OPENING TIP: For the first time in more than three decades, two schools separated by only 189 miles will meet on the court this week as the UC Davis women's basketball team heads south down Highway 99 to take on former Big West Conference member Fresno State in a midweek tilt at the Save Mart Center. Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m.

NEXT UP…
GAME 2: UC Davis (0-1) at Fresno State (1-0)
WHEN: Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2019 at 6 p.m. PT
WHERE: Save Mart Center in Fresno, Calif.
RADIO: KDVS 90.3 FM (PxP: Greg Wong)
TV: None
STREAMING VIDEO: Mountain West Network
LIVE STATS: BulldogsLive.com
NOTES: UC Davis | Fresno State | Big West
FOLLOW: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

BE A FOLLOWER: Fans can get an inside look at the UC Davis women's basketball program by following them on their many social media accounts. Like or follow us on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook at @UCDavisWBB. In-game updates will also be available on the team's Twitter feed.

AGGIES GETTING VOTES IN MID-MAJOR POLL: UC Davis will open the 2019-20 season among those receiving votes in the preseason College Insider Mid-Major poll, released on Monday (Nov. 4). The Aggies, who opened last season ranked No. 19 in the nation in the website's preseason poll, received the second-highest point total among the "others" with 71, trailing only New Mexico State (77) to essentially rank 27th in the country. UC Davis' opponent to open the season, Montana State, is also among that group, picking up four votes, as are this year's opponents UC Irvine (26) and Saint Mary's (nine).

DEFENDING CHAMPS AT THE TOP OF PRESEASON BIG WEST POLLS: The Aggies were picked to repeat as conference champions for the fourth consecutive season by members of the media, while the coaches picked UC Davis to finish second according to a pair of preseason polls released on Oct. 23. Receiving eight first-place votes and 113 points overall, the Aggies stood atop the media poll, shading second-place UC Irvine (four first-place votes and 104 points) and third-place UC Riverside (one first-place vote, 94 points). The Anteaters were picked first in the coaches poll, receiving six of the nine first-place nods and 77 points to edge UC Davis, which finished with two first-place votes and 70 points.

PRESEASON LOVE FOR NINA: Senior American studies major Nina Bessolo was one of six players selected to the preseason All-Big West Team by the coaches, coming off a junior year that saw the Hayward, Calif., native earn All-Big West honorable mention honors. She averaged a career-high 9.0 ppg to rank second on the team, adding 3.9 rpg, shooting just over 40 percent from the field, and 35 percent from beyond the arc.

SO, HOW 'BOUT THOSE AGGIES?: Bessolo is one of three seniors for the Aggies in 2019-20, along with psychology major Sophia Song (5.7 ppg, .427 FG%) and communication major Katie Toole (2.2 ppg, .586 FG%), as UC Davis returns eight letter winners and a pair of starters off of last season's squad that finished 25-7 overall, a school-record 15-1 in the Big West, and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the second time in the program's history. Three-time Big West Coach of the Year Jennifer Gross also returns junior cell biology major Cierra Hall, who led the Aggies in rebounding at 6.3 rpg, as well as sophomore center Sage Stobbart, who will anchor the Aggies' inside game after averaging 3.3 ppg and 4.2 rpg as a freshman in 2018-19.

ABOUT THE BULLDOGS: Fresno State enters the week with a 1-0 mark following a 79-52 win over Cal Poly on Nov. 6 to start the season... Three Bulldogs finished in double figures led by Hanna Cavinder's 23 points, five assists, and five steals, while Haley Cavinder (17) and Maddi Utti (11) were also in double digits... Fresno State finished 19-13 overall and 11-7 in the Mountain West a season ago, falling to Pacific in the first round of the WNIT... The Bulldogs return three of their top four scorers, led by Utti, who averaged 12.3 ppg and 7.3 rpg last year.

SERIES NOTES: Tuesday marks the first meeting between the Aggies and the Bulldogs since a Dec. 16, 1985, tet-a-tet in Fresno won by Fresno State, 93-48... The Bulldogs lead the all-time series, 5-1, with UC Davis' lone victory coming on Dec. 7, 1980 at home by a 57-55 count... Three of the six all-time meetings have been played in Fresno with Fresno State winning all three.

CONFERENCE CALL: UC Davis is a combined 30-19 against the current Mountain West Conference alignment, including a 10-11 record in road games... The Aggies have won their last five meetings with Mountain West schools dating back to a loss at San Jose State on Dec. 10, 2014... UC Davis won its only game against the league last year with an, 84-68, win over Nevada at the Lady Griz Classic in Missoula, Mont.

