THIS WEEK…
WHO: UC Davis (0-0, 0-0 Big West) hosts Montana (0-0), Pacific (0-0), and San Jose State (0-0), for the 2019 Aggie Invitational
WHEN: Aug. 30-31, 2019
WHERE: The Pavilion (5,931) in Davis, Calif.
TV: None
RADIO: None
STREAMING VIDEO: BigWest.tv (UC Davis matches only)
LIVE STATS: UCDavisLiveStats.com
TOURNAMENT CENTRAL: https://ucdavisaggies.com/sports/2019/8/12/2019-Aggie-Invitational.aspx
PROMOS: Free autograph session following Saturday's final match
COACHES CORNER: Dan Conners (UCLA '01) is in his sixth season at UC Davis (76-70 Overall, .521)... Allison Lawrence (Oregon State '05) is in her third season at Montana (18-42 Overall, .300)… Greg Gibbons (Iowa State '97) is in his 10th season at Pacific (158-113 Overall, .583)… Jolene Shepardson (USF '02) is in her sixth year at San Jose State (62-86 Overall, .419)

SERIES NOTES
UC Davis vs. Montana: Montana leads, 2-1 (Last Meeting: Aug. 26, 2006 - UC Davis, 3-0)… Current Streak: Won 1
UC Davis vs. Pacific: Pacific leads, 13-7 (Last Meeting: Nov. 24, 2012 - UC Davis, 3-1)… Current Streak: Won 4
UC Davis vs. San Jose State: San Jose State leads, 14-3 (Last Meeting: Sept. 6, 2014 - UC Davis, 3-0)… Current Streak: Won 1

TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
Friday, Aug. 30
10 a.m. - UC Davis vs. Montana
12:30 p.m. - San Jose State vs. Pacific
5 p.m. - Pacific vs. Montana
7:30 p.m. - UC Davis vs. San Jose State

Saturday, Aug. 31
Noon - Montana vs. San Jose State
5 p.m. - UC Davis vs. Pacific

* Home team listed first

STRAIGHT FROM THE COACH'S MOUTH
On the California exhibition…
"The whole goal of the match against Cal was to give ourselves some experience and to learn as much as we could. Even though we didn't perform our best, we took a lot away from our performance. There were a couple of individual efforts that stood out, but one of the really positive things I noticed was that, even though the match wasn't very close, our team stayed together, supported one another, had each others backs, and that was something to be proud of."

"That, specifically, is something that is going to be important to help carry us through this season and maintain us through struggles and the ups-and-downs during the year."

"I think the reaction from the group is that we all want to be good, we know that we're not there yet, we've still got some work to do, and we want standards all around to increase. Part of that is what we're focusing on in practice this week, making sure our standards are at a high level and holding people accountable to those standards."

On the benefits of opening at home…
"Comfortability… if that's even a word. I think being able to sleep in your own bed, being in your environment, in your practice gym is definitely a plus."

On the tournament field…
"The field is strong. I think, for us, the main focus this weekend is how WE are playing, how WE are executing. We'll definitely have game plans going in, but the first weekend of the season is definitely more focused on our side of the net as opposed to how we stop the other team. Are we playing good defense? Are we executing our system? Are we executing our offense?"

AGGIE CUT SHOTS…
• UC Davis enters its 13th season of Division I competition this weekend, welcoming three other teams to The Pavilion for its own Aggie Invitational
• Head Coach Dan Conners enters his sixth season at the helm of the program and has posted back-to-back 16-win seasons — the most for the program since the 2012 squad won 17 matches
• With 14 wins this year, Conners would join Kathy DeYoung (169), Marlene Piper (152), and Jamie Holmes (100), as UC Davis coaches with at least 100 career victories
• This year marks the seventh time in the program's Division I history — and the third consecutive year after a four-year absence — that the Aggies will host a tournament, posting a 12-7 mark and a pair of sweeps of the field in the previous six events
• UC Davis went 3-1 in last year's Aggie Invitational, sweeping Utah Valley, Holy Cross, and Nevada, without dropping a set, before falling to Northern Arizona in four sets in the finale
• According to records that date back to 1974, UC Davis is 22-23 in its first match of the year, including a 4-8 mark in the program's Division I era
• The Aggies have won their last two season openers, sweeping past Utah Valley in 2018 and downing Eastern Washington, 3-1, in 2017
• This season marks only the second time that UC Davis has opened at home in the Division I era (the first coming in 2018). Prior to that, the Aggies last opened at home in 2005 — a 3-1 loss to San Jose State
• The Aggies return eight letter winners and a pair of starters off of last season's team that finished in a tie for fifth in the Big West Conference standings
• UC Davis features seven newcomers (six true freshmen and a junior college transfer) as well as welcomes back a pair of redshirts (Webb and White)
• The six true freshmen are the most since the 2017 squad had six, while the seven newcomers are the most since the 2015 Aggies featured eight new faces in Head Coach Dan Conners' second season at the helm
• UC Davis was picked to finish sixth in the race for the Big West Conference title according to a vote of head coaches. Cal Poly (5 first-place votes) and Hawai'i (4 first-place votes) were separated by a single point at the top, followed by UC Santa Barbara, UC Irvine, Long Beach State, and the Aggies. CSUN, UC Riverside, and Cal State Fullerton, round out the poll.