DAVIS, Calif. — The postseason beckons for the UC Davis beach volleyball team as the Aggies head to Southern California for the 2021 Big West Conference Championships to be played at Rosie's Dog Beach in Long Beach, Calif., this weekend. The Aggies are the No. 4 seed in the double-elimination event, which begins on Friday morning (April 30) at 9 a.m. with UC Davis taking on No. 5 CSU Bakersfield in a first-round match up. Play continues throughout the day with the champion determined on Saturday (May 1).

THIS WEEK…
WHAT: UC Davis (9-16) at Big West Conference Championships
WHEN: Friday, April 30 - Saturday, May 1, 2021
TIME: All Day
WHERE: Long Beach, Calif.
STADIUM: Rosie's Dog Beach
TOURNAMENT WEBSITE: BigWest.org
LIVE SCORING: BeachLiveStats.com

PLANTING THE SEED…
The seeds for this weekend's championship are as follows: No. 1 Cal Poly, No. 2 Long Beach State, No. 3 Hawai'i, No. 4 UC Davis, No. 5 CSU Bakersfield, No. 6 CSUN, No. 7 Sacramento State. As the top seed, the Mustangs earned a bye into the championship quarterfinals, where they will take on the winner of the UC Davis-CSU Bakersfield match at Noon on Friday. A full schedule for the championship is available on the Big West Conference website at www.bigwest.org.

IN THE RANKINGS…
The Big West championship field features three nationally ranked teams in No. 6 Cal Poly, No. 15 Hawai'i, and No. 18 Long Beach State. The trio of teams have been ranked among the top 20 all season and are the only three Big West schools to appear in the national polls in 2021.

AGGIES AT THE BIG WEST CHAMPIONSHIPS…
UC Davis will be making its second appearance at the Big West Conference Championships since the program's inception in 2019… The Aggies dropped both of their matches in their debut appearance, falling to CSUN and No. 12 Long Beach State by identical 5-0 scores… The 2020 championship, which was scheduled to be played at UC Davis, was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

SERIES NOTES…
CSU Bakersfield: UC Davis is 2-0 all time against the Roadrunners, posting a 3-2 victory in 2019 and another by the same score earlier this year in San Luis Obispo… Cal Poly: The Mustangs lead the all-time series by a 2-0 count, including a 5-0 victoty over the Aggies on home sand earlier this year… Long Beach State: The Beach leads the all-time series by a 3-0 count, winning all three matches by 5-0 scores, including a Big West Championship meeting in 2019… Hawai'i: The Rainbow Wahine lead the series by a 4-0 count, sweeping all four matches… CSUN: The Matadors lead the series by a 2-1 count, with the Aggies posting their first win of the series this year by the score of 3-2 in San Luis Obispo earlier this year… CSUN won the first two meetings in 2019, including a first-round Big West Championship match… Sacramento State: UC Davis leads the all-time series by a 6-0 count, including sweeping a doubleheader in Sacramento by the scores of 5-0 and 4-1 to close out the 2021 regular season.

AGGIE STORYLINES…
• UC Davis enters the Big West Conference Championships on a season-best three-match winning streak after sweeping both ends of a doubleheader from Causeway rival Sacramento State to close the regular season.
• The team's nine wins overall are the most in the program's brief history, surpassing the eight duals won during the program's inaugural season in 2019.
• The three consecutive victories is the program's longest winning streak since winning three straight over Pacific (twice) and Oregon back in 2018.
• The sweep of the Hornets included a 5-0 victory in the first match of the day — the program's second-ever shutout following a similar result against San Jose State earlier in the year on April 11.
• During its winning streak, the Aggies have dropped only two matches and four sets overall as all 15 individual matches were decided in straight sets.
• Three Aggie pairs are currently on three-match winning streaks: Paloma Bowman and Colleen McGuire at the ones, Heather Reed and Megan Luly at the twos, and Ashlee Goycoochea and Alicia Letvin at the fives.
• After opening the year 1-9 in dual match play, UC Davis has finished over .500 in the second half of the season, posting an 8-7 record to close out the year.
• Individually, Bowman and McGuire lead the team with 13 wins apiece, while Goycoochea has joined the duo in double figures with 10 victories this season.
• The 13 wins by Bowman and McGuire are the most in a single season by an individual — and the first two Aggies to reach double-digit wins in a season — while Goycoochea ranks third on that same list.
• The 13 wins by the Bowman/McGuire pair are also the most in a single season in school history, while the duo's 12 wins at the ones are a school record at that position in the lineup.
• The five wins at the twos by Luly/Reed are also the most in school history at that spot
• The four wins at the threes by Jane Seslar and Madelin Smith have tied the mark at that spot in the lineup set by Bowman and Josephine Ough in 2019.
• In all, UC Davis has used 28 different pair combinations in its 25 matches this year.
• Aggie duos have gone to three sets 31 times this season.
• The tandem of Bowman/McGuire has played a team-high five three-set matches this year, while the duos of Seslar/Goycoochea and Luly/Reed have played four apiece.
• Of the team's 25 matches, 15 have come against teams either nationally ranked or receiving votes in the AVCA Beach Volleyball Coaches Poll at the time of the contest.
• The team's 14 matches against ranked teams are third among Big West schools, trailing only nationally ranked Cal Poly (17) and Long Beach State (15).
• Bowman/McGuire was named the Big West Conference Pairs Team of the Week on April 12, becoming only the second UC Davis pair to win such honors in the history of the program.
• Bowman has been a pair of both pairs team of the week awards in program history, joining Josephine Ough to win the first award on April 8, 2019, during the team's inaugural season.
• Head Coach Ali McColloch is in her third season at the helm of the UC Davis program.
• Of the 16 student-athletes who saw action in 2020, 13 of those return for the Aggies in 2021.
• Returning graduate student Heather Reed is the Aggies' all-time leader in career dual wins with 13, and is also in the process of obtaining her master's degree at UC Davis in public health after graduating with her bachelor's degree in psychology in 2020. (Read more: https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2020/9/4/aggie-evo-reed-resets-down-the-road-to-career-launch.aspx)
• Junior Claire Jackson also talked about her virtual summer internship with PepsiCo as part of the Aggie EVO program (Read more: https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2020/8/25/aggie-evo-jackson-the-right-one-for-unique-pepsico-intern-experience.aspx).
 

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