KOM SÅ DANMARK!: Junior Lena Svanholm won't be able to suit up for the Aggies this season due to NCAA transfer rules, but she will get the opportunity to keep her skills sharp after being called in to compete with the Danish Women's National Team for the 2021 FIBA Women's Eurobasket Qualifiers. Denmark, ranked No. 46 in the world, faces Romania (No. 48) in its opener on Nov. 14, before returning home to face Italy (No. 14) on Nov. 17 -- the first game played on Danish soil since 2000. The fourth team in the group is the Czech Republic (No. 17), which meets Denmark during the second round of qualifiers in November of 2020.

ALL SHE DOES IS WIN: Head Coach Jennifer Gross enters this season ranked fourth in the program's history in career coaching wins with 156, needing just eight more to match Pam Gill-Fisher (1975-79, 81-86, 87-88), who accumulated 164 wins during her 12 years at the helm. The UC Davis alumna has won nearly 62 percent of her games since taking over for the winningest coach in the program's history -- Sandy Simpson (251 victories) -- for the 2011-12 season.

ALL THEY DO IS WIN, TOO: Seniors Nina Bessolo and Sophia Song have only known winning, playing key roles as part of the Aggies' three consecutive Big West Conference titles, a Big West Tournament crown, two trips to the WNIT, and an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2019. With 78 wins over the last three years, the duo would match Head Coach Jennifer Gross' record for most wins (101) from 1993-97 if the Aggies were to win 23 games this season.

POSTSEASON PREPARED: UC Davis will face eight teams that reached the postseason a year ago in 2019-20, as well as seven opponents that ranked in the top 150 of the final RPI. NCAA participants Portland State (Nov. 30) and quarterfinalist Stanford (Dec. 28) join WNIT qualifiers Fresno State (Nov. 12), Saint Mary's (Nov. 19), Minnesota (Dec. 15), Pepperdine (Dec. 19), and league rival Hawai'i (Jan. 11 and Feb. 22), as well as WBI participant UC Riverside (Jan. 9 and Feb. 29). The Waves reached the third round of the WNIT, while the Golden Gophers and Gaels each gained the second round.

20-20-20 VISION: UC Davis goes in search of its fourth consecutive 20-win season in 2019-20 -- something that hasn't happened in the program's Division I history and a feat that would be the longest such run in the program's all-time history since a streak of six consecutive 20-win seasons from 1993-99, accumulating 149 victories against only 29 losses (.837) in that stretch. According to records that date back to the 1974-75 season, UC Davis has won 20-or-more games 17 times.

#PROTECTTHEPAV: Although it's still a few days away, the Aggies are looking forward to playing in front of the hometown faithful for the team's official home opener against Santa Clara on Nov. 16. UC Davis has won its last 12 consecutive games at The Pavilion and has posted a combined 38-4 record at home in the last three season's combined.

WHEN YOU'RE HERE, YOU'RE FAMILY: Head Coach Jennifer Gross has steadily built a winner at UC Davis during her time at the helm, thanks, in part, to a supporting cast of coaches that make up one of the longest-tenured staffs in the country. Entering its ninth season together, Gross, associate head coaches Joe Teramoto and Des Abeyta, and assistant coach Matt Klemin, make up the longest-tenured coaching staff in the country after Oklahoma welcomed a pair of new coaches into the fold for this season. The Aggies' staff is now one of only four in the country (Texas A&M, Tulane, and Iowa State, are the others) that have been together for at least eight seasons.

AGGIES PUTTING THE "W" IN BIG WEST: No Big West Conference school has won more games than UC Davis since the Aggies officially joined the league in 2007-08, posting 231 combined victories to date -- which is 41 more than the next-highest school (Cal Poly with 190) entering the 2019-20 campaign.

FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING: UC Davis faces a trio of first-time opponents this season: Boston University on Dec. 5, Minnesota on the road on Dec. 15, and local rival William Jessup on New Year's Day.

WELCOME TO THE CLUB: Junior Mackenzie Trpcic, freshman Campbell Gray, and freshman Evanne Turner, all made their Division I debuts in Bozeman last week, with both Trpcic and Gray collecting their first career points as Aggies.

STAY ON TARGET: The Aggies closed their season opener at Montana State with a flurry of made buckets, shooting .588 from the field -- its best single-quarter shooting performance since they sank 67 percent of their shots in the second quarter of their Big West Tournament semifinal win over UC Irvine last year.

