Weekly Release No. 6

THIS WEEK
Friday, Oct. 3 - at Cal Poly, 7 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 4 - at UC Santa Barbara, 5 p.m.

LAST WEEK
Friday, Sept. 26 - HAWAI'I (L, 0-3)

NOTES
TO RECAP: UC Davis (5-9, 0-1) dropped its Big West Conference opener with a three-set loss to No. 25 Hawai'i... The Aggies hit .127 to the Rainbow Wahine's .340, mostly due to 10 attacking errors in the opener... UC Davis held a 24-23 set point in the third before surrendering three straight points... Junior Kaylin Squyres had 13 kills with a .250 average and redshirt freshman Aima Eichie added 4-1-8 (.375) attacking with four blocks.

DOUBLE CENTURY: Not surprisingly, UC Davis has all of its matches when hitting .200 or better -- .259 vs. Portland (3-0), .223 vs. San Jose State (3-0), .210 at Sacramento State (3-2)... In the two wins in which the Aggies hit lower than that standard, there were other key stats that made the difference: 10 aces with only two serve errors at Seattle (3-0), season-high 18.0 blocks vs. Hampton (3-1)... The Aggies went 13-5 when hitting .200 or better in 2013, 13-4 in 2012, 15-4 in 2011... In those same years, hitting below .200 has yielded records of 1-10, 4-10 and 6-6.

STAT RANKINGS: Squyres held third in the Big West Conference in kills per set (3.73) while falling to fifth in total kills (194)... Senior Megan Lancaster ranks fourth in both digs per set (4.17) and total digs (217)... Senior Katie Quinn also held steady at No. 3 on the league's block leaders at 1.17 per set... Sophomore Allie Wegener moved to fifth in aces at 0.31 per... As a team, UC Davis remained third in blocks (2.29) but UC Santa Barbara has given chase at 2.20.

UP NEXT: The Aggies head to the central coast for what has historically been an intriguing road trip... Until last season, UC Davis had either lost both matches (all three D-I transition years, plus 2010 and 2011) or won both (2009 and 2012) against the member's of the Blue-Green rivalry.

CAL POLY (5-6, 0-1) dropped its conference opener to UCSB, winning the first two sets before surrendering the next three... Freshman OH Raeann Greisen posted 22 kills and hit .327... Savannah Niemen added another 12-4-26 (.308) on the attacking chart... The Mustangs have undergone a rollercoaster of a season, losing four straight on the road before winning four straight in back-to-back home tournaments... Their roster has seven freshmen and two sophomores, with no seniors... Oddly, Cal Poly's No. 3 kills leader is a setter, freshman Taylor Nelson.

UC SANTA BARBARA (6-6, 1-0) rode three junior pin hitters en route to its comeback win over Cal Poly: 17 kills from RS Britton Taylor, 13 kills and .306 hitting from OH Ali Barbeau, 15 kills and a team-high 45 swings out of RS Jaylen Villanueva... Ali Spindt led all players with three aces and 19 digs... The Gauchos' overall win-loss record is skewed by a tough preseason schedule: five of their losses are to Colorado State, Marquette, Loyola Marymount, Pacific and Cal -- all teams in the top 40 of Rich Kern's RPI.

SCHEDULE NOTE: The November 22 home match against CSUN has been moved up two hours to 5 p.m. in order to coordinate with that afternoon's football game against Sacramento State... Fans and media are advised to adjust their calendars accordingly.

HEAD COACH DAN CONNERS:
On last week's match: "We went over the Hawai'i video with the team on Monday and we only watched Set 3. We talked about all of the easy points that we gave up, like when we had set point. If we cleaned all of that up, it would be a 10-point difference -- five more for us and five less for them. I only wanted to watch the third because we played better even though we didn't play great. We want to show that we can battle with those teams. If we clean up some things, we can start beating those teams."

"We have to execute at a higher level if we want to win. That's our focus in practice. There's a different element that's happening in matches. We're just playing volleyball. It's not different just because we have an official, it's still volleyball. The stuff we do in practice has to transfer over to matches."

On the upcoming Cal Poly/UCSB weekend: "We're going to have to slow down both of their offenses. They both go pretty fast to the pins. We have to get them out of system, get non-setters setting the ball so they're forced to go a little higher. Then on offense, we have to be smart and be aggressive. We have to take advantage of opportunites when they're there. If they're not there, we have to create our own opportunities."

On smart hitting: "If the kill is not there, what are you doing with the ball? Are you attacking their setter to take them out of their offense, or are you hitting a roll shot right to their libero? It's definitely improving. It still could get better but it's definitely improving."