Sept. 19, 2016

Weekly Release No. 5 | StatBroadcast (Thursday) | StatBroadcast (Saturday)

UP NEXT
Thursday, Sept. 22 - LONG BEACH STATE, 7 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 24 - CSUN, 7:30 p.m.

LAST WEEK
Tuesday, Sept. 13 - at Sacramento State (W, 3-0)
Friday, Sept. 16 - at Boise State (L, 1-3)
Saturday, Sept. 17 - vs. Portland State (W, 3-0)
Saturday, Sept. 17 - vs. Santa Clara (W, 3-1)

NOTES
WEEK 4 RECAP: UC Davis (7-6) swept Causeway Cup rival Sacramento State in its first in-state match of the year, then went 2-1 at the Boise State Invitational... The tournament featured an 80-minute sweep of Portland State -- the team's fastest victory of the year -- followed by a 3-1 upset of No. 17 Santa Clara on Saturday... Freshman Lauren Matias and sophomore Lauren Jackson each captured all-tournament honors... Matias had 38 kills (3.45 per set) and 11 blocks (1.00) during the tournament while Jackson hit 22-8-44 (.318) with eight stuffs... Jackson also hit 9-for-10 without an error while recording a career-high 8 blocks in Tuesday's win at Sac State... Matias and redshirt freshman libero Heather Reed captured Big West Conference Freshman Player of the Week and Defensive Player of the Week honors, respectively... Reed tallied 20 digs in the win over the Hornets and just missed her career high with 25 digs in the upset of the Broncos.

BUCKING THE BRONCOS: Saturday's victory over Santa Clara marked the third time in school history, and the first in the Dan Conners era, that UC Davis has defeated a team ranked in the AVCA Division I Top 25... Matias exploded for a career-best 22 kills and a .405 average in the victory... Setters Sophia Mar (28 assists) and Maddie Merlino (25 assists) helped the Aggies hit a season-high .273, helped greatly by Matias and Jackson (nine kills, .500 average)... The win, plus the victory over Portland State earlier in the day, vaulted UC Davis into the top 100 of Rich Kern's RPI rankings to No. 94... UC Davis was 125th, PSU 42nd, Santa Clara 13th entering the week.

The program's previous win over a ranked team was the Aggies' October 26, 2013 home match with Hawai'i, when Mary Schroeder's 17 kills, Kendall Frisoli's five aces and Megan Lancaster's 21 digs highlighted a five-set win over the then-No. 8 Wahine... The Aggies' first win over a Top 25 foe came on October 30, 2009... Allison Whitson (14 kills) and Kayla Varney (15 kills, 12 digs) helped UC Davis prevail over No. 23 UC Irvine in the battle of the Big West's two first-place teams.

STAT RANKINGS: Reed raised her Big West Conference-leading digs average to 4.87, well ahead of UC Santa Barbara's Emilia Petrachi (4.61)... Sophomore MB Kelechi Ohiri also has a comfortable lead in blocks at 1.49, in front of Hawaii's Emily Maglio (1.25)... Sophomore OH Emily Allen ranks third in kills at 3.79... The newest Aggie entrant to the conference leaderboard is Jackson, who now sits fourth in the league with a .382 average... Jackson has held a high efficiency rate for weeks but her uptick in swings pushed her over the 3.0 attempts/set minimum to qualify... As a team, the Aggies top the league in one major category: .182 opponent hitting.

UP NEXT: UC Davis opens Big West Conference play at home, hosting Long Beach State for a 7 p.m. match on Thursday followed by a rare 7:30 start against CSUN on Saturday... StatBroadcast live stats are available at the links above.

LONG BEACH STATE (6-7) owns a misleading win-loss record due to its strength of schedule: matches against Colorado, Washington State, Loyola Marymount, UCLA and San Diego in the preseason... The 49ers went 1-2 during their trip to the USD/SDSU Invitational, losing to the two co-hosts after escaping with a five-set win over San Jose State... Senior OH and former Marquette transfer Nele Barber, who leads LBSU with 3.75 kills per set, totaled 46 kills for the weekend... She rates just behind Allen at fourth in the Big West Conference... Junior MB Ashley Murray ranks second on the team at 2.31 kps, a .252 average and 0.92 blocks per set... Series note: UC Davis has never defeated Long Beach State in 22 meetings, although there were five-set "near misses" in 2007, 2008 and 2010.

CSUN (4-8) lost to No. 9 BYU and UNLV at the BYU Classic before coming back from a 2-0 deficit to clip Utah Valley in five sets last weekend... Senior Julie Haake tallied 18 kills on 59 swings to lead the Matadors offensively in the win over the Wolverines... Haake (3.33 kps) and sophomore Aeryn Owens (3.07 kps) form a 1-2 punch on the left side for CSUN, which suffered a six-match losing streak with only one set win prior to the BYU Classic finale with UVU... Series note: not only have the Aggies and Matadors split their 22 meetings evenly (11-11), but five of the past seven meetings have gone the full five sets.

HEAD COACH DAN CONNERS QUOTES:
On the Santa Clara win: We just played at a high level of volleyball. We served really well and balanced our offense out. Emily [Allen] didnt' hit the majority of sets, we were able to get the ball to Lauren Matias, Bri [Brianna Karsseboom] and Lauren Jackson. It made us a little less predictable, which made a big difference, plus we put in a great defensive effort. We made it hard for them to score. We dug a lot of balls and we attacked very intelligently. We're using the block and finding the open space, which puts a lot of pressure on our opponents."

"All things considered, we're playing at a good level right now. Having a couple seniors out has hurt us, and it will be nice to get them back because of the experience they bring. Our biggest challenges have been because of a lack of understanding of what to do in certain situations. But again, it's making us better and stronger as a team because we're getting more players experience they wouldn't have otherwise had."

"Long Beach State is very good, as they are every year. They will present a lot of challenges for us. Their system, style and experience will be a tough battle. They always pick up their game when conference comes, and I know they'll be ready for us. Northridge has had some tough losses but they played a tough pre-conference schedule. Their record doesn't indicate how good they are. They're very good at scoring points so we'll have to figure out a way to slow them down and play good defense against them. We just have to be ready to settle in and battle like we have in the preseason, and keep our intensity level consistent."

On the start of Big West play: "I want us to be confident going in but we can't be cocky. If we get cocky, these teams will jump all over us. They're good teams and they've been doing it for a long time. We have to stay prepared for some tough battles."