DAVIS, Calif. -- Freshman Amara Aimufua logged her 10th double-digit kill performance of the year, leading a trio of Aggies in double figures with 16 kills on the night while hitting .364, but UC Davis could not complete the rally, falling in five sets to visiting CSUN, 3-2 (25-19, 19-25, 25-20, 20-25, 15-13), on Thursday night at the University Credit Union Center.

The Aggies fell to 5-13 overall and 1-6 in Big West Conference play, batting to five sets for the third time this season. The Matadors improved to 3-14 overall and 2-5 in league play, getting 14 kills each from Nicole Nevarez and Taylor Orshoff.

In addition to Aimufua's big night, junior Josephine Ough added 14 more kills while hitting a team-high .458 on the night, adding four blocks to her statline. Freshman Olivia Utterback chipped in 13 more kills and hit .296, finishing with four aces, four blocks, and nine digs, en route to a team-high 19 points.

Ough's 14 kills marked her fourth double-digit performance in her last five matches and fell just one short of her season-high 15 kills at UC Irvine on Oct. 1. The four blocks brought her season total to 72.

Meanwhile, Utterback's 13 kills gave her double digits for the fifth time this year, while the four aces matched her career high. All told, the 11 aces served up by the Aggies were a season high and the most since they finished with 13 against CSUN back on Oct. 29, 2015.

After dropping the first set, UC Davis rallied to win the second, hitting .333 thanks to 11 kills on 21 swings. A 4-0 run midway through the set gave the Aggies the lead and, after CSUN scored the next two, they used another 5-0 burst to build a six-point lead. The Matadors clawed back to within a pair late in the set, but a 4-0 run to close out the second gave UC Davis the 25-19 win.

CSUN did just enough to hold the Aggies off in the third, but a huge fourth set brought UC Davis even, hitting .407 (14-3-27) to just .206 for the Matadors as the Aggies answered. A pair of 4-0 runs turned an 8-7 deficit into a 15-10 lead and UC Davis held off a CSUN rally, getting a kill by Lana Radakovic for the 25-20 win.

A back-and-forth fifth set saw 12 ties and eight lead changes with neither team leading by more than two. A kill by Utterback put UC Davis ahead 12-11, and a kill by Ough three points later tied the score at 13-all, but back-to-back kills by Orshoff and Nevarez pushed the Matadors to the win.

UC Davis returns to the court on Saturday (Oct. 16) at noon, closing out a four-match homestand against UC Santa Barbara at the University Credit Union Center.
 

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