RIVERSIDE, Calif. – With a strong defensive effort on the evening, the UC Davis women's volleyball team battled hard to a four-set victory over UC Riverside, 3-1, on Tuesday night at SRC Arena in Riverside, Calif.
 
"After a slow start, we were able to find our game and play with the energy we needed to play with," head coach Dan Conners said. "I thought they all did a good job of enjoying the game, playing competitively and having fun while on the court."
 
With their 12th victory in a row over the Highlanders going back to 2015, the Aggies improve to 4-7 in Big West action and 9-12 overall on the season.
 
Freshman Jade Light earned her second double-double of the season (10 kills and 15 digs) while redshirt junior Demari Webb racked up ten kills on 44 attempts.
 
Defensively, UC Davis stood strong with a complete team effort with 73 digs and 14 total blocks in the match.
 
"Outside of the first set, I thought we did a great job defensively," Conners said. "Our block was disciplined, and it put a lot of pressure on them on where to score. We also played good defense behind that too."
 
Junior Shira Lahav paced five Aggies who collected double-digit digs with 19 digs of her own. Senior Josephine led the block brigade with four total blocks on the night.
 
In the opening set, the Highlanders got off to a strong start, carrying a 12-7 lead into the first UC Davis timeout of then night. UC Riverside continued to pile on the momentum, extending their edge slightly to 19-13 before eventually taking the set by a score of 25-14.
 
The second set saw the Aggies and Highlanders go back-and-forth in the scoring department before UC Davis utilized a 5-2 stretch to take a 14-10 lead. The Highlanders were able to battle to tie at 18 apiece, but the Aggies responded with a 5-0 run to be back in front at 22-18. The home team would not go away quietly, eventually deadlocking the score at 22 with a 4-0 run of their own. After calling a momentum-stopping timeout, the Aggies answered with a 3-0 run and capped the 25-22 set point on a big kill by Light.
 
A pivotal third set started with a mix of service errors, aces, and timely kills by both sides, stemming to a 6-6 tie. The Aggies then were able to separate themselves with a 4-0 run to hold a 12-7 lead. The Highlanders crawled back after calling a timeout to tie the match at 13-13. The two teams proceeded to score back-and-forth, but the Aggies prevailed with a 25-22 set victory.
 
After some more back-to-back scoring to start the fourth set, the Aggies found a groove on sophomore Olivia Utterback's serving to take a 16-12 lead. The Highlanders tried to comeback, but the Aggies held on for the set and match point by a score of 25-20 with Webb's tenth kill of the night.
 
UC Davis hit .167 for the match compared to .150 for UC Riverside.
 
The Aggies return home to face Hawai'i at the University Credit Union Center on Saturday at 7 pm PST.