Elmira, NY -- On a night that saw two of the nation's top teams go the distance, it would be the No. 7 nationally ranked Banana Slugs of UC Santa Cruz who would edge No. 15 Elmira College in five sets, 21-25, 30-28, 23-25, 25-19, 15-11. With the win, UC Santa Cruz improves to 7-2 while the Soaring Eagles drop to 5-6 on the year.
Elmira was paced on offense by third-year outside hitters
Erik Griffin '16 and
Mike Ellison '16, who turned in 20 and 19 kills, respectively. For Griffin, tonight's 20-kill effort marks the third match this season he has totaled 20-plus kills. Griffin and Ellison also combined for 16 digs, nine for Griffin and seven for Ellison.
Setting up the Elmira attack was
Carlos Faccio '16 who logged a match-high 57 assists, marking the third time this year he has registered 50-plus helpers. Faccio also accounted for three of Elmira's seven service aces.
Elmira College's all-time leader in career digs,
Rob Shade '15, continued to do what he does best, which is make digs. Shade turned in a team-high 14 digs, just one shy of the match-high, held by his counterpart from UC Santa Cruz, Jake Hurwitz who logged 15.
A strong defensive effort and consistent hitting led to a 25-21 first set in favor of the Soaring Eagles. Elmira held UC Santa Cruz to a .143 hitting percentage in the set, their lowest conversion rate of the match, while hitting .303 themselves on 14 kills and four errors on 33 attempts. Elmira's consistent play came in handy late in the set at 18-18, when the Soaring Eagles won seven of the final 10 points, with three of the seven coming on Elmira kills and two others coming on EC blocks.
The Soaring Eagles carried their momentum into the second set, jumping out to a 5-1 lead, helping Elmira maintain at least a one point advantage through the majority of the set. However, leading by two points at 20-18, UC Santa Cruz put themselves in the driver's seat by winning four consecutive points to take a late 22-20 lead.
From there, Elmira won two straight points thanks to a Jorge Reyes service error and a service ace by Ellison, knotting things up at 22-all. The two teams traded the next nine points until the Soaring Eagles were able to capitalize on a pair of Banana Slug errors, taking a very timely, 28-27 lead. Unfortunately, three consecutive EC errors, one service and two attacking errors, handed the Banana Slugs the set at 30-28.
The third set may have been the closest one of the match as 21 scoring ties occurred, as well as seven lead changes, but it would be the Purple and Gold who would walk away with the set at 25-23. Elmira held the largest lead in the set, a two-point advantage in the early stages, but the most critical moment came with the score tied at 23-23 when EC's Ellison made back-to-back kills to end the set, giving the Soaring Eagles a 2-sets-to-1 lead. Credit much of Elmira's success in the third set to their superb hitting as the EC men posted a team-high .519 hitting percentage with a stat line of 16-2-27.
UC Santa Cruz bounced back in a big way in the fourth set, as the Banana Slugs found their rhythm on offense, posting a match-high .619 hitting percentage with 14 kills and one error on 21 attempts.
With the match tied at 2-2, a fifth and final set was needed to decide tonight's winner. The fifth set was determined just like the previous four, as the team with the best hitting percentage walked away with the win, that team being UC Santa Cruz, who turned in a stat line of 9-4-17 for a .294 success rate compared to Elmira's .150, giving the Banana Slugs their seventh win of the season.
The Soaring Eagles will have a quick turnaround as they travel to Rochester, NY tomorrow to compete in the Golden Flyer Tournament, hosted by Nazareth College. Elmira opens tournament play against Thiel College at 4:00 p.m.
