Nov. 16, 2009

Complete Release in PDF Format

THIS WEEK
Saturday, Nov. 21 - at Pacific, 7 p.m.

LAST WEEK
Friday, Nov. 13 - UC SANTA BARBARA (L, 1-3)
Saturday, Nov. 14 - CAL POLY (W, 3-2)

NOTES
TO RECAP: UC Davis (19-10, 10-5) split its final home weekend, falling in four to UC Santa Barbara on Friday before taking down Cal Poly in five sets as part of Saturday's Senior Night match... The Aggies are 4-1 in five-set matches this season... Freshman OH Allison Whitson tallied 15 kills in Friday's loss to the Gauchos to mark her 20th match with double-digit offense... Junior OPP Melanie Adams posted a career-high 24 kills with four aces in Saturday's win over the Mustangs... Sophomore MB Betsy Sedlak matched her best of nine blocks on Saturday, while redshirt freshman DS Kaitlyn Plum set a high of 13 digs vs. UCSB, then matched it during the next match... Saturday's match also featured a tribute to three seniors: setter Carson Lowden, libero Avreeta Singh and middle blocker-turned-outside hitter Tori Hooper... All three players were on the floor together for the first and last points of the match.

Lowden now has 1,097 assists for the year, requiring 48 to put another entry in the school's season top-five list... She appears at No. 4 with 1,156, set in 2007... With 3,181 for her career, Lowden surpassed Kelly Urbanik (1998-2001) for third on the Aggie career list... Singh had a team-best 17 digs in Saturday's win against Cal Poly, lifting her season total to 402... She became the first UC Davis player to record 400 or more digs in four seasons... Singh has 1,819 career digs entering her finale on Saturday... Whitson's kill total of 359 marks an Aggie record for a freshman... Barring any extreme circumstances (i.e. 66 kills by junior Kayla Varney on Saturday), Whitson will become the second freshman to lead the team in kills... The first was Chantal Paschetta, who had 334 in 2005.

BIG WEST STATS LEADERS: As a team, UC Davis (2.44 bps) holds a slight edge in blocks over Cal State Northridge (2.41 bps)... The Aggies had 14.0 stuffs in Saturday's win vs. Cal Poly... Individually, Sedlak and sophomore MB Katie Denny are 3rd (1.13 bps) and 4th (1.10 bps) in blocks, respectively... Denny also holds No. 10 in hitting average (.276)... Singh's 3.76 digs per set is 8th in the Big West, two spots ahead of Varney at 3.34... Other ranked Aggies: Whitson ranks 8th in kills (3.36), Adams is 5th in aces (0.31), Lowden sits 5th in assists (10.25).

UP NEXT: UC Davis plays its scheduled finale on Saturday night at Pacific... First serve is scheduled for 7 p.m... A win over the Tigers would complete the first 20-win season for the Aggies since 1996, when they were members of the Division II non-scholarship Northern California Athletic Conference... Furthermore, a victory would put UC Davis' conference record at 11-5, locking up at least a tie for second in the final Big West standings.

PACIFIC (17-10, 7-8) had an opposite weekend from UC Davis, falling in a five-set marathon to Cal Poly on Friday, then crushing UC Santa Barbara by scores of 25-20, 25-15, 25-15... Junior OH Svenja Engelhardt blasted 16 kills against two errors, while senior MB Masha Vaysburg hit an errorles 10-for-16 in the win over UCSB... Engelhardt, who also had 16 kills in Friday's loss to Cal Poly, leads the Tigers with 3.38 kills per set... Perhaps the most notable mark on the Pacific stats sheet is in serving: the Tigers lead the conference at 1.55 aces per set, but is also second with 2.63 service errors per set... Saturday's outcome could largely hinge on the clash between Pacific's aggressive serving and UC Davis' excellent serve receive.

HEAD COACH JAMIE HOLMES:
"The fact that we can win five-game matches shows that we're a patient team. The Aggies will stay in their game, even if they're down two games to one or they go into the locker room down 2-0. It shows me that the team is willing to go the long haul for a `W.' That's a sign of a mature team with good leaders. We talked early in the season that you don't win games quickly nor do you lose games quickly. You have to go with the ebbs and the flows and try to get the momentum back on your side. That's the mentality they've taken going into these matches."

"Pacific has some motivation coming into this match. They want a .500 conference season, which is motivation in itself to show up and gave a good match. Plus, it's Senior Night for them so the team will want to show up for the seniors. It will be a tough match. Pacific has shown themselves to be a Jekyll and Hyde team. They've shown themselves to be really great, with some good statistical outings. But they've also shown that if you can apply steady pressure on them and control the tempo of the match, they can fold."

"The Aggies also have some motivation. Pacific is our Northern California partner in the conference, and it's always fun to play teams in your area. Our team would like to get to that magical mark of a 20-win season. I'm not saying 19 wins isn't great -- it has been magical for the Aggies. But 20 wins is something to shoot for. This will be a tough weekend all around. Both teams are each other's lone competitors, and have all week to prepare for each other.

"Saturday will be the last memory we'll be creating for our team. I get the sense that they have really enjoyed themselves. For me, that's a winning season."