DAVIS, Calif. – UC Davis managed to get back in the win column with a dominant 16-6 victory over Santa Clara on Saturday afternoon inside Schaal Aquatics Center.
Coming off the back of a tough defeat to one of the nation's top teams, UC Davis (14-10, 2-1 Big West) regained its footing by handling the Broncos from start-to-finish, while controlling the game on both ends of the pool. The Aggies were clinical with their power-play opportunities, converting eight of their 15 chances.
Grace Pelkey shined in her four-goal day, also contributing an assist to make it five total points for the junior. This marks her sixth multi-goal game of the season, and her second with four or more in a match.
Alyssa Lengtat enjoyed her fifth hat trick of the year while coming up with three steals on the defensive side of the ball.
Gianna Nocetti and
Morgan Polterock delivered two goals apiece while
Sam Yoo,
Kelly Hungerford,
Maddie Sumner,
Hailey Williams, and
Madison Sparre score once in the contest.
Sophia Noble started in the cage and made seven stops while posting a save percentage of .700, her second-highest mark of the season.
Nellie McAdams stepped in for just under 12 minutes and registered six saves and allowed just one goal in a fantastic showing for the Atherton native.
How It Happened
Santa Clara struck first to gain an early lead, but the Aggies would immediately reply with four straight goals to take full control of the game. Hungerford and Lengtat scored less than 30 seconds apart before Pelkey and Polterock hit the Broncos for back-to-back goals, making the score 4-1. Lengtat fired her second goal of the game to extend the lead to four, but a Santa Clara goal in the dying seconds of the period would cancel it out, making it 5-2 after eight minutes played.
In period number two, the visitors, once again, opened the scoring. However, another UC Davis scoring run would squash any momentum as the Aggies rallied for 10 unanswered goals to put the game completely out of reach.
This allowed UC Davis to cruise to the finish line, scoring three times in the last eight minutes to clinch the win. The Aggies snap their two-game skid and improve to 14-10 on the year as they enter the bulk of their conference schedule.
Up Next
The Aggies return to Big West Conference play when they host UC San Diego on April 7 inside Schaal Aquatics Center. The match is slated to begin at 12 p.m.
