Oct. 24, 2009
Final Stats
NORTHRIDGE, Calif. - Sophomore middle blockers Betsy Sedlalk and Katie Denny combined for 19 kills and .548 hitting to lead UC Davis to a 26-24, 25-19, 25-17 sweep of Cal State Northridge in Big West Conference women's volleyball action at the Matadome Saturday.
The Aggies improve to 16-7 for the season and 7-2 in conference play, clinching their first overall winning season since going 16-13 in 2003. The Matadors dip to 7-15 overall and 3-5 in Big West matches.
Sedlak powered UC Davis with 10 kills and no errors on 14 swings, while supplying four blocks at the net. Denny hit 9-2-17 with a team-high six stuffs. Freshman outside hitter Allison Whitson also had nine kills to go with five blocks, while senior Carson Lowden hit 5-for-6 with three more blocks. In all, the Aggies' added to their conference-leading blocking numbers with 11 team stuffs. Additionally, UC Davis hit .315 as a team, including a .500 clip in the third set.
For Cal State Northridge, senior Angela Hupp tallied 12 kills while redshirt freshman Monica McFarland picked up a match-high 16 digs.
The first set proved to be the closest battle of the match. Hupp and junior Lynda Morales each posted two kills to kick-start CSUN to a 10-6 lead to open the match. Denny teamed up with Lowden on a block then delivered a kill to help UC Davis scramble back to a 10-10 tie. Hupp reclaimed the lead for CSUN with back-to-back kills before the Aggies stormed back with a four-point rush, taking a 15-13 advantage.
The Matadors never regained the lead in the first set after that point, but did manage to tie the frame at 24-24 on a block by Sam Orlandini and Tela Burnett. After UC Davis called a timeout, Sedlak responded with a side-out kill to put her team in a set-point footing, then Whitson and Denny combined for a block against Hupp for the winner.
The Aggie net defense struck again in the second set, as Denny added two block assists to a 4-0 run that turned a 10-9 Northridge lead to a 13-10 UC Davis edge. Later in that stanza, junior Kayla Varney scored a kill then combined with Sedlak to ignite an 8-3 finish to the set, putting the Aggies up 2-0 in the match. Whitson hit 4-for-11 with three block assists in the second.
Junior Melanie Adams had a kill and an ace to send UC Davis to a 7-3 lead in the third. However, Matador sophomore Puneet Pataria posted similar stats in aid of her team's comeback to 8-8. Sedlak then broke loose for three kills in a span of five points to put the Aggies up by a 13-10 margin, then Denny scored consecutive kills to pad that lead to 17-11. UC Davis held at least a four-point lead the rest of the way, finishing the sweep on Varney's ace.
The last time UC Davis totalled 16 or more wins in a season was in 2003, the fall after the university announced its decision to move from NCAA Division II to Division I membership. The Aggies played a largely D-II schedule in that season, then began taking on D-I and Big West Conference opposition the following year.
UC Davis returns to action on October 30 and 31 for home matches against 19th-ranked UC Irvine and UC Riverside.
