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KENOSHA, Wis. -- Top-seeded UC-Santa Cruz defeated fourth-seeded Nazareth in three sets 30-25, 30-27, 30-25 in the Molten Division III men's volleyball national semi-finals, hosted by Carthage College. Junior Hans Schroeder tallied a team-high 10 kills for the Golden Flyers. Schroeder also added eight digs and three total blocks.

The Golden Flyers drop to 19-15 overall following the loss. The Banana Slugs, ranked third nationally in Division III, improve to 15-6 overall with the victory. UC-Santa Cruz will play Springfield Saturday at 9 p.m. for the Division III championship. Nazareth will play Carthage in the consolation match at 6 p.m. Eastern. Springfield downed Carthage in three sets Friday in the second semifinal match.

The Banana Slugs thwarted the Golden Flyers' upset bid with a decisive scoring run in each set. In the first set, UC-Santa Cruz stretched a 15-14 lead into a 25-18 advantage by converting their attempts and forcing Nazareth into hitting errors. The Golden Flyers cut their deficit to four points, 26-22, after sophomore Billy Gimello recorded a kill and freshman Robert Kraft recorded a block. The Banana Slugs, however, closed out the set with a kill by Brad Sullivan. Santa Cruz finished the set with a hitting percentage of .395 as they tallied 21 kills.

In the hard-fought second second and third sets, the Banana Slugs used late scoring runs to earn the victory in each set. The teams traded the first 17 points of the second set until Gimello tallied back-to-back kills to provide Nazareth with a 10-8 lead. The Golden Flyers held the lead through most of the remainder of the set until Santa Cruz's rally. Gimello temporarily kept Nazareth ahead by scoring three consecutive points as he connected a solo block and two kills. After a kill by sophomore Hans Schroeder put the Golden Flyers ahead 25-22, the Banana Slugs made a decisive rally by scoring seven straight points to take a 29-25 lead. Nazareth fought off two set points with a kill by Gimello and a solo block by Robert Kraft, but Austin Einhorn scored the next point to give Santa Cruz the second set victory.

In the third set, neither team led by more than a couple of points until the Banana Slugs took a 27-22 lead following a 5-0 scoring run. The Golden Flyers held several one-point leads, but Santa Cruz answered each time. Nazareth's last lead was 21-20 following a hitting error by the Banana Slugs. After the Banana Slugs' scoring run, the Golden Flyers scored consecutive points on a kill by junior Will Siwy and a kill by junior Chris Mendez, which cut Nazareth's deficit to 27-24. A kill by Gimello then kept the Golden Flyers alive at 25-29, but Santa Cruz won the match on the next point.

In addition to the kills from Schroeder, junior Ellis Walsh and Gimello each added nine kills and Siwy recorded eight kills. Walsh also finished with a team-high five total blocks including a match-high three solo blocks. Freshman EJ Wells-Spicer had a team-high 34 assists as Nazareth's primary setter. Freshman Dan Mowery recorded a team-high nine digs.

Santa Cruz was led by Justin Lam, who tallied a match-high 17 kills with just four errors. Brad Sullivan and Sal La Cavera added 11 kills and 10 kills respectively to the Banana Slugs' potent attack. Eric Rowell finished with a match-high 45 assists while Eric Pauly had a match-high 14 digs.