Oct. 3, 2016

Weekly Release No. 7

LAST WEEK
Saturday, Oct. 1 - at UC Irvine (W, 3-1)

NEXT WEEK
Thursday, Oct. 6 - at UC Santa Barbara, 7 p.m. | Live Stats | BigWestTV | Live Audio (SportsRemote)
Saturday, Oct. 8 - at Cal State Fullerton, 3 p.m. | Live Stats | ESPN3 | Live Audio (Stretch Internet)

NOTES
WEEK 6 RECAP: UC Davis (8-8, 1-2) picked up its first Big West Conference win of the 2016 season, outlasting UC Irvine in a four-set road tilt... Sophomore OH Emily Allen led the Aggies with 15 kills while adding 11 digs for a double-double... Setters Sophia Mar and Maddie Merlino combined for 53 assists, with Merlino compiling a career-high 33... More importantly, the setting crew distributed the ball well: Allen had 32 swings, freshman Lauren Matias had 32, senior Kendall Walbrecht 25, sophomore Brianna Karsseboom 21, junior Aima Eichie 17 and sophomore Kelechi Ohiri 14... Eichie and Ohiri posted similar hitting charts for the second straight week: 8-2-17 (.353) for Eichie, 8-3-14 (.357) for Ohiri.

WELCOME BACK, VOL. II: One week after the return of Eichie to the lineup, Walbrecht made her first appearance since the season-opening UND Classic... A 2015 All-Big West Conference performer, Walbrecht had played in just three matches in this year before suffering an injury during practice in Week 2... She finally took some light reps last week, then responded with 10 kills and just three errors (.280) while adding nine digs and three block assists on Saturday... The Aggies played nine of their 13 pre-conference matches with only one senior.

STAT RANKINGS: Redshirt freshman Heather Reed still leads the Big West Conference with 4.66 digs per set (270 total) although UCSB's Emily Petrachi (4.56) has closed the gap... Ohiri remains atop the blocks leaderboard at 1.34, just head of Hawaii's duo of Emily Maglio (1.33) and Nikki Taylor (1.22)... Allen ranks fourth in kills (3.73), with sophomore Lauren Jackson matching that place in hitting (.363)... As a team, UC Davis ranks second in both digs (16.12) and opposing hitting average (.201)... The .176 allowed against UCI last weekend helped the latter cause.

UP NEXT: UC Davis continues Big West road action, this time at UC Santa Barbara (Thursday) and Cal State Fullerton (Saturday)... The pairing of opponents also marks a break in tradition: Thursday's match will be the first time the Aggies have not played the Gauchos in the same weekend as Cal Poly.

HOMETOWN INTEREST: Two Aggies will return to their hometowns for this weekend's matches... Lauren Jackson was a volleyball and track star at Troy HS, literally located down the street from Cal State Fullerton... She had one of her best matches of her freshman season at Titan Gym, hitting 5-1-11 with four blocks in last year's three-set sweep on October 24... Emily Allen won Channel League titles in three sports (volleyball, soccer, track) at San Marcos HS, just a few miles inland from the UCSB campus.

LIVE COVERAGE: Both matches will have live stats, video and audio through the usual channels... However, Saturday's match at CSF will appear on the virtual airwaves of ESPN3... Links are above:

UC SANTA BARBARA (10-6, 1-2) has the second-best RPI among the Big West according to both the NCAA (No. 48) and Rich Kern (No. 47), thanks to a conference-best nine preseason wins... The Gauchos split their weekend with a four-set win at CSUN followed by a straight-set loss at Long Beach State... They field one of the league's best freshmen in 6-foot-2 OH Lindsey Ruddins, who ranks second in the Big West with 4.33 kills per set... Sophomore libero Emilia Petrachi enjoyed a strong weekend with 38 digs in seven sets... She trails the Aggies' Reed for the top of that statistical leaderboard.

CAL STATE FULLERTON (6-11, 1-2) has relegated last year's winless season to a distant memory, thanks in part to two key transfers at the OH position... Former Wichita State product and 2015 Missouri Valley Conference All-Freshman honoree Shimen Fayard leads the Titans with 3.48 kills and 3.05 digs per set... Madeline Schneider, a former America East All-Rookie pick for UMBC, has another 3.08 kps... CSF lost both matches last week, falling in sweeps to UC Irvine and No. 13 Hawai'i.

HEAD COACH DAN CONNERS QUOTES:
"Obviously, when you're winning and playing well, you want to carry that on as long as you can. What I liked about last weekend was that we were grinding out sets. The third and fourth were definitely a grind for us. We weren't playing our best but we worked through some stuff and found a way to get it done. I think that's part of a team's maturity not to give up big scoring runs. We still have our struggles but it has gotten better throughout the year, and it's something we have to get more consistent with."

On the upcoming weekend: "It's the same stuff: we want our energy at a consistent level, we want our play at a consistent level. It's all about continuing to get more consistent with our effort, performance and execution. That was the big difference last weekend: our energy levels and willingness to be engaged and executing. When [UCI] went on a scoring run, we got frantic and passive. In the second set, they did some good things and we didn't respond well. In the third set, I thought we did a much better job responding to those situations. That was the difference in the third and fourth sets. It wasn't that we were playing that much better, we were just more consistent with our energy and mentality."

"Fullerton is a huge step up from where they were last year. That will be a tough match. Then Santa Barbara has tons of attacking weapons. They will be a challenge to figure out from a defensive standpoint. We'll have to do a great job at forcing them into tough situations, and having a good plan for those situations. They are a very balanced attack with efficient hitters. They will be a challenge but we're up for it."