For the seventh time in their last 10 matches, the Aurora University men's volleyball team played a match to five sets with tonight's contest with #11 UC-Santa Cruz seeing the Spartans fall to the Banana Slugs 3-2.


MATCH SCORE: No. 11 University of California Santa Cruz 3, No. 9 Aurora University 2 (24-26, 25-20, 17-25, 25-20, 10-15)
LOCATION: Thornton Gymnasium
RECORDS: Aurora University 16-6 overall and 7-2 NACC


- The first set was a sign of the night with the teams trading the lead eight times and 16 times the score was tied.
- The lead was not more than one point until UCSC took a 16-14 lead which grew to 18-14.
- AU would rally back behind an ace from Xavier Zukley to tie the score 18-18.
- Trailing 24-21 the Spartans again rallied behind a kill from Ammar Brzovic and two kills from SJ Nelson.
- But as the set had gone, the Banana Slugs had an answer and won the first set 26-24.
- Zukley and Nelson tied for the set high with five kills each.
- The Spartans trailed early in the second set but willed their way back to a 25-20 set win.
- Ammar Brzovic had five assisted blocks in the winning set.
- An early large deficit for AU in the third set was to much to overcome and they would fall 25-17 and trail the match 2-1.
- Once again the Spartans trailed early in the fourth set at 7-4 but they took advantage of some Banana Slug errors to claw back into the contest.
- The Spartans again took advantage of their block to build the lead and would win 25-20 to force a fifth set.
- Quentin McCray had three blocks in the fourth set win.
- The start of the fifth set proved to be to much for the Spartans as they fell behind 7-0 and 8-1 at the floor rotation.
- AU would drpo the fifth set 15-10 and lose the match 3-2.


Kills: SJ Nelson (16) and Xavier Zukley (12)
Assists: Logan Brouwer (42)
Blocks: Ammar Brzovic (9), SJ Nelson (7) and Logan Brouwer (6) 
Aces: Xavier Zukley and Logan Brouwer (2)
Digs: SJ Nelson (9)


Next action for the Spartan men's volleyball team comes on Wednesday, March 25 when they travel to Concordia University Chicago with opening serve slated for 7:00 p.m. In River Forest, Illinois.