Oct. 19, 2010
Final Stats
SAN FRANCISCO - UC Davis junior middle blocker Betsy Sedlak posted consecutive blocks and sophomore outside hitter Allison Whitson knocked down the winner to apply the finishing touches on a five-set win over San Francisco in non-conference women's volleyball action at Memorial Gym Tuesday night. The set scores went 25-19, 22-25, 20-25, 25-19 and 15-13 in favor of the Aggies.
The victory marks the second straight come-from-behind victory for UC Davis, which improves to 14-7. The host Dons fall to 3-16 for the year.
Freshman Morgan Borch sparked the Aggies off the bench with 9-for-14 hitting without an error during a key fourth- and fifth-set appearance. Whitson ended the match with 17 kills on 38 swings. Sedlak's two stuffs completed a total of eight for the match. Junior middle Katie Denny matched Sedlak's nine kills while supplying four aces and three blocksAs a team, UC Davis finished with 13 blocks and nine aces.
For USF, sophomore Alycia Cox tallied a match-high 20 kills with only one offensive error toward a hitting average of .452. Freshman setter Joan Caloiaro recorded 19 digs to go with 58 assists. Sophomore Erin Kilroy chipped in 13 kills and a .455 average from the right side. The Dons held the match edge in kills (68-62), digs (72-67) and attack average (.280), the latter stat boosted by .353 hitting in the second set, .382 in the third and .324 in the fourth.
UC Davis opened the match strong, with senior outside hitter Kayla Varney serving up a pair of aces in an 8-1 run early in the frame, helping craft a 12-5 lead. USF rallied back to a 17-11 deficit on a pair of Aggie hitting errors, then closed the gap to 22-18 on Caloiaro's kill, But UC Davis finished the task, scoring a pair of points on USF serving errors in the final stretch.
The Aggies also ran hot early in the second set, turning a 5-5 tie into a 14-7 lead behind the serving of Denny and sophomore Kaitlyn Plum, who combined for three aces in the 11-2 stretch. Sedlak scored a kill and two blocks during that run, then Whitson later posted two kills to keep UC Davis in comfortable shape with a 20-15 lead. Kilroy hit a kill and teamed with Hadley Simmons on a block to cut the lead to just 20-19, then scored three kills in the final five points to help USF snipe the set off UC Davis.
Kilroy carried her momentum into the third set, firing two kills and an ace in a 5-3 start. Caloiaro put down a pair of kills to stretch the Dons leads to 11-7, but UC Davis scrambled back to a 15-14 lead behind a kill, solo block and block assist from Whitson. That proved to be the last Aggie edge in the frame as Cox and Caiti Wenger responded with kills to spark a 4-0 run. In similar fashion to the second set, Kilroy popped two kills in the final three points to push San Francisco to the match lead.
After the two teams locked up in a 6-6 tie early on, Borch slammed four kills to help propel UC Davis to an 18-8 lead. She added two more for the 23rd and 24th point, then Adams brought home the 25th on a side-out conversion two serves later. The Aggies hit .371 in the fourth, posting 15 kills with just two errors after committing 13 hitting miscues in the second and third sets. Borch went 6-for-7 with five digs in that set.
The two teams battled to 10 ties and seven lead changes in the final set.Cox scored three kills to help USF erase a 4-2 UC Davis start. Borch later posted a kill and block assist to turn a 7-6 Don lead into a 9-7 Aggie edge. Senior Sarah Mandala, victim of the block by Borch and Denny, promptly redeemed herself with a kill to ignite a 3-0 USF run, only to see Denny and Borch fire back-to-back kills to restore the UC Davis lead to 11-10.
A Cox kill and Mackenzie Murtagh ace gave San Francisco a 13-12 lead and a glimmer of hop for an upset, but Borch and Sedlak combined for a block against Murtagh to tie the score at 13-all. Plum served up the final two points, with an Adams/Sedlak block delivering match point and Cox's only hitting error of the match. Whitson then followed with the match-winner to complete the Aggie comeback effort.
Tuesday's match represented the Aggies' second straight five-set match and sixth overall. They hold a 4-2 record when going the distance in 2010.
UC Davis women's volleyball will be honored during Saturday's afternoon football game against South Alabama, then will host UC Riverside in a Big West Conference match that evening. First serve is 7 p.m. at Upper Hickey Gym.
