Sept. 19, 2013
Final Stats
DAVIS, Calif. - Sophomore outside hitter Kaylin Squyres posted 16 kills and a .382 hitting average while junior middle blocker Katie Quinn posted a career-high eight blocks, boosting UC Davis to a four-set, 12-25, 25-20, 26-24, 25-20 upset over California in collegiate women's volleyball action at the Pavilion Thursday night.
The Aggies improve to 7-5 for the year, taking their first victory over the Golden Bears since 1976. Cal, among the teams receiving votes in Monday's national Top 25 poll, slip to 7-2 overall.
Squyres committed just three attacking errors in 34 swings for the match. Junior middle Victoria Lee added nine kills and a .471 attack percentage, junior libero Megan Lancaster notched a match-high 18 digs and senior setter Jenny Woolway managed 42 assists and 13 digs to go with her 4-for-11 hitting.
Overall, the serving game played a big part for both teams. Cal suffered from eight service errors despite five aces. UC Davis had seven aces, with Quinn, Devon Damelio and Kendall Frisoli recorded two each. The Aggie serving also forced the Golden Bears out of system for much of the fourth set, evident in a drop from .350 to .149 in Cal's hitting clip.
For the guests, senior Adrienne Gehan led all players with 19 kills and 48 swings, while serving up three acse and digging 16 shots. Sophomore Lara Vukasovic contributed 10-1-17 (.529) hitting while junior opposite Christina Higgins provided another 15 kills with just two attack errors for a .361 success rate.
Cal dominated the first set, doubling its host's kills total by a 16-8 margin and hitting .333 overall. Sophomore middle blocker Lillian Schonewise tallied three blocks and a kill during an 8-0 run that pushed the Golden Bears up by an 18-8 margin. Gehan and Higgins nailed line shots to increase the Cal edge to 23-10 and 24-10, then Gehan knocked a 1-set straight down for the 25th point.
UC Davis improved from its .000 hitting to a .310 clip in the second set, first taking a 10-5 lead then later flipping a 15-13 deficit into a five-point set victory. A Schonewise solo block gave the Golden Bears its largest lead at 15-13. The Aggies took the lead for good when Quinn combined with Brain for a block, then scored on a kill to make it 19-17. Lee effectively clinched the set when her crosscourt shot found a vacant area in the opposite corner, then her successful tip fell into some open Cal real estate at 22-19.
Their first-set hitting woes behind them, the Aggies continued to hit efficiently in the third, not suffering an error until Higgins and Michelle Neumayr combined for a block for Cal's 18th point. Although UC Davis never trailed, the Golden Bears fought back from a 16-10 hole to eventually tie the frame at 23-23 on a Gehan ace. Quinn took the match in hand, firing two kills then serving up an ace during the final four-point flourish.
The Golden Bears forged a 10-7 lead early in the fourth in an attempt to tie the match. A Higgins kill later set the board at 12-9, but that proved to be Cal's largest lead. A Lee kill and a pair of missed boundaries put three straight points in UC Davis' favor to tie the proceedings at 12-12. The teams battled the three straight ties with Damelio and Quinn combining on two different blocks before the Aggies snared the lead at 17-16. The UC Davis lead increased to 19-16 when Quinn served up an ace against former teammate Sarah Cole. Squyres, who had seven kills in the final set, put down three in the final stretch to complete the victory.
UC Davis held a 6-5 edge in the all-time series with Cal but had not claimed a victory during the Division II or I eras (the Aggies were Division III members of the AIAW in their last win over the Bears).
The Aggies hit better than .300 in each of their set wins: .310 in the second, .357 in the third, and .317 in the fourth. They also improved to an 85 percent side-out conversion after managing only 10 of 25 opportunities in the first-set loss.
UC Davis returns to action on Sunday afternoon in a home match with CSU Bakersfield.
ADDITIONAL MATCH NOTES: This is the fourth time UC Davis has defeated a team ranked in or receiving votes toward the AVCA Division I Top 25... The Aggies defeated Tulsa (RV) and Missouri (RV) on back-to-back weekends early in the 2011 season, and claimed a four-set upset of then-No. 23 UC Irvine on Oct. 30, 2009... Additionally, Thursday's match marks the fourth time UC Davis women's volleyball has beaten a Pac-12 member in the Division I/reclassification era: Washington State (Sept. 3, 2005), Oregon State (Sept. 17, 2010), Colorado (Aug. 26, 2011) and California (Sept. 19, 2013)... The last UC Davis team in any sport to upend Cal was field hockey, which took a 3-1 victory from the Bears on Sept. 30 of last season.
