DAVIS, Calif. -- To any athlete in any sport, the start of the conference schedule always signals familiar opponents, familiar names, familiar facilities. For UC Davis women's volleyball players Emily Allen and Paloma Bowman, familiarity rises to the ultimate degree when the slate kicks into Big West Conference play: each Aggie player faces a sister during the league's home-and-home slate.

Bowman will meet up with her older sister, Nastassja, a senior setter for Cal State Fullerton during league tilts on October 13 (in Davis) and November 2 (in Fullerton). For Allen, a senior outside hitter, the UC Santa Barbara match means looking across the net and seeing her younger sister, Chloe, currently a junior outside hitter. The Aggies and Gauchos square off this Saturday, then again on November 10 – a.k.a. UC Davis' Senior Day match.

Who: UC Davis at UC Irvine
When: Friday, Sept. 28 • 7 p.m.
Where: Bren Events Center (Irvine, Calif.)
Live Stats: Sidearm Stats (https://ucirvinesports.com/sidearmstats/wvball/summary)
Live Video: Big West TV (http://bigwest.sidearmstreaming.com/watch/?Live=1431&path=uc_davis)

Who: UC Davis at UC Santa Barbara
When: Saturday, Sept. 29 • 7 p.m.
Where: The Thunderdome (Isla Vista, Calif.)
Live Stats: Presto Stats (http://www.ucsbgauchos.com/sports/w-volley/2018-19/boxscores/20180929_boum.xml)
Live Video: Big West TV (http://bigwest.sidearmstreaming.com/watch/?Live=1461&path=uc_davis)

Allen is the first Aggie to take on her sibling during the 2018 season, and this particular trip will carry added meaning: as a senior, it will be her last opportunity to face Chloe in front of her hometown crowd. Unfortunately, this weekend's visit may be sullied to some degree: Chloe has been out of the UCSB lineup due to injury in recent weeks, and may not see action on Saturday. Still, the older Allen sis has enjoyed the experiences of facing the younger one during the three years their careers overlapped.

"It's really fun to go down there," Emily says. "We'll have a team meal at my house, my parents tell everyone about it, and I grew up doing camps in that gym. It's like coming full circle." 

"We used to always be on the same team, like in soccer or in high school volleyball. It was an unsaid thing that I had to be better than my sister," said Emily. "If we were doing a drill, I had to beat her. Now, I get to do that. It's not in a mean way, it's just an older sister thing. It's really fun, and our team is a good sport about it. They get in on the competitive spirit, that we're going to be the better sister team."

Meanwhile, Paloma has always had the opposite dynamic from Emily's, being the younger sister to Nastassja: "We used to be on the same team, and it was always annoying as the little sister, because you'd always get compared to the older sister. We got really competitive about it, and now we get to play each other. So it's closure for me, because we've beaten them both times."

Indeed, Paloma is undefeated in the series against Nastassja, with the Aggies sweeping the 2018 series against the Titans last year. As for Allen-v-Allen, Chloe claims the edge with the Gauchos winning three out of the four matches. In fact, it was in the 2016 meeting at the Pavilion that Chloe had her best performance of her freshman year: 19 kills and a .394 hitting average. 

The sibling rivalry is also different for the Bowmans, who are setters who often play in a 6-2 system, which means they will rarely if ever get a chance to block each other, or end up on opposite ends of a joust. The Allens are both pin hitters and primary passers for their respective teams, meaning opportunities abound for one sister to score kills, blocks or service aces against the other.

That said, Emily admits having at least one occasion during which she avoided her sister rather than taking her on. In the 2017 match in Davis, Emily found herself near the right pin, while Chloe was blocking on the left – i.e. the two sisters were lined up face to face. "I remember thinking, I could hit down the line, but I don't want to get blocked by her," said Emily. "So I swung really hard cross-court. I got the kill, but I remember thinking in the split second when I got the set, I could hit at her, or avoid her."

Chalk that story up to smart shot selection, long one of Emily's strengths as a player. After all, Emily may be the older one, but Chloe is taller (6-foot-0 to 5-foot-9).

For the record, both sets of parents make sure they show no preference for one side or the other. "Last time, my mom sat dead in the middle of the court," says Paloma. Sharon Allen will wear blue and gold clothing to support both schools, with no school name adorned on it. At last year's matchup at the Thunderdome, Ken Allen took his equal-opportunity support a step further.: he wore a handmade T-shirt that featured photos of each daughter.

