THIS WEEK…
Chicago Regional 1st Round – March 23, 2019
Maples Pavilion // Stanford, Calif.
No. 10 Auburn vs. No. 7 BYU, 12:30 p.m. PT (TV: ESPN2)
No. 15 UC DAVIS vs. No. 2 Stanford, 2:30 p.m. PT (TV: ESPN2)

Second Round – March 25, 2019
Maples Pavilion // Stanford, Calif.
Auburn/BYU vs. UC Davis/Stanford, TBA
 

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BUS INFORMATION: The UC Davis athletics department is organizing a bus trip for those fans who wish to relax on their way to and from the game, departing at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday (March 23) from the horseshoe parking lot off of La Rue Road near the ticket office at Aggie Stadium. Parking will be available in Lot 56 behind the Aggie Stadium scoreboard. The ticket for the bus is $25 in addition to the cost of your ticket, and can be purchased by clicking here.

SEND OFF THE AGGIES: Wear your Aggie Pride and help send off the UC Davis women's basketball team, which will depart from campus on Thursday (March 21) at 1 p.m. from the pick-up area near the MU bus terminal at Hickey Gym.

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OPENING TIP: Champions of the Big West Conference regular season and tournament, the UC Davis women's basketball team advances to the NCAA Tournament for the second time in the program's Division I history, entering the weekend as a No. 15 seed in the Chicago Regional at Stanford, taking on the host and No. 2-seeded Cardinal on Saturday (March 23) at Maples Pavilion in a rematch of the Aggies' first-ever NCAA appearance in 2011. Tip-off is scheduled for 2:30 p.m.

HI, MOM!: Saturday's opening round NCAA Tournament game will be broadcast live on ESPN2. It will be the fifth appearance on the ESPN family of networks this season for the Aggies, who are 4-0 in their four previous contests this year.

IN THE POLLS: Host and second-seeded Stanford is ranked No. 6 in the nation according to the final regular season Associated Press poll... BYU is among those receiving votes (24)... UC Davis and Auburn are unranked... The Cougars are ranked No. 6 according to the March 12 College Insider Mid-Major poll, which also has the Aggies ranked No. 22 in the nation -- standing among the top 25 for the third consecutive week.

AGGIES AT THE NCAA TOURNAMENT: UC Davis will be making its second appearance in the NCAA Tournament as a Division I program (since 2007-08), and its first since the 2011 tournament when the Aggies were a No. 16 seed at No. 1 Stanford, falling to the Cardinal by an 86-59 score. UC Davis -- making its seventh overall postseason appearance as a Division I program after making a run to the "Elite Eight" of the WNIT in 2017-18 -- was a regular in the NCAA's at the Division II level, earning 12 trips to the tournament and posting a 12-12 overall record -- including a run to the "Elite Eight" in 1996-97 in Head Coach Jennifer Gross' senior season.

POSTSEASON PREPARED: The Aggies will have faced six teams selected for postseason play in 2019: Stanford (Pac-12 Champion) and Portland State (Big Sky Champion) in the NCAA Tournament, along with Pacific (WCC T-4th), Loyola Marymount (WCC T-4th), Hawai'i (Big West 2nd), and Saint Mary's (WCC T-3rd), among the WNIT field.

VERSUS THE TOP 25: Since 2007-08, UC Davis has played 17 games against teams ranked in one, or both, of the national polls, including the top-ranked team in the nation in three straight seasons: 2012-13 (Stanford), 2013-14 (UConn), and 2014-15 (UConn). The Aggies, however, have yet to post a victory in any of those contests against nationally ranked foes, coming no closer than 12 points vs. No. 22 South Dakota State on Dec. 17, 2008. UC Davis did, however, post a win over Washington State to start the 2017-18 season, which was receiving votes in the preseason Associated Press poll at the time.

SO, WE MEET AGAIN: The Aggies and Cardinal won't be the only two teams to have already met once this season as Saturday's clash is one of only two regular season sequels in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. NC State posted an 84-46 victory over its first-round opponent, Maine, at home back on Dec. 15.

HEAD-TO-HEADS: Aside from their own head-to-head meeting to tip-off the 2018-19 regular season, UC Davis and Stanford have four common opponents this year: San Francisco, Hawai'i, CSUN, and Washington State. The Cardinal finished 5-0 against those four squads, while the Aggies were 6-1.

WINNING "BIG": After earning their 25th victory of the season in the Big West Tournament championship game, it marked only the fourth time in the history of the league that a member school has won at least 25 games in three straight seasons after finishing 25-8 in 2016-17 and 28-7 in 2017-18. UC Davis joins Long Beach State, which did so in five straight seasons from 1985-90, and UC Santa Barbara, which did it twice from 1997-00 and 2001-04.

CHAMPIONS OF THE (BIG) WEST: Since the Aggies' arrival at the Division I level in 2007-08, no Big West school has won more games than UC Davis, which has posted 231 combined victories to date -- which is 41 more than the next highest school (Cal Poly with 190) -- while winning 61 percent of its games (231-147 overall).

