Sept. 5, 2008
2008-09 UC Davis Women's Basketball Schedule
DAVIS, Calif. -- Matchups against five teams that advanced to the postseason last year, including national runner-up Stanford and NCAA participant Arizona State, highlight the 28-game 2008-09 UC Davis women's basketball schedule released by head coach Sandy Simpson, whose own squad enjoyed a highly successful inaugural Div. I season last season.
The upcoming schedule will promises to be a challenging one for the Aggies who advanced to the Women's National Invitational Tournament and finished second in both the Big West Conference regular season and at the league tournament. UC Davis, 19-12 overall and 12-4 in the Big West in 2007-08, was just the second team to advance to the conference championship in only its first year of league membership.
The 2008-09 season will feature 13 home games - including a Dec. 3 matchup against Arizona State - and 15 on the road. Additionally, UC Davis will play two home exhibition games in early November. The Big West Conference season will begin on Jan. 4 against Cal State Northridge and conclude on Mar. 4 at Northridge. The Big West Tournament - with its automatic NCAA Tournament bid to the winner - is scheduled for Mar. 11-14 at Anaheim.
Besides Stanford and Arizona State - both on the Aggies' schedule for the second consecutive year and both expected to contend again for the Pac-10 Conference championship - opponents that earned postseason bids last year include Creighton and South Dakota State. Each program, like UC Davis, earned WNIT berths, coincidentally squaring off against each other in the first round. Creighton won that matchup, 76-69. UC Santa Barbara advanced to the NCAA Tournament by beating UC Davis in the Big West final.
Altogether, six Aggie opponents posted 20-win seasons in 2007-08, headlined by Stanford's 35-4 record which propelled the Cardinal to the NCAA Championship where it lost to Tennessee, 64-48. Arizona State (22-11) was a 20-game winner last year and will be similarly joined on the Aggies' schedule this year by South Dakota State (23-7), UCSB (23-7), Creighton (21-12) and Santa Clara (20-11).
"The schedule will be a tough one for us but we know it will help us to continue to grow as a Division I program," said Simpson. "It provides us some tough road games and a challenging Big West schedule which we hope will put us in position to make another run at the postseason."
UC Davis will play a pair of exhibition games before the start of the regular season, facing Australian Showtime (Nov. 6) and former Div. II rival Sonoma State (Nov. 10) at The Pavilion. After opening the year on the road at Southern Utah (Nov. 14) and Denver (Nov. 21), the Aggies will play three straight at home against San Francisco (Nov. 25), Santa Clara (Dec. 1) and Arizona State.
The schedule turns to the road for the next five, however, with Saint Mary's (Dec. 6) and rival Sacramento State (Dec. 13) leading into a tough midwest trip to South Dakota State (Dec. 17) and Creighton (Dec. 20). A trip to Maples Pavilion to play Stanford for the second consecutive year - with sisters Haylee (UC Davis) and Hannah Donaghe (Stanford) battling against each other once again - will help close the pre-conference schedule on Dec. 28 followed by a visit from Div. II reclassifying Seattle (Dec. 30). Cal State Bakersfield, also reclassifying, will play at UC Davis in a nonconference game on Fe. 25.
UC Davis will play five of its first eight Big West games on the road but will be battle-tested when it finishes the regular-season with three of its final five league matchups on Hamilton Court. Defending league champion UCSB will visit The Pavilion on Feb. 21 while third-place finisher - and 2006 and 2007 champion - UC Riverside will come to UC Davis on Feb. 7.