Besides this weekend's visit to Santa Barbara, and the November 10 Senior Day match, another key moment will be the October 13 meeting between UC Davis and Cal State Fullerton. That is designated as the annual tribute to volleyball pioneer Gary Colberg. Nastassja played club ball for Debby Colberg for Five Starz Volleyball, while the Colbergs and Bowmans are long-time family friends. 

In the end, both Aggies claim the sibling rivalry only lasts for the 90 minutes to two hours in which the two teams are facing off. Paloma says she feels a "heightened level of adrenaline" when facing Nastassja, but that it's also a "that night thing." Once the match is over, they're back to being sisters. No bragging rights, no trash talk at the Thanksgiving dinner table.

However, on "that night," Aggie fans, leave that center seat open for the parents.

ABOUT THE OPPONENTS: UC Irvine (7-7, 1-1) split its first weekend of Big West play, taking down UC Santa Barbara (3-1) then losing a five-set battle at home vs. Hawai'i... Abby Marjama and Harlee Kekauoha each scored 15 kills against the Wahine on Saturday, while Idara Akpakpa figured on nine of her team's 15 blocks... Marjama, who had 12 kills vs. UCSB, captured Big West Conference Freshman of the Week accolades... UC Santa Barbara (10-5, 2-1) went 2-1 in its conference-opening weekend, falling in four to UC Irvine on Tuesday, then dispatching UC Riverside (3-1) and Cal State Fullerton (3-0) over the weekend... Like Cal Poly, the Gauchos were led by a pair of sisters: Lindsey (60 kills, 44 digs in 11 sets) and Gigi Ruddins (20 kills, 20 digs in seven sets) during the week... Lindsey Ruddins and libero Emilia Petrachi (61 digs) earned Big West Player of the Week and Defensive Player of the Week, respectively.

SIBLING RIVALRIES, AGGIE STYLE: The notion of opposing siblings is hardly new to the sports world, and UC Davis has seen quite its share in recent years... Aggie basketball player Haylee Donaghe literally matched up against her younger sister, Hannah, in a 2007 UC Davis-Stanford basketball game, with local photographer Wayne Tilcock capturing an image of one blocking the other... More recently, lacrosse players Elizabeth (UC Davis) and Chloe (Cal) Landry squared off on the center draw, while water polo players Heather (UC Davis) and Rachel (Stanford) went head-to-head in the center sprint... The 2012 Aggie field hockey home opener featured a matchup of identical twin sisters Jennifer (UC Davis) and Jessica (Saint Louis) Allen... Even coaching siblings have enjoyed such moments, with the most notable example taking place in the UC Davis-Iowa wrestling dual at the Pavilion in January of 2005... Aggie head coach Lennie Zalesky faced his younger brother and Hawkeye head coach Jim Zalesky in one of several meetings between the two former Iowa standouts (Jim later coached for Oregon State).

DON'T MISS OUT: The ninth-annual UC Davis Athletics Brewfest takes place as part of the October 13 Homecoming football game against Idaho State... Tickets for the Brewfest plus the Aggies-Bengals game are now on sale at https://bit.ly/2ooveDI... The Brewfest celebrates UC Davis as the No. 1 academic brewing program in North America... The ticket package includes unlimited tastings at the UC Davis Brewfest, a commemorative tasting mug, and a ticket to the game.

ABOUT UC DAVIS: Providing a small-town community feel while providing a world-class academic experience, UC Davis is home to more than 37,000 students and centrally located between San Francisco, Lake Tahoe, and the Napa Valley. The No. 5-ranked public university in the nation according to the Wall Street Journal, and among the top 10 public universities nationwide according to U.S. News and World Report, UC Davis offers nearly 100 graduate programs and more than 100 academic majors across four colleges and six professional schools, ranking among the world and nation's best in numerous disciplines, including veterinary science, agriculture, and plant and animal programs.

AGGIE EVO: Launched in 2017-18, the Aggie EVO System is UC Davis Athletics' investment in the primary mission of preparing student-athletes for a successful "launch" after graduation. Thanks to a collaboration of alumni, university resources, corporate partners, coaches and Student-Athlete Outcomes staff, all Aggies are guided over four years to acquire the skills, knowledge, opportunities and tools to better know and navigate the "World of Work" after graduating from UC Davis. Follow the Aggie EVO system on Twitter and Instagram at @AggieEVO.