Sept. 12, 2016

Weekly Release No. 4

UP NEXT
Tuesday, Sept. 13 - at Sacramento State, 7 p.m.

at Boise State Invitational
Friday, Sept. 16 - at Boise State, 2:30 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 17 - vs. Portland State, 9:30 a.m.
Saturday, Sept. 17 - vs. Santa Clara, 2:30 p.m.

LAST WEEK
Friday, Sept. 9 - vs. Southern Utah (W, 3-2)
Saturday, Sept. 10 - vs. Gonzaga (L, 0-3)
Saturday, Sept. 10 - at Nevada (L, 3-2)

NOTES
WEEK 3 RECAP: UC Davis (4-5) went 1-2 at the Wolf Pack Tournament, outlasting Southern Utah in five sets in Friday's action, then falling to both Gonzaga and host Nevada on Saturday... The Aggie-Wolf Pack match went two hours, 20 minutes and featured 323 total swings... The Aggie second-year class dominated the stat sheet for the weekend: OH Emily Allen had 65 kills for a 5.00 per-set average, including a career-high 30 on Friday night (see below)... Brianna Karsseboom added 36 kills on 92 swings... Lauren Jackson, who moved to the right side to fill the void left by Kendall Walbrecht, hit 20-4-38 for a .421 average in 11 sets... Jackson had career bests of 11 kills, 19 swings and a .521 clip in Saturday's finale against Nevada... Redshirt freshman Anna Donald blocked four shots vs. SUU then hit a combined 9-2-24 (.292) in Saturday's doubleheader... Finally, redshirt freshman libero Heather Reed totaled 56 digs (4.31 dps), including 25 against the Wolf Pack.

30 KILLS: Allen's is the 14th player in Division I and the third in the Big West Conference to record a 30-kill match in 2016... Hawaii's McKenna Granato (33 vs. Arizona) and UC Irvine's Victoria Dennis (31 vs. San Diego State) were the first two from the league... Allen also becomes the first UC Davis player to hit 30 since Chantal Paschetta achieved the feat against Washington State on Sept. 3, 2005... Paschetta played in the era when Sets 1-4 went to 30 points rather than 25... The school record remains Candy Lench's 40 at SSU back on October 27, 1992, when college volleyball used side-out scoring... Coincidentally, Lench (now Candy Murphy) is the ninth-year assistant coach at Boise State, which hosts UC Davis this upcoming weekend.

STAT RANKINGS: Sophomore MB Kelechi Ohiri's 10 blocks against Southern Utah helped her maintain the top spot among Big West Conference leaders at 1.43 per set... Reed still paces the league in digs per set at 4.76... Allen moved into the top five in kills, holding a distant third (3.97) behind Hawaii's Nikki Taylor (5.95) and UC Santa Barbara's freshman phenom Lindsey Ruddins (4.51).

UP NEXT: UC Davis plays its first non-tournament match with Tuesday night's Causeway Classic showdown with Sacramento State, then head to the Boise State Invitational for contests against the host Broncos, Portland State and Santa Clara... StatBroadcast stats for Tuesday's match are found at stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=138938, while video is available at the Big Sky Conference at www.bigskyconf.com/sports/2015/11/19/WatchBigSky.aspx... A headquarters webpage for the BSU tourney is available at www.broncosports.com/sports/w-volley/spec-rel/bosu-w-volley-BoiseStateInvitational.html... Links to CBS GameTracker stats and streaming video are there.

SACRAMENTO STATE (5-5) lost both ends of a tough Friday schedule against New Mexico State and Arizona, then swept host UTEP at the Borderland Invitational... Junior OH Shannon Boyle, who totaled 33 kills in the tournament, leads the Hornets with 134 overall (3.94 per set)... Senior LIB Lexie Skalbeck has 167 digs (4.77) while sophomore MB Brie Gathright is hitting .347 with a team-best 34 blocks (1.13)... The Aggies won four straight meetings in the series until last year's three-set loss at home on Sept. 15...

BOISE STATE (5-4) beat Idaho State in four on Thursday, fell in straight sets to No. 10 BYU on Friday, then came up short in a four-set loss to Mizzou on Saturday at the Idaho State Invitational... Junior OH and 2015 All-America honorable mention Sierra Nobley leads the Broncos with 144 kills (4.65) to go with 86 digs (2.77) and 22 blocks (0.71)... As mentioned above, Cal Aggie Athletics Hall of Famer Candy Murphy (formerly Lench) is in her ninth year with the BSU coaching staff... She earned All-America first-team honors in 1991 and 1992, and continues to hold UC Davis career records for kills (1,888) and aces (160)...

PORTLAND STATE (7-2) has won five straight matches, including wins over Southeast Louisiana, UC Riverside and host Utah State in tourney action last weekend... Juniors setter Erin Clark and Tasha Bojanic respectively claimed Offensive and Defensive Player of the Week nods from the Big Sky Conference... Clark, the tourney MVP, averaged 11.45 assists per frame and helped the Vikings to a .330 average (40-8-97) against SELA... Bojanic had dig totals of 14, 25 and 18 through the three weekend matches... Senior OH Pati Anae rules the PSU stats with 184 kills (4.97), 90 digs (2.43), and a .265 average...

Undefeated SANTA CLARA (9-0) owns the highest Rich Kern RPI (No. 13) of any Aggie opponent to date, picking up wins against Grand Canyon, West Virginia and host California at the Cal Classic... Three Broncos -- senior OH Nikki Hess, junior MB Jensen Cunningham and senior OH Sabrina Clayton -- average better than three kills per set... Sophomore MB Hailey Lindberg has another 2.39 kps and team highs of .405 hitting and 34 total blocks... SCU has already claimed wins against No. 7 USC and No. 21 Louisville during the 2016 preseason.

HEAD COACH DAN CONNERS QUOTES:
"Emily's match with 30 kills was quite an achievement. She has really learned how to score, which has been great. She has come a long way in just two weeks. We need to get Anna [Donald] more swings. She's hitting at a decent clip and doing a nice job as she gets more and more comfortable out there. With Jackie [Graves] and Lauren Matias, the more experienced they get, the better they're playing. Lauren Jackson had her best match not only by numbers but by the mentality she played with. She was extremely aggressive, which is something we've been begging her to do. I was really proud of the way she came out determined to play hard in that match [against Nevada]. Her results showed her potential. If she puts out that level of energy and effort, she's capable of putting up big numbers."

"We've talked a lot as a group about what will define us as a group and how we want to play. It's one thing to talk about it, but it's another thing to execute it. That's a learning process. I thought we definitely took some good steps this past weekend, and I think these next four matches will challenge us and give us that opportunity to play consistently and at a higher level. We've had three tough weekends and now we're coming into our toughest one. But it's good to be challenged, and it's good for the young players in our program to see they level we need to play at."