Score:  UC Davis 3, UMBC 1
Set Scores: 25-23, 25-21, 21-25, 25-15
Location: West Lafayette, Ind. (Holloway Gymnasium)
Records: UC Davis 1-0, UMBC 0-1
 
The short story: With a solid defensive showing that resulted in UMBC being held to .175 hitting, and game-high 18 kills on .333 hitting by senior Olivia Utterback UC Davis finished off UMBC in four sets to take its 2024 season opener.

FIRST SERVE

• Utterback added a team-high five blocks and 23.5 points to go along with her kills
• Junior Jade Light finished with 14 kills to give the Aggies a pair with double-digit kills
• Sophomore Mia Starr added 47 assists, one off her career-high, and she finished with 13 digs
• The Aggies were strong at the net, recording nine total blocks, led by Utterback's five, sophomore Ally Chandler added four total blocks of her own to the mix
• UC Davis hit .235 on the match, recording 62 digs and nine service aces
• The Aggies defense was on point for the entire match, holding UMBC to .175 hitting percentage and out digging the Retrievers 62-50

WHAT HEAD COACH DAN CONNERS HAD TO SAY
 
"UMBC is a great team that went to the tournament last year. So it was a nice four set win for the Aggies to open the season. I thought we were dialed in with our passing and our service put a lot of pressure on them. Mia [Starr] ran a great offense throughout and it allowed for our offense to click throughout the night. We executed our system how we wanted and in the end came away with the win."
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• The opening two sets were close affairs as both teams settled in for the season, and down the stretch of the opening set the Aggies had to fight off a charging UMBC
• With the Aggies right on the doorstep of finishing off the set, UMBC took advantage of a service error and an Aggie attack error to pull within 23-22
• A timeout by head coach Dan Conners calmed the Aggies down and out of the next three points, UC Davis took home two capped off by a block assists from Starr and Chandler to wrap up the 25-23 first set win
• In the second set UC Davis controlled most of the action, but at 20-19 UMBC were still in the set as things were lining up for a similar finish to the first set
• Three straight errors, two by the Aggies and one by UMBC set the score up at 23-21 and it put UC Davis in position to score the final two points. And on kills by sophomore Reese Diersbock and Chandler UC Davis locked up the 25-21 second set win to go up 2-0 in the match
• UC Davis would get as close as 20-21 over the final deciding points of the third set, but UMBC recorded four of the final five points to come away with a 25-21 third set win to push the match to a fourth set
• In the fourth and deciding set UC Davis took control midway through, scoring seven straight points taking the score from 12-10 to 19-10 pushing through a pair of UMBC timeouts
• In that stretch Utterback held serve, recording a pair of aces to help propel UC Davis into the lead
• The Aggies never looked back and rolled to a 25-15 fourth set win on the way to a 3-1 season opening victory

 
UP NEXT: The Aggies stay in West Lafayette, Ind., with two more matches over the weekend. Davis next faces Kansas State on Aug. 31 with first serve set for 1:30 p.m.
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