SANTA CRUZ, Calif. -- The Arcadia women's volleyball team ventured west to California and came away with a pair of wins on day one of Slugfest 2018 hosted by UC Santa Cruz on Friday afternoon.
 
The Knights (7-1) came away with a tightly-contested 3-2 match against the host Banana Slugs, then rolled past Mills, 3-0, to close out the opening day of play.
 
Arcadia 3, UC Santa Cruz 2 (25-23, 25-23, 18-25, 21-25, 15-13)
After taking the first two sets for a 2-0 lead, the Knights saw the Banana Slugs get back into the match with wins in sets three and four.
 
The decisive fifth and final set featured big scoring runs for each team and was in doubt much of the way. The Knights turned a 7-5 deficit into a 14-9 lead on the strength on a 9-2 to put victory in sight. Lauren Enfield served seven-straight points for the Knights.
 
The Banana Slugs answered with four straight points to pull within 14-13, in part, due to a pair of AU attack errors. On serve with a chance to tie the final set, Alana Susbilla couldn't keep her serve in and the error made winners of the Knights.
 
Allison Elechko and Shannon Ryan each had 15 kills for the Knights, and Maddie Sehrt chipped in 11. Julia Paliwodzinski handed out 43 assists and picked up 22 digs to lead AU in each category. Emily Eng had 21 digs, Elechko had 13 and Enfield added 11.
 
Arcadia 3, Mills 0 (25-13, 25-6, 25-15)
In Arcadia's second match of the day, the Knights were never truly threatened by Mills in notching the 3-0 win. The Knights held Mills to a -.133 hitting percentage, the lowest mark for the Knights under Head Coach Eli Porr, while hitting .359 themselves.
 
Mills served first in the first set and took its only lead of the set at 1-0 before Arcadia seized control. In the second set, Lizzie Joseph served 16 straight points as the Knights padded a 6-4 lead to a 22-4 advantage. In the third set, the Knights went up 6-3 to start and never trailed by fewer than three the rest of the way.
 
Becca Campf led the offense with seven kills, and did so on just nine swings for a .778 hitting percentage. As a team, the Knights hit .369. Joseph had six kills and five service aces, while Kaylee Bumpus added three service aces and eight digs. Mackenzie Hale led the Knights with nine digs, all in one set.
 
The Knights will take on both Mills and UC Santa Cruz again on Saturday beginning at 1 p.m. EST.