Oct. 12, 2015
Weekly Release No. 7 
| Live Video | Live Audio (ESPN 1420) | StatBroadcast
THIS WEEK
Friday, Oct. 16 - at No. 8 Hawai'i, 10 p.m. PDT
LAST WEEK
Thursday, Oct. 8 - UC SANTA BARBARA (W, 3-0)
Saturday, Oct. 10 - CAL STATE FULLERTON (W, 3-0)
NOTES
TO RECAP: UC DAVIS (9-11, 4-2) pulled into a tie for third place in the Big West Conference standings, thanks to 3-0 sweeps of UC Santa Barbara and Cal State Fullerton... Junior OH Kendall Walbrecht totaled 30 kills (5.00 per set) with a .375 average to earn Big West Conference Player of the Week honors... Walbrect committed only six hitting errors and led the Aggies in kills on each night... The 25-10 win in the second set against UCSB is the Aggies' most lopsided win since beating CSF 25-9 in the third set last November. 13.. The team's .351 attack rate against the Titans represents a season high... The last time UC Davis hit better: also against Fullerton in that Nov. 13, 2014 sweep... Sophomore Aima Eichie and freshman Nicola Moore also enjoyed strong weeks... Eichie hit 12-1-28 (.393) with 10 total blocks (1.67 per set) in the two wins... She was an errorless 6-for-13 with six stuffs versus UCSB... Moore had 12 kills on just 16 swings in Saturday's victory against CSF... The two combined for a perfect 10-for-10 in the first set that night.
Aggie head coach Dan Conners stressed a need for better distribution after the first conference weekend, as senior OH Kaylin Squyres had 116 of the team's 276 swings (42.0 percent) in the first two matches... Thanks mostly to the increased production from Walbrecht, Eichie and Moore, the load on Squyres has dropped steadily from the first conference week to the third... Squyres took 123 of UC Davis' 320 attempts in the UCR-UCI week (38.4 percent), then just 63 of 211 (29.9 percent) last week, all of which makes the UC Davis attack less predictable... Credit junior setter Sophia Mar (11.33 assists per set, .308 team average last week) and the overall passing (Aggies committed only four receive errors, Allie Wegener and Emily Allen had none in 38 attempts) for this uptick.
MILESTONE WATCH: Squyres raised her career kills total to 1,040, bringing her within nine of Heidi Knapp (1988-91) and 12 of Jen Bryan (1993-96)... Mar also reached her 1,000 assist as an Aggie last week... She had 507 last season, splitting time with Erika Conners as part of the team's 6-2 system... Mar has 526 this season, 222 (10.57 aps) in the six Big West matches since UC Davis went back to a 5-1.
STAT RANKINGS: Squyres continues to lead the Big West Conference in kills per set (4.58) and total kills (334)... Freshman libero Malia Bolko held at No. 3 in digs per set (3.99)... Eichie raised her blocks average to 1.20 but stayed at No. 4 in the conference... Wegener continues to rank second in aces (0.35)... As a team, the Aggies rank second in both blocks (2.32) and digs (15.44)
UP NEXT: UC Davis returns to the road to take on Big West front-runner Hawai'i... The match will be streamed live via BigWestTV and on ESPN 1420 AM (KKEA)... The latter is available at http://www.espn1420am.com.
No. 8 HAWAI'I (16-1, 6-0) was the only top-10 team to hold its previous week's, thanks to a 3-0 win over CSUN on Friday followed by a five-set thriller against Long Beach State... Junior OPP Nikki Taylor tallied 14 kills and hit .393 while sophomore OH Kalei Greeley attacked at 9-0-13 (.692) in the sweep of the Matadors... Senior MB Olivia Magill tallied 11 total blocks against LBSU to earn Big West Conference Defensive Player of the Week accolades... The Wahine compiled 20.0 team blocks on Saturday, holding the 49ers to just .097 hitting... Magill (1.63), sophomore Emily Maglio (1.34) and Taylor (1.25) hold the top three spots among Big West blocking leaders... As a team, Hawai'i leads the nation in 3.40 blocks per set and holds opponents to a miniscule .137 average (5th in NCAA).
HEAD COACH DAN CONNERS:
On the UCSB/CSF weekend: "What we were looking for as far as shot distribution was way better. I think we still can even better if we pass more efficiently."
On Kendall Walbrecht: "She's been an outside hitter her whole career except for last year and the beginning of this year, when she played opposite. So she's natural out there, and the move to outside was comfortable for her. As she's gotten back into the swing of it, she's gotten even more natural and comfortable."
On No. 8 Hawai'i: "We want to slow them down offensively with our serving, and make them more one-dimenionsal. That's the same with every team -- we want to make them as one-dimensional as possible. Offensively, we want to be sure we're aggressive with our attacking and being smart about what we do. We want to put pressure on them."
