GREENVILLE, Pa. – The Tomcats fell to the third-ranked University of California Santa Cruz 3-0 in the opening round of the 2012 Continental Volleyball Conference (CVC) Championship Tournament Friday afternoon at Thiel's Beeghly Gymnasium. 

The Banana Slugs posted a 25-16, 25-17, 25-20 straight-set victory over the Tomcats to get the CVC's first-ever postseason tournament underway.

Santa Cruz (14-6) entered the inaugural conference championship tournament as the number two seed out of the West Division and faced a Tomcat squad (16-18) that came in as the third seed out of the East.

Mauro Salinas had 11 kills and eight digs for Santa Cruz and Salvatore La Cavera added eight kills and six digs. Paul Leon distributed 32 assists and chipped in defensively with nine digs while Darren Tsai totaled a game-high 23 digs.  

Dante McCoy (Reading, Pa./Holy Name) led the Tomcats with 10 kills and nine digs. Corey Hamilton (Meadville, Pa./Maplewood) handed out 21 assists while registering seven digs and Colin Vitale (Pittsburgh, Pa./Montour) posted 11 digs in the straight-set loss. 

The CVC Championship continues Friday night as Stevenson University (#2 East) takes on Milwaukee School of Engineering (#3 West) at 7 p.m.

The semifinals are slated to get underway at 11 a.m. on Saturday with fourth-ranked Juniata College matching up against Santa Cruz. Top-ranked Carthage College will take on the winner of Friday's MSOE/Stevenson match at 2 p.m. with the championship match to follow at 7 p.m.