SAN ANTONIO, Texas - After a big tie on Wednesday night, the Southwestern men's soccer team closed out the regular season with a 2-0 win over UC Santa Cruz. 

Southwestern came out of the gates well, testing the Banana Slugs' defense aggressively and had two shots and two corner kicks in the opening six minutes. The Pirates continued to press as the defense was tested with shots sprinkled in during the half.

It wasn't until the 41st minute that Southwestern saw their work pay off. Matthew Nickel charged out of the defense and into the attacking third of the field to score unassisted and give the Pirates a 1-0 lead heading into halftime. 

It took just four minutes into the second half for SU to add some cushion to their lead as Steven Resnik and Alec Vaughn teamed up to assist on Evan Perkins' goal in the 50th minute. 

Southwestern's defense and midfield did a great job of holding UCSC from strong attacks as the Banana Slugs managed just four second half shots. SU led the shot count 15-13 and had two more corners 5-3. Daniel Poole posted five saves in the match while UCSC split time with keepers and had six saves. 

The win improves the Pirates to 12-7-1 on the season and remain at 5-4-1 in the SCAC. They enter the SCAC Conference Tournament on Friday as the #3 seed, taking on Centenary College at 7:30 p.m. in San Antonio.