Men’s basketball
UC Davis hosts Notre Dame de Namur in its second and final exhibition tonight. The contest tips at 7 p.m., and there is no charge for admission.
Joe Harden scored 15 points and hauled in 10 rebounds to lead UC Davis to an 89-69 victory over Bethany in an exhibition game at the Pavilion on Tuesday.
Harden led a group of four Aggies who finished with at least 10 points. Mark Payne and Ryan Silva each scored 12, with Payne dishing out eight assists and Silva posting five steals. In addition, Adam Malik finished with 10 points.
Harden scored 10 of his team-high 15 points in the first half while Silva tallied nine points in the half.
Men’s golf
Sophomore Austin Graham and freshman Tyler Raber each shot 3-under 68s on Wednesday to help UC Davis to a 4-under 280 – the lowest team score of the day – as the Aggie men’s golf team rallied five places to finish second at the Stockton Sports Commission Pacific Invitational.
UC Davis, which was 10 shots off the pace and in seventh place after Tuesday’s second round, picked up strong days from Graham and Raber, as well as an even-par 71 from Brent Booth and identical 73s from Nate Pistacchio and Ramie Sprinkling to card its 4-under score.
The Aggies, ranked 15th by Golfstat, battled No. 49 Kansas State for the top of the leaderboard most of the day Wednesday with the Wildcats winning by three strokes at 1-over 853.
Graham jumped 13 places in the final standings with his 68, tying for seventh at even-par 213. Booth and Pistacchio tied for ninth at 214 while Sprinkling and Raber tied for 30th and 39th, respectively. Raber climbed 16 spots by carding his best round of the fall.
The strong finish delivered UC Davis its third consecutive runner-up finish, capping a five-tournament fall campaign that started the season by winning the Kansas Invitational. Sprinkling, Graham and Pistacchio each earned medalist honors this fall. The latter two each received Big West Golfer of the Month accolades over the past two months.
UC Davis will return to action with the spring portion of its schedule beginning at the Waikoloa Intercollegiate at Hawaii-Hilo in February.
Wrestling
The UC Davis wrestling team enters the 2008-2009 season with renewed expectations behind a solid group of seniors and a strong corps of underclassmen.
Led by eighth-year head coach Lennie Zalesky, the Aggies boast four NCAA Division I qualifiers and look to a young group of redshirt freshmen and sophomores to help make an impact in a tough Pacific-10 Conference race.
The Aggies begin their season on Friday with a dual at Embry-Riddle at 6 p.m. They open up Pac-10 competition the following day with a noon dual at Arizona State.
Leading UC Davis are seniors Nexi Delgado (141 pounds), Marcos Orozco (125), Dustin Noack (165) and Tyler Bernacchi (174). All four are national qualifiers and will again be expected to make impacts during their final collegiate seasons. Senior Jon Clark will also contribute at 184 pounds, as will senior Kyle Bank at 133 and 141 pounds.
The Aggies also welcome one of the best recruiting classes in program history – a class that was ranked 27th by InterMat Wrestling’s national recruiting poll. Six of the newcomers placed at the state championships and three won California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) titles.
Aggie Digest is compiled by the California Aggie sports staff with briefs from the UC Davis athletics website, ucdavisaggies.com.
