The Aggies caught a bit of “road-rage” this weekend against Cal Poly and Santa Barbara as they went on to sweep both opponents back to back.
UC Davis hit the ground running Friday night, displaying one of their most dominant performances of the year against Cal Poly, trouncing the Mustangs 25-10, 25-23, 29-27.
The Aggies never slowed down after outrunning the Mustangs, carrying their spectacular play farther south where they met UC Santa Barbara head on.
The Gauchos have proven to be a worthy opponent this year, taking a hard-fought four-set victory last month on the Aggies’ home floor. However, the match was not forgotten and UC Davis completed their second sweep in a row 25-23, 25-14, 29-27 and their first ever against UCSB.
UC Davis sported truly spectacular play over the weekend, receiving significant contributions from each and every player on the squad that translated to some of the best play in the history of the program.Friday — UC Davis 3, Cal Poly 0
UC Davis can boast an extremely successful record against Cal Poly, but that was the last thing on coach Jamie Holmes’ mind before the match last Friday.
Because Cal Poly is in the middle of a transitional period as a program, their lineup and tactics are constantly changing. While this does expose certain aspects of their game, it is also one of their most useful tools, making them effectively unpredictable.
The Aggies countered this ambiguity with a steady and consistent rate of play on their side, sporting an unbelievably high hitting percentage from three players from their dynamic offense.
Senior outside hitter Allison Whitson led the top three UC Davis performers with a season high .472 hitting average, racking up only two hitting errors in 36 attempts.
Sophomore middle blocker Katie Quinn caught the heavy-hitting fever and contributed a .455 average of her own while junior outside Devon Damelio joined the party with a .412 attack percentage as well.
Saturday — UC Davis 3, UC Santa Barbara 0
The phrase “go big or go home” is usually one reserved for the local surfers in the Santa Barbara area. This time however, UC Davis brought the saying to the Gauchos gymnasium in a big way.
Sporting an aggressive, hard-serving, hard-hitting mentality, the Aggies avenged their home-court loss to the Gauchos last month, to an even sweeter sweep on the very doorstep of UCSB for the first time in the program’s history.
The night started off with a very tight 25-23 first-game victory for the Aggies, narrowly escaping with the win on an attack error by the Gauchos offensive.
However, UC Davis came out aggressive in the second game, determined to prove the last one was no fluke. They quickly built a 15-5 lead and never looked back.
Whitson hammered away a match-high 20 kills to go along with 11 digs on the night. Seniors Caroline Mercado and Kaitlyn Plum each contributed 10 digs to their team’s total of 62 on the night, while setter Jenny Woolway grabbed 10 digs to compliment her match-high 37 assists.
These two timely wins could not have come at a better time for UC Davis, as they will return home next week for their final weekend series of the year at home.
They will be taking on Cal State Northridge on Friday night and will face the still-undefeated University of Hawaii for senior night on Saturday.
PK HATTIS can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.
