Oct. 18, 2016

Weekly Release No. 9

LAST WEEK
Sunday, Oct. 16 - at Hawai'i (L, 0-3)

THIS WEEK
Thursday, Oct. 20 - UC RIVERSIDE, 7 p.m. | Live Audio | Live Stats
Saturday, Oct. 22 - CAL STATE FULLERTON, 4 p.m. | Live Audio | Live Stats

NOTES
WEEK 8 RECAP: UC Davis (9-10, 2-4) struggled to a minus-.040 hitting percentage (24 kills with 28 errors) in falling to No. 17 Hawai'i in straight sets Sunday evening... The season-low average marked a nearly 400-point difference from the previous match's .353 at Cal State Fullerton... No Aggie surpassed double figures in either kills or digs, a first since a Sept. 6, 2013 sweep of Weber State... The last time UC Davis missed those targets in a loss was on Nov. 4, 2011 at CSUN.

RANKINGS: Junior Aima Eichie continues to lead the Big West in hitting at .426 (66-14-122) as the only player better than .400 among those with at least three swings per set... Sophomore Lauren Jackson, who did not make the trip to UH due to injury, held at No. 5 in the league with her .363 clip (71-18-146)... Sophomore Kelechi Ohiri rnaks third among Big West blocks leaders with 1.26 per set... As a team, UC Davis sits 2nd in digs at 15.96 per frame.

CONFERENCE-ONLY RANKINGS: In terms of Big West matches only, Eichie still holds the top spot in hitting average with a .432 rate (51-10-95) with Ohiri tied with Cal Poly's Taylor Gruenewald for 5th at .375 (42-12-80)... Freshman Lauren Matias ranks 4th in kills with 3.91 kps, compared to her 2.33 rate in the preseason... Sophomore Malia Bolko ranks in the league's top 10 in both aces (0.30) and digs (3.78) per set... She returned to the libero position beginning with the Oct. 1 match at UC Irvine after roles as a DS, serving specialist and even outside hitter earlier in 2016... The 6-2 setting platoon of Sophia Mar and Maddie Merlino have a combined assist average of 12.43 per set, well above the actual BWC leader, Cal Poly's Taylor Nelson (12.04).

UP NEXT: UC Davis returns home after three weekends on the road, this time to host UC Riverside on Thursday then Cal State Fullerton on Saturday... Reminder: Saturday's match has a rare 4 p.m. start, the only remaining home match that does not begin at 7 p.m... David "DK" Kim of KDVS Sports will provide live audio play-by-play via Stretch Internet while live stats will be available via StatBroadcast... Links are above.

UC RIVERSIDE (6-12, 1-5) snapped a four-match losing streak with a four-set upset of UC Santa Barbara on Friday... OH Mickayla Sherman posted 26 kills, a .400 average and 11 digs in that match on her way to earning Big West Conference Freshman of the Week accolades... She leads the Highlanders in kills at 3.07 per set, while senior libero Maddie Hubbell paces the floor defense at 4.15 dps... Hubbell enters the weekend with 1,541 career digs, just 16 shy from becoming UCR's all-time leader.

CAL STATE FULLERTON (6-14, 1-5) have lost five straight since opening Big West play with a win at UC Riverside back on September 24... That stretch includes the October 8 home loss to UC Davis in which Aggie freshman Lauren Matias pounded out a conference season-best 34 kills... More recently, the Titans lost in straight sets to Cal Poly then in four frames to UC Santa Barbara to close out a three-match homestand... Sophomore Shimen Fayad, who ranks 6th in the Big West at 3.48 kps, tallied 14 kills in each match last weekend... The Wichita State transfer also leads CSF with 20 aces (0.28) and 223 digs (3.14).

SERIES HISTORIES: UC Davis has won 13 of its last 15 meetings with UC Riverside but had a seven-match series win streak snapped almost exactly one year ago... With 44 total meetings (19-25) Aggies have one of their oldest active rivalries with the Highlanders, as the two were leaguemates in the Division II California Collegiate Athletic Association in the late 1990s and early 2000s... Among D-I foes, only Sacramento State has more decisions with UC Davis in program history... The Aggies have only played Cal State Fullerton in the Div. I era, surrendering a slight 13-11 edge... UC Davis has now won six straight meetings in the series, with the last loss coming on October 4, 2013 – one of 10 five-set matchups between the two teams.

HEAD COACH DAN CONNERS QUOTES:
"We just want to play at a better level of volleyball, find that ideal competitive mindset and sustain it throughout both matches [this week]. That's the biggest key for us. We have to be in the right mindset to compete and play hard."

"I think offensively we're doing some good things that we weren't doing at the beginning of conference. We're training things offensively at a very high level. We just need to find a way to consistently put them into our match performances. If you look at our offensive performances against UC Santa Barbara, even though we lost, or at Fullerton, we've been doing some good things. In Hawai'i, we weren't in the right competitive mindset, and it took away from our ability to execute those things."

On Cal State Fullerton: "I think history can give you confidence. You see it with really successful programs, that teams with a winning tradition have more confidence. So history can be on our side, but it can also get in the way if you focus too much on what happened in the past. Teams can come up and bite you, so you don't want to be overconfident. It's about finding the right balance."

On UC Riverside: "Riverside is a very good defensive team. They are competitive – every time we play them, they come out fighting and swinging. They're very aggressive and they're a tough team to score against. We'll have to bring our 'A' game against them."