Teams: UC Davis at Oregon State
Records: Aggies (17-12); Beavers 18-12 (9-8)
Where: Gill Coliseum — Corvallis, Ore.
When: Thursday at 7 p.m.
Who to Watch: After the pain the UC Davis seniors felt following last week’s loss to Pacific, you can expect senior Samantha Meggison to come out firing on Thursday.
Records: Aggies (17-12); Beavers 18-12 (9-8)
Where: Gill Coliseum — Corvallis, Ore.
When: Thursday at 7 p.m.
Who to Watch: After the pain the UC Davis seniors felt following last week’s loss to Pacific, you can expect senior Samantha Meggison to come out firing on Thursday.
Meggison earned first team All-Big West honors after leading the Aggies in scoring and rebounds. The Orange, Calif. native will be a considerable threat to opposing teams, as she and the other seniors lead the charge in the last push of their careers.
Did you know? The Aggies have been in this situation before. Of course, an NCAA Tournament appearance for the second year in a row would have been nice, but the Women’s National Invitation Tournament is the next best thing.
UC Davis has been in the WNIT for three of the past five years, including 2008 and 2010.
Preview: “We’re hopeful — we’ll wait to see. If we do [get selected for the WNIT], watch out because we’ve got some seniors who aren’t done playing yet.”
These were the words head coach Jennifer Gross had to say after the Aggies’ heartbreaking loss at the hands of Pacific that knocked UC Davis out of the Big West Conference Tournament.
After receiving an at-large bid into the WNIT, the Aggies will indeed continue into postseason play.
The selection is a product of a tough preseason schedule that brought some early success, which gave the Aggies the best national RPI ranking in the Big West at the close of the regular season.
Gross and the rest of the team, who cited the season highlights as the relationships they developed, are just glad to be playing together again.
“I am really excited for our team — we have a wonderful group of student-athletes who have worked hard all year long and stayed together through it all,” she said. “We are thankful for the opportunity to be playing together again.”
The WNIT may be a sort of step down from the NCAA Tournament, but this will be all about vindication for the Aggies. UC Davis will be looking to redeem themselves after a showing last week against the Tigers that almost ended the Aggies’ season.
This year, UC Davis and the Beavers yielded similar results against teams they both matched up with, including Stanford, Washington, Saint Mary’s and Cal State Northridge.
— Matthew Yuen
