Event: Aggie Shootout
Teams: UC Davis vs. Concordia; vs. Santa Clara; vs. Colorado State
Records: Aggies 7-7; Eagles 7-7; Broncos 6-8; Rams 2-6
Where: Schaal Aquatics Center — Davis, Calif.
When: Saturday at 8:30 a.m.; at noon; at 5 p.m.
Who to watch: Keep an eye out for senior attacker Carmen Eggert. Eggert was selected as the Big West Conference Player of the Week, marking her fifth award and her first in 2013.
A 2009 alumna of Marin Catholic High School in San Rafael and a two-time honorable mention All-American, Eggert led the Aggies in goals (10), steals (seven), drawn exclusions (six) and field blocks (four) at the Davis Challenge tournament over the weekend.
Eggert scored hat tricks on each end of Saturday’s doubleheader with Cal Lutheran and No. 20 CSU Bakersfield, then scored two goals each against No. 18 Pacific and Sonoma State. She also put up heavy defensive contributions in the 12-5 win over the Tigers, tallying four steals and a pair of field blocks.
Did You Know? Last year at the Aggie Shootout, UC Davis came away with wins over all of the teams. It defeated Sonoma State 9-5, Cal State East Bay 12-8, Santa Clara 10-3 and Pacific 10-3. Against Cal State East Bay, Eggert scored six goals. The team put on a phenomenal and well-rounded performance against all of its opponents and was able to take advantage of home court.
Preview: This weekend, after tough losses at the UC Irvine Invitational, the Aggies will look to regain their momentum and post good results, just like they did last year. At the UCI Invitational, the Aggies defeated UC San Diego and UC Santa Barbara, but fell to UC Irvine and Loyola Marymount. Junior center Hannah Curran led the Aggies with 11 goals.
The Aggie Shootout is the second of UC Davis’ home tournaments. The Shootout features six teams. UC Davis will face Concordia and former WWPA foes Santa Clara and Colorado State in Saturday’s session.
“I think we have to figure out what to do with Kathryn [Bailey] being a big part of both our offense and our defense,” said head coach Jamey Wright. “That’s a big hole we have to fill, especially on our 6-on-5. We’ll have to see what makes the best sense.”
Still, there are several things the Aggies are focusing on for these upcoming games.
“Santa Clara always plays us tough. They do a good job at controlling the ball, look for their chances, look for an angle, turn and draw an ejection, then make their six-on-five. They don’t give you any easy counters,” Wright said. “Concordia is well-coached. They have been in the game with UC Santa Barbara and Long Beach. Colorado State is a big D-I [team]. Their program goes away next year, so a lot of their players may come in with a bit of chip on their shoulder. They have some talented players. Those are three challenging games. We want to play a lot of people and see how things work out.”
—Veena Bansal
