The Aggies won three of four home games on Feb. 22 and 23
By LUCIENNE BROOKER — sports@theaggie.org
After a long off-season, the UC Davis women’s beach volleyball team returned to the court on Feb. 22 for the first of their four games that weekend. Coming back from their loss to the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa at the Big West Beach Volleyball Championship last April, the UC Davis Aggies were looking to start the new season off with a string of wins.
Their first matchup in the doubles competition saw them face off against the University of Utah. Utah opened the competition with a bang, taking the first matches without much resistance. However, the Aggies fought back to take the third match, with Alexandra Leal, a second-year environmental engineering major, and Kate O’Steen, a third-year human development major, clawing their way to victory. They won the third match with a score of 25-23 in the first set and 21-16 in the second.
However, this victorious win didn’t last long. Utah regained their advantage and won the remaining two matches, making the final score 4-1, the only match won by the Aggies from Leal and O’Steen. Although it wasn’t the start to the season the Aggies wanted, they had to regroup quickly for their next game that afternoon against the Santa Clara University Broncos.
UC Davis was able to learn from their mistakes during the morning game and came out strong against the Broncos. Tabitha Mitchell, a fourth-year animal science major, and Lindsay Heller, a fourth-year communications major, took to the court first and swept Santa Clara away, taking both sets by large margins, 21-10, 21-15.
The Broncos took the second match, but the Aggies found the advantage again in the third match with the Leal and O’Steen pairing, with a final score of 21-18, 17-21, 17-15. They added to this margin of victory in the fourth match as Skye Smolinski, a second-year design major, and Mia Olen, a fourth-year environmental policy and planning major, won in three sets, 22-24, 21-18, 15-3. While Santa Clara won the final point, the Aggies held on and claimed their first win of the season, 3-2.
There was little time to celebrate this victory, as they took the court again the following day in the afternoon, facing off against the San José State University Spartans. Heller and Mitchell got things started again, where they were able to win the first two sets right away, 21-16, 21-17. This game mirrored the previous one against Santa Clara closely, as the Aggies again failed to win the second match but ultimately prevailed to win matches three and four, with a final point score 3-2. Leal and O’Steen were victorious again, as were Smolinski and Olen.
For the final match of the weekend, the Aggies took on the Broncos again and defeated them by the same score of 3-2. The Mitchell and Heller pairing and the Leal and O’Steen pairing were winners once again, but this time, Smolinski and Olen narrowly lost to their opponents in the fourth match. However, Juliana Chapman, a second-year life sciences major, and Kaitlyn Smyth, a second-year computer science major, stepped up and gave the Aggies the win in the final part of the match, 21-17, 21-17.
Next up, the Aggies will head to University of California, Berkeley to participate in the Battle for the Bay. Matchups include UC Berkeley, University of the Pacific, Saint Mary’s College and San José State University. After the strong start to their season, they will be looking to continue to rack up wins and improve their ranking early on.
Written by: Lucienne Brooker — sports@theaggie.org
