Davis, Calif. – The UC Davis women's volleyball team survived UC San Diego's late surge, taking down the Tritons, 3-2, Saturday night at the University Credit Union Center in Davis, Calif.
"We are really good when we want to be," head coach
Dan Conners said. "Credit to San Diego. They played hard and played well when they got confidence. I'm really proud that we found ourselves in the fifth set. We played great defense and attacked aggressively. I'm proud of them for that."
With their third conference win of the season, the Aggies improved to 4-1 on home court and 8-6 overall on the year. The Tritons dropped to 8-8.
Four Aggies finished with double-digit kills, led by senior
Josephine Ough with 16 kills and a .469 hitting percentage. Sophomore
Olivia Utterback and sophomore
Megan Lenn recorded double-doubles as Utterback collected 11 kills and 14 digs while Lenn earned ten kills and ten digs.
Defensively, junior
Shira Lahav was a dynamic force, collecting a career-high 37 digs in the five-set thriller. The Aggies blocked well on the night with 15 total blocks, led by Ough and junior
Lana Radakovic with six apiece.
The Aggies jumped out front with great panache in the first two sets, securing a closely contested opening frame 26-24, followed by a well-rounded 25-20 second frame win.
The Tritons would not go away easy. Despite the Aggies leading 19-12 in the third set, UC San Diego stormed back with an 8-1 run to eventually tie the score at 20-20. UC San Diego would continue their burst of momentum, closing out the third set 25-22.
The fourth set saw the Tritons take control early and never look back after going on multiple scoring runs, ultimately levelling the playing field at two sets apiece with a 25-14 set victory.
For the fifth and final set, the Aggies were the first to reach eight points after some back-and-forth scoring. UC Davis finally took off on a 6-0 run with Lenn at the service line. A kill by Utterback sealed the deal as the Aggies valiantly bounced back from the Tritons' growing momentum to secure the match victory by a score of 15-9.
The Aggies now head on the road for four straight contests with their next opponent at CSU Bakersfield on Oct. 7 at 6 pm PT.
