WHITTIER - The UC Santa Cruz Banana Slugs finished undefeated in their second trip to Los Angeles in as many weekends with a pair of sweeps at the Whittier Classic.
The Banana Slugs beat old rival Chapman 25-23, 25-17, 25-19 before closing the trip with a 25-23, 25-15, 25-18 win over the host Poets.
The Banana Slugs go to 8-1 and continue their best start since 2014.
In the afternoon game, UCSC outhit Chapman .173 to .027 to break a five-match losing streak against the Panthers. Down 17-13 in the first set, UCSC ran off a 4-0 run to tie it and then finished on a 5-1 run to take the set. Four blocks spurred UCSC opening a 13-8 lead in the second set that they took comfortably. UCSC never trailed in the third set and closed with a 7-1 run to take the match. Samantha Taylor led the Banana Slugs with 11 kills and the UCSC defense came up big with 8 total blocks.
In the nightcap against Whittier, UCSC survived seven ties in set one to pull out the close win. After that, they totally dominated the Poets, hitting .444 and .292 in sets two and three while never falling behind the rest of the night.
Taylor had 13 kills in the win while Claire Okerlund added 10 to go with 3 aces and 3 block assists. Overall, the Banana Slugs outhit Whittier .344 to .160 while having 47 digs to the Poets' 32.
"Assistant Coach Branden Torado and I are so proud of the growth this team has had since last week," said head coach Gabby Houston. "We battled on Day 1 vs. Pomona-Pitzer and La Verne and showed our resilience and determination after a couple of slow starts.  
"Day 2 was a new day and we focused on our team unity, respect of the game and discipline. It paid off with 2 sweeps and and a high energy finish to the tournament."
UCSC has one more trip to the Southland next weekend, starting with a match at Occidental on Friday evening.