SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — On the latter of back-to-back nights with road matches, the UC Davis women's volleyball team fell to Cal Poly, 3-0, Saturday at Mott Athletics Center in San Luis Obispo, California.
"We were able to find our team identity again and play together as a group tonight," head coach
Dan Conners said.
The Aggies drop to 3-3 in Big West action and stand 8-8 overall on the year. The Mustangs improved to 5-1 in conference play and 8-8 overall on the season.
Freshman
Jade Light earned a start tonight and appeared in all three sets, collecting a season-high and team-leading ten kills in the Aggies' offensive effort. Redshirt junior
Demari Webb followed behind Light with seven kills.
"Jade has been playing great in practice and has been becoming a lot more consistent," Conners said. "I felt like we needed someone out there who would be willing to be aggressive and play hard and be confident. She did a great job at that. She made mistakes, but bounced back and stayed aggressive all night. That was a nice boost for the team knowing we could rely on her to have a great mentality of being aggressive and getting after it."
Defensively, junior
Shira Lahav paced the Aggies with ten digs.
The Aggies started out the first set strong, but the Mustangs answered right back, taking the lead, and never looking into the rearview mirror. Despite the Aggies' late surge, Cal Poly snatched the opening set tightly, 25-21.
The second set saw the Mustangs command their offense in cruise control, jumping out in front 8-4 and forcing UC Davis to take a quick timeout. The break didn't help the visitors as the Aggies defense could not stop the momentum of the Mustangs, who won the second set by a score of 25-11.
For the third and final set, the Aggies jumped out to a 6-4 lead in the set, but the Mustangs rallied and strategically attacked from all angles to roll ahead, 18-14. Back-and-forth the scoring went, but ultimately, the Mustangs secured the set and match point with a 25-21 victory.
The Aggies will continue on the road next week when they face CSUN in Northridge, California on Friday at 7 pm PT.