PLANTING THE SEED: UC Davis became the first No. 1 seed to win the Big West Tournament since CSUN defeated Cal Poly in the final. When the Aggies won the tournament the first time in 2011, they were a No. 4 seed, defeating UC Irvine, UC Riverside, and the Mustangs en route to the crown.

TWO FOR THE TOURNEY TEAM: Senior biomedical engineering major Morgan Bertsch was named the Tournament MVP while sophomore cell biology major Cierra Hall also earned a spot on the all-tournament squad -- the fifth time in the program's history that UC Davis has had two players on the all-tournament team. For Bertsch, it was her third all-tournament team honor -- and the second tournament MVP award for an Aggie along with Paige Mintun in 2011 -- while Hall earned her first career all-tournament honor.

DON'T CALL IT A COMEBACK: Well, okay, go ahead. When UC Davis trailed by 17 points with 7:18 remaining in the third quarter of the Big West Conference title game, the Aggies put together a rally for the ages, posting its largest comeback to win a game since erasing a 17-point deficit in a 62-57 win at Hawai'i on Dec. 20, 2011. UC Davis closed out the third period on a 14-3 run over the final 7:02, before exploding for a 16-0 fourth-quarter run that gave the Aggies the lead for good. UC Davis held Hawai'i to without a field goal for the final 9:40 of the game, limiting the Rainbow Wahine to just five free throws.

WE'RE GOING STREAKING!: UC Davis enters the NCAA Tournament with a number of active streaks...
• The 16 consecutive victories is the third-longest in the program history and a program Division I record
• The streak is also tied for the 11th longest run in a single season in the history of the Big West
• The 16 consecutive wins rank T-7th in the nation
• The 12 straight home wins are T-12th in the NCAA
• The 14 consecutive Big West wins are T-9th

ALL SHE DOES IS WIN: With her team riding a 16-game winning streak, the winningest player in UC Davis history has now been a part of five of the 10 longest single-season winning streaks in school history. Head Coach Jennifer Gross helped guide her team to the top three winning streaks in school history as the Aggies' point guard -- including a record 23 consecutive wins from Nov. 24, 1995 to Feb. 22, 1996 -- while coaching UC Davis to a 10-game run from Jan. 26-March 4, 2017, in addition to its current streak, which is the longest in the program's Division I history.

FOUR MORE YEARS!: This year's senior class has certainly helped lead the UC Davis program to new heights, compiling a record of 97-34 (.740) -- and counting -- during their time in an Aggie uniform. The win total ranks as the fourth highest of any four-year period in the history of the program, trailing only the 1995-99 (102-18), 1994-98 (102-18), and 1993-97 (101-18), squads.

NOT A MATTER OF IF, BUT "WIN": The Aggies' win over Long Beach State on Feb. 28 got the team to 20 wins for the third consecutive season -- the longest such run since the Aggies won 20-or-more games in six straight seasons from 1993-99. UC Davis' 25 victories this year ranks tied for fourth on the school's single-season wins list, four shy of the record of 29 wins set in 1996-97.

PUTTING THE "W" IN BIG WEST: The Aggies' 15 Big West victories this season are a new program record, eclipsing the 14-2 league marks in each of the previous two years. The 15 conference wins are the most overall since the Aggies finished 18-2 during their first season as a member of the Division II California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) in 1998-99.

SCOUTING THE CARDINAL: The Pac-12 Conference tournament champions after finishing second in the regular season, Stanford enters NCAA play with a 28-4 overall record and 15-3 mark in league play, winning its final nine contests -- including wins over California, Washington, and Oregon, in the conference tournament... Senior forward Alanna Smith leads a trio of Cardinal in double figures at 19.6 ppg, shooting 51 percent from the floor and grabbing 8.6 rpg.

SCOUTING THE COUGARS: The West Coast Conference tournament champions after finishing second to Gonzaga in the regular season, BYU enters the tournament 25-6 overall and 15-3 in conference play, winning eight straight... Freshman guard Shaylee Gonzales leads a trio of Cougars in double figures at 16.5 ppg, shooting 45 percent from the floor to go with 130 assists and 59 steals... Sophomore guard Paisley Johnson (14.8 ppg) and junior guard Brenna Chase (12.7 ppg) are also in double figures.

SCOUTING THE TIGERS: An at-large selection out of the SEC, Auburn earned its 21st all-time NCAA Tournament bid after a 22-9 season and a 9-7 mark in conference play... The Tigers have won four of their last six, edging in-state rival Alabama in the opening round of the SEC Tournament before falling to Texas A&M -- a No. 4 seed in this year's bracket -- by two in the second round... Four Auburn players are in double figures, paced by senior guard Janiah McKay (13.8 ppg), who is also averaging 4.13 apg while shooting 40 percent from the floor.

SERIES NOTES: Stanford leads the all-time series with UC Davis, 13-10, winning the last 12 meetings following a 71-43 victory at Maples Pavilion earlier this year... The Aggies and Auburn have met only once, with the Tigers posting a 69-54 win in 2005... UC Davis and BYU have never met on the court.