The fall quarter is quickly coming to a close, which also means the end of several campus sports for the year. City on a Hill Press gives you the lowdown on how UC Santa Cruz’s teams did this season.
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Men’s Soccer
Record: 13-4-4 (8-2-3 in Division III)
With new head coach Michael Runeare at the helm, the UC Santa Cruz men’s soccer team greatly improved over last year’s record of 8-7-2 and made the NCAA postseason for the fourth time in five years. They started off the year strong with two overtime road victories over University of Puget Sound and Pacific Lutheran, and went on to win 12 straight games. The second half of the season proved to be more difficult for them, however, as they lost four games on the road. These losses included their last two games of the season, after seven players were suspended from the team during the last weekend of October for an undisclosed team misconduct incident. The Slugs then hosted Claremont Mudd-Scripps in the first round of the playoffs on Nov. 14, but were defeated 2-1 to end their national championship hopes.
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Women’s Soccer
Record: 12-6-0 (8-5-0 in Division III)
The women’s soccer team slightly bettered last year’s final record with two fewer losses and made the playoffs for the fourth straight year. They had two significant winning streaks during the season, winning four in a row after a first game loss as well as three straight wins at the beginning of October. Unfortunately, they too also suffered a first-round playoff loss at the hands of Claremont Mudd-Scripps, and will have to wait until next year for a chance at redemption for their early postseason exit.
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Women’s Volleyball
Record: 20-11 (10-8 in Division III)
The Lady Slugs had a successful season, nearly equaling their impressive 2008 record of 22-8. After losing their first game of the year to Carthage University, the team went on to win six in a row and 13 out of 14 games in a single stretch. They had a difficult October, however, losing seven games straight on the road at two tournaments, in Thousand Oaks and Colorado Springs. Unfortunately, this losing streak lessened the team’s playoff chances, and they were unable to make the NCAA postseason roster this season.
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Women’s Cross Country
The team started off the year with the University of San Francisco 5K Invitational on Sept. 5, where they placed sixth of 10 colleges and junior Mikayla Murphy finished second out of 100 participants with a time of 18.25.70. Their most successful meet of the year proved to be the Bronco Invite on Oct. 17, as the team finished fourth overall out of 14 teams in the open portion of the event. They then met at the NCAA DIII West Regionals in Claremont on Nov. 14 where the team finished 11th out of 17 teams. While this was not enough to continue on to the championship in Cleveland on Nov. 21, Murphy’s performance at the Regionals meet (where she placed seventh out of 113 runners) was enough for her to make it to nationals on an individual level.
