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Friday, March 29, 2024

Field Hockey: UC Davis gains shootout win

UC Davis entered the week looking for their second straight NorPac Conference victory.

The Aggies’ game against the Tigers did not start the way the Aggies hoped, however.

Pacific scored twice in the early going, and UC Davis found itself behind early.

The Aggies had expected to play better.

“Everybody was in a little bit of shock,” said coach Vianney Campos. “We started the game really flat.”

Following the slow start, UC Davis called a timeout to straighten things out.

“During the timeout I told them we were a better team than this,” Campos said. “It’s the end of the season and we needed to be playing better.”

UC Davis responded to its coaches words.

Just over one minute later the Aggies converted a penalty corner into a Casey Wollbrink goal and UC Davis entered halftime trailing by just one.

The Aggies kept their momentum rolling in the second period.

Marissa Hughes scored on a penalty stroke in the 49th minute to tie the game.

Pacific scored in the 62nd to retake the lead on a goal by Jenna Vivian.

UC Davis answered, however, when Wollbrink scored her second of the game less than two minutes later to tie things back up.

Campos knows that Wollbrink stepped up in this game.

“She played phenomenal,” she said. “She was one of our leaders on the field and we look to her when we get into the important parts of the game.”

The game entered overtime tied at three.

UC Davis outshot Pacific 15-8 over the two extra periods, but neither team was able to find the cage and the game entered a penalty shootout.

It was the first shootout in the Aggies’ history as a program, but UC Davis performed like veterans.

The Aggies converted on all three of the shot attempts, with scores coming from Lydia Brambilla, Lindsey Valadez and Hughes.

Goalkeeper Lauren Sawvelle held strong as well, holding Pacific to a single conversion in four tries as the Aggies took home the 4-3 shootout victory.

It was not the ideal win for UC Davis, but they won’t complain.

“It’s not how we’d want to get a win, but we’ll take it,” Campos said. “We’ve experienced all types of games this year, and now we can say we’ve seen a shootout. We fought this entire game and we’re excited that we came out on top.”

With the win the Aggies NorPac Conference record moved to 2-4 and they clinched third place in the NorPac West Division.

UC Davis will move on to a likely matchup with Longwood next week in the NorPac Tournament.

TREVOR CRAMER can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.

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