DAVIS, Calif. — Freshman
Amara Aimufua collected a team-high 14 kills and hit .324 for the morning, while host UC Davis hit .279 as a team en route to a, 25-22, 25-23, 25-16, sweep of Nevada for its first victory of the season to open the 2021 Aggie Invitational on Friday morning at the UCU Center.
Aimufua collected her third double-digit kill performance in her first four collegiate games in the win over the Wolf Pack, committing only three errors in 34 swings while falling just one kill short of her career high. Classmate
Olivia Utterback added nine kills and hit a team-high .438 to go with six digs and a pair of blocks.
Lana Radakovic and
Alexa Hogan finished with four blocks apiece, helping the Aggies to an 8-1 advantage in the category, while
Shira Lahav added a team-high 13 digs, as UC Davis limited Nevada to just .158 hitting — including a .000 hitting percentage (12-12-42) in the final set alone.
After leading for most of the first set, a 5-0 run for the Wolf Pack rallied the visiting team to a 19-18 lead before a service error ended the burst. UC Davis took advantage scoring the next four points to regain the lead and traded the final six points of the set before an Aimufua kill clinched the victory.
The Aggies hit .324 in their second-set win, bouncing back after Nevada scored four of the first five points to open the set. A back-and-forth set saw both teams trade runs before a strong finish by UC Davis, which scored six of the final eight points in the set — closed out by a kill from
Demari Webb and a
Jane Seslar ace.
In the third, a back-and-forth start led up to a game-breaking run by the home team, which scored seven of eight points at one point to turn a 6-6 match into a 13-7 lead. The Aggies never looked back from that point, closing out the contest on a 5-0 run behind the serving of Lahav, as kills by
Perri Starkey and Hogan, an ace from Lahav, and a pair of errors, handed the match to UC Davis.
Sydney Petersen and Reka Monteleone finished with 11 and 10 kills, respectively, for the Wolf Pack, while Kaila Spevak finished with 20 digs.
UC Davis takes on San Francisco in its second match of the tournament on Friday night at 7 p.m., following the Santa Clara-Nevada contest at 5 p.m.
ABOUT UC DAVIS
Centrally located between San Francisco and Lake Tahoe, over 700 student-athletes across 25 teams enjoy an unrivaled undergraduate experience at the fifth-ranked public school in the country.
Ranked annually in the nation's top 10 in diversity and students' social mobility, UC Davis and its innovative Aggie EVO System helps student-athletes develop passions, connect with a comprehensive network of alums and industry leaders, gain real-world experience and thrive as a young professional following a successful launch to full-time employment or graduate school.
