Weekly Release No. 9  | Live Audio (Thursday) | Live Stats (Thursday) | Live Audio (Saturday) | Live Stats (Saturday)

LAST WEEK
Friday, Oct. 23 - at UC Riverside (L, 2-3)
Saturday, Oct. 24 - at Cal State Fullerton (W, 3-0)

NOTES
TO RECAP: UC DAVIS (10-13, 5-4 Big West) split its weekend road trip, falling in five sets to UC Riverside, then defeating Cal State Fullerton in straight frames... Freshman libero Malia Bolko posted dig totals of 20 and 24 in the two matches (5.50 dps), respectively, marking the third time this season that she has delivered 20-plus digs in consecutive matches... Bolko was also perfect on the serve-receive line with no aces against in 31 passes... Senior OH Kaylin Squyres led the Aggies offensively on both nights, totaling 34 kills with just seven attack errors for a .314 average... Sophomore MB Aima Eichie hit 8-2-21 with a season-high 8 blocks at UCR but did not play on Saturday... In her place, freshman Lauren Jackson had career highs in kills (5) and total swings (14) while contributing on four of the team's 11 blocks.

UC Davis has now defeated Cal State Fullerton in five straight series matches, including three-set sweeps in the last three... On the other hand, the loss at UC Riverside marked the first time since Nov. 5, 2011 that the Aggies had lost to the Highlanders... That ended a streak of seven straight UC Davis wins in the head-to-head history... The program's longest drought in a series comes against Long Beach State: the Aggies are 0-21 all-time against the 49ers... Note: full Big West-era series histories have now been added as page 10 to the complete PDF version of this release.

MILESTONE WATCH: With 20 kills on Friday, Squyres jumped from ninth to sixth on the school's career list... The 14 on Saturday at CSF brought her current total to 1,078... She needs 131 to catch Jill Changaris (1,209 from 1993-96) for fifth, or 18.7 kills per match for the remainder of the schedule... Squyres also needs five digs to become only the second player in the program's Div. I era to surpass both 300 kills and 300 digs in back-to-back seasons... Former teammate Allison Whitson achieved that feat in 2011 and 2012.

STAT RANKINGS: Squyres holds the top spot in the Big West in both kills per set (4.43) and total kills (372)... Bolko raised her digs average to 4.16, good for third in the league... Eichie held at No. 4 on the blocks leaderboard (1.22) although Kelechi Ohiri fell out of the top five to No. 7 (0.98)... However, Ohiri moved into fourth in hitting average at .340, thanks to her 16-3-35 (.371) weekend... As a team, UC Davis ranks second in blocks (2.32).

UP NEXT: The Aggies return home for matches against CSUN (Thursday) and Long Beach State (Saturday)... David "DK" Kim will call the action via StretchInternet, while live stats are available via StatBroadcast... Links are above.

AGGIE TALK: Head coach Dan Conners and senior OH Kaylin Squyres will appear as the interview guests on Tuesday's episode of Aggie Talk, the weekly sports talk show on the student station KDVS 90.3 FM... Fans outside of the area can tune in via online links at http://kdvs.org/programming/listen-now/.

CSUN (5-15, 4-4) split its home weekend with a three-set loss to Cal Poly followed by a five-set victory against UC Santa Barbara on Saturday... The Matadors lost the first two frames by scores of 25-8 and 25-19 before taking the next three, improving from minus-.182 hitting in the first to .412 (9-2-17) in the fifth... Senior OH Cieana Stinson and junior OH Julie Haake each had 13 kills in Saturday's win... Stinson paces CSUN with 254 kills (3.58 per set), 111 (3.96) in conference play... She hit 22-6-52 (.308) with four blocks in her previous meeting with UC Davis on Sept. 26.

LONG BEACH STATE (15-7, 7-2) briefly entered the national top 25 this season, including 24th in the September 28 poll... The 49ers fell out of the poll after a five-set loss at Hawai'i on October 11, but have won three straight since... Most recently, junior OH Nele Barber posted career highs of 24 kills and 20 digs to help LBSU avenge a previous loss to Cal Poly... The Beach fell into a 2-0 hole against the Mustangs, including a 25-14 setback in the second, before taking the next three sets for the win... Barber leads five players with at least 2.0 kills per set with her 3.92 average (329 total)... She also has 269 digs (3.20 dps) and 59 blocks.

HEAD COACH DAN CONNERS:
"To me, if you lose but you play well, then I'm okay with it. But we didn't play very well in that loss [to UC Riverside]. We had moments where we played well but it was very streaky. We would give up runs of points. I think our ball control and four first contacts were a big part of it. We dug a lot of balls but they were off the net. Our passing was off the net. We never got into a rhythm offensively and made too many errors because of it. They were a tough-serving and an aggressive-hitting team that definitely put pressure on us. I think the biggest piece, though, was that we weren't as sharp."

"I think the team chemistry has grown. There is a higher level of confidence in the freshmen who are out there consistently. We're more confident setting Nic [Moore]. We're more confident with Malia [Bolko] and her passing and defensive abilities; and with Emily and her ability to pass, to play defense or even to attack. She has been great out of the back row at putting pressure on teams and keeping the ball on the court. She has earned that right to play."

"Both Northridge and Long Beach are very good offensively, so we'll have to affect them with our defense and our serving. Long Beach is a great defensive team, then they're good in transition. Most of this game is played in transition. Plus, they have a middle and left side who can score a lot of points, while their setter [Jenelle Hudson] was Player of the Year last year. They went five with Hawai'i, so they can play."