Banana Slugs vs Four D2 Teams!

I’m thrilled to announce that my eldest daughter, Ashlyn, is beginning her college adventure at UC Santa Cruz this month! As we’re from the Bay Area, it’s wonderful that she’ll be nearby. I’m looking forward to attending some of the women’s volleyball home games this season. When I looked at the schedule for 2025, I noticed that UCSC, which competes at the Division 3 level, will kick off their season with four scrimmage matches against teams from Division 2. Those teams include UC Merced, Stanislaus State, CSU East Bay, and Menlo College. I’m interested to see how this will impact the rest of their season!

The Banana Slugs are returning with an impressive lineup, featuring standout players like Drew Bryant, Heidi Collins, Olly Gordon, Kate Lau, Margo Melgoza, and Abigail Lee. With their new head coach Chad Koenegstein—formerly an assistant coach at the highly successful Colorado College—the team is bursting with potential and ready to charge ahead with great momentum.

Now, let’s talk about those D2 teams. UC Merced is making a big move this year, transitioning from NAIA to D2, and they’re eager to prove their worth in the CCAA conference. Meanwhile, Stanislaus is eyeing another title run, CSU East Bay is determined to keep climbing and improve from last year, and Menlo College is hungry for a breakout season in the PacWest conference. Although these are "just" scrimmage matches, you can bet that UCSC is hungry to prove itself right out of the gate.

The journey ahead for the Banana Slugs begins with a steep roller coaster drop—but this initial challenge might just make the rest of the season even more rewarding. If they can secure some early wins, they will have some decent momentum going into a very competitive matchup with Redlands and then onto a slew of SCIAC conference games and out-of-state C2C games (UCSC is part of the Coast 2 Coast Conference, where they are the lone West Coast team).

Book-ending the season, the Banana Slugs head to Texas for their final tournament at East Texas Baptist University against Austin College and the Ozarks Eagles of Arkansas.

Get your popcorn ready!!

Here’s the link to see the UCSC Womens Volleyball Schedule if you're curious:

https://goslugs.com/sports/wvball/schedule