Box Score Sept. 20, 2014 UC Davis 3, Hampton 1 | UNC 3, UC Davis 2
GREELEY, Colo. - Senior middle blocker
Katie Quinn posted eight kills with a career-high 12 blocks to lead UC Davis to a four-set, 25-19, 17-25, 25-19, 25-14 win over Hampton in the second of two second-day matches at the Hampton Inn & Suites Northern Colorado Classic Saturday afternoon. The Aggies lost to the host Bears in five sets earlier in the day.
UC Davis moves to 5-8 for the year.
Quinn's blocks total joins a five-way tie for second in the school record book, and sets a new standard for the era of 25-point rally scoring. The school record of 16 (set by Kelly Spaulding in 1998), plus the other four 12-block performances, took place in matches with either 30-point scoring or side-out scoring. All of Quinn's stuffs were block assists, putting her into sole possession of second in that category. Her previous best was 10, set at UC Riverside last October.
Senior Valerie Brain and sophomore Kendall Walbrecht each contributed on seven blocks, part of the team's season-best total of 18.0. Quinn also hit eight kills en route to a .389 average. Junior Kaylin Squyres paced the attack with 12 kills to go with three aces and 12 digs. Senior libero Megan Lancaster led all players with 16 digs.
After a pair of hitting mishaps spotted Hampton a 10-8 advantage early in the first, sophomore Allie Wegener scored two kills to help UC Davis score four of the next five points in taking the lead for good. The Pirates managed to cut the deficit to a single point on two occasions but never equalized. Wegener added three more kills in the latter half of the set, plus a service ace to establish a 24-18 set point.
Hampton flipped the script in the second, sending UC Davis into chase mode for almost the entirety. Four Aggie attacking errors put the Pirates up to an 8-5 lead early, then Hampton maintained that edge for the remainder. Two late kills from senior Sonja Maksimovic helped pull away to a 21-14 lead and an eventual eight-point win.
The third set brought the wildest ebbs and flows of the match. Allysa Medina helped Hampton craft a 6-3 start while Maksimovic's kill brought the lead to 10-7. Quinn led UC Davis with a kill and a block through five straight points to a 12-10 edge. The Aggies maintained a small advantage until Vendula Strakova's kill and ace highlighted four unanswered Pirate points, resulting in a 17-16 Hampton edge. Facing a 19-18 deficit and the chance to fall behind in the match, UC Davis responded with seven consecutive to run the table. Squyres served out the set with two aces while three Hampton players suffered attacking errors in that finishing stretch. The Pirates struggled to 12 hitting errors and a .000 average in the third, hamstrung by five Aggie blocks.
The UC Davis net play continued to stifle Hampton's hitters into the fourth. Quinn had six stuffs in the early going, including four with Kendall Walbrecht during a 6-0 run that set the Aggies out to a 14-8 lead. Sophomore setter Sophia Mar served the majority of five straight points to extend the lead to 19-10. UC Davis continued to pull away, getting its 18th block (by Walbrecht and Aima Eichie) for the 23rd point, then kills from Eichie and Wegener to finish.
The 18 Aggie blocks is the program's highest for a single match since amassing that total in a five-set victory against Middle Tennessee State in the opening weekend of the 2012 season.
In Saturday's opener against the host Bears, junior Holland Seymour posted career highs in kills (13), attacks (26) and digs (7) to help UC Davis battle back from rough second and third sets. She hit an errorless 9-for-11 in the fourth in forcing the rubber set, but ultimately Northern Colorado outran its guests in the fifth. The Bears scored four straight to erase a late 11-10 UC Davis lead en route to a 15-12 win.
Seymour's kills total more than doubled her previous best of six, set against Oregon State early last year. Sophomore Kendall Walbrecht added 11 kills while Quinn paced the Aggie net defense with six blocks.
The Aggies showed their grit in claiming the opening set against UNC, overcoming deficits of 12-7 and 17-14. Walbrecht had two kills and a block assist in a 6-1 run that flipped the three-point hole into a 21-18 lead. Senior middle Andrea Spaustat helped UNC rally back to within a 24-23 margin before Squyres converted the side out for the 25th point.
However, UC Davis struggled in each of the next two sets, falling by a combined 20 points to slip behind in the match score. The Aggies managed just nine kills in the second to hit .086 in that frame. Outside hitter Kendra Cunningham had six kills to help the Bears pull away from a 7-7 tie to the 25-14 set win.
UC Davis never held a lead in the third although a brief comeback run erased a 5-2 start. This time it was senior Briana Strong who carried Northern Colorado. She hit eight kills in the third, two of which sparked a 5-1 stretch through the middle of the set, bringing the score to 16-9. Spaustat had a kill and a solo stuff to highlight a later run of four unanswered Bear points, and UNC cruised to the victory.
Seymour, who entered the match in the second set and served up her lone ace late in the third, turned on her offensive game to ignite an Aggie comeback in the fourth. Three of her early kills led her team to a 12-7 start before tough serving and timely kills from Kim Weissman brought the Bears around to a 15-13 edge. The two teams battled to 13 ties and seven lead changes in the fourth, culminating with the final three points. UNC held a 26-25 match point before Seymour scored a side-out kill to equalize at 26-26. She added the finishing touch two points later in support of Sophia Mar's serving, sending the match to a fifth set.
The Aggies took a 10-9 lead late in the finale on kills by Eichie and Walbrecht plus two aces from setter Erika Conners wiped out a 9-6 UNC edge. Another Eichie kill made it 11-10 until Strong scored two kills in a 4-0 Bears rally, giving the hosts a 14-11 match point. Cunningham put down the winner with her fourth kill of the set and 19th of the match.
Brain was subsequently chosen as the Aggie representative on the all-tournament team. She totaled 21 kills with just four attempts on 53 swings (.321) average while adding 12 blocks in 13 sets during the weekend.
The Northern Colorado Classic ended the preseason portion of the Aggies' 2014 slate. UC Davis will host Hawai'i on Friday night for its Big West Conference opener. The Rainbow Wahine, who fell out of the national Top 25 last week, were the preseason conference favorites entering the fall.
