tyler Saieg (So., Woodridge, Ill./Downers Grove-North) had 28 assists and Jon Storm (Sr., Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley) collected seven digs. Jake Landel led UC-Santa Cruz with 12 kills, a .435 attacking percentage, and six digs.
 
Carthage will continue their quadrangular-meet tomorrow, Saturday, Feb. 21, at the Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis. The Red Men will play Lakeland College at 11 a.m. and No. 1 Stevens Institute of Technology at 5 p.m. Neutral-site matches between UC-Santa Cruz and Lakeland College will be at 1 p.m. and Stevens vs. UC-Santa Cruz at 3 p.m.