FROM WAY DOWNTOWN: UC Davis has made a three-pointer in 496 consecutive games dating back to Feb. 15, 2003, at Cal State San Bernardino. Since then, the Aggies have shot .349 (3,400-for-9.742) from beyond the arc.

PROS AND KONRAD: So far, no signs of a sophomore slump for Kayla Konrad. The Valencia, Calif., native came out of the gates firing in the Aggies' season opener at Montana State, setting career high's in points (17), field goals made (5), and free throws made (6), in 28 minutes on the floor. It was only the third career double-digit scoring performance for Konrad, whose previous career high was 12 points set against Washington State and matched against Nevada last season.

FIVE TOOLE PLAYER: Normally reserved for baseball players, senior guard Katie Toole has showcased an array of "tools" in the Aggies' first three outings of the year. Picking up right where she left off in the preseason -- when she averaged 19.0 ppg and hit 15-of-21 from the floor -- Toole set a new career high in the season opener against Montana State, finishing with 15 points, three rebounds, and four assists, while hitting 50 percent from the field. It was only the second double-digit scoring performance for the Farmington, Utah, native, who scored 10 points against Cal Poly last season.

BESSOLO BOMBING AWAY: The senior from Hayward, Calif., added four more three-pointers to her career count at Montana State last week, giving her 120 for her career -- good for ninth on the school's Division I career chart and just 34 away from breaking into the all-time top 10. The four makes from beyond the arc also tied a career high -- something Bessolo has accomplished seven other times in her career.

MILESTONE WATCH: Senior American studies major Nina Bessolo is the closest active Aggie to the 1,000 career point milestone, entering this week's contests with 638 points, looking to become the 21st player in the history of the program to achieve the milestone after scoring a career-high 287 points en route to All-Big West honorable mention honors a season ago.

AGGIES BY THE NUMBERS: UC Davis returns 43 percent (989 of 2,278) of its points, 58 percent (721 of 1,236) of its rebounds, 37 percent (185 of 504) of its assists, 45 percent of its field goals (362 of 811), 43 percent of its three-pointers (112 of 263), and 39 percent of its free throws (153 of 393), from a season ago. What does it all mean? We don't know, but numbers are fun.

TRANSFER ORDERS: Although she has to sit out this season due to NCAA transfer rules, junior Lena Svanholm becomes only the eighth player to transfer into the program from another Division I school in UC Davis' Division I history, following fellow transfers Katie Toole (Utah State) and Mackenzie Trpcic (Albany).

WE'RE GONNA NEED MORE FLAGS: Internationally known in the classroom and, now, on the basketball court. The now-eligible Mackenzie Trpcic (Hamilton, Ontario), Svanholm, and freshman Megan Jones (Ayr, Scotland), will eventually be the fourth, fifth, and sixth, international players to suit up for UC Davis in the program's Division I history, joining Idit Oryon (Jerusalem, Israel), Dani Nafekh (Oakville, Ontario), and Sage Stobbart (North Vancouver, British Columbia).

#AGGIESINTHEPROS: Morgan Bertsch has begun her professional career with Sparta&k Vidnoe in Russia, currently averaging 13.0 ppg, 5.8 rpg, 1.2 bpg, and shooting .591 from the field (including 5-for-11 from three-point range) through six games (as of Nov. 5) in the Russian League. In three EuroCup games, Bertsch is averaging 16.7 ppg, 6.0 rpg, and shooting 61 percent from the field in three contests, to lead the team. Meanwhile, in Germany, Pele Gianotti is averaging a robust 18.3 ppg and shooting 58 percent in the country's top division through seven games with the BasCats USC Heidelberg.
 

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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 Times Higher Education, and among the top 15 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.

MARYA WELCH INITIATIVE
Named after the former physical education instructor, coach and Dean of Women who founded women's sports on the campus 25 years before the passage of Title IX, the Marya Welch Initiative for Women's Athletics provides comprehensive support for UC Davis' 16 women's athletics programs. Through the support of the Marya Welch Initiative and its group members, student-athletes are provided the best possible opportunity to succeed inside the classroom, and in competition, through special project gifts and by increasing visibility and participation at women's events throughout the year. All gifts to the Marya Welch Initiative are matched 1:1, doubling the impact on our women's programs. Visit https://give.ucdavis.edu/ATHG/324041 for more information.