The team competed against nationally ranked opponents, gaining valuable experience despite the losses
By LUCIENNE BROOKER — sports@theaggie.org
The UC Davis beach volleyball team wrapped up their regular season matches with a string of four games across a two-day period in Stanford. As part of the Stanford Invite, the Aggies faced off against Santa Clara University, the University of Washington, UC Berkeley and, finally the home team, Stanford University, on April 18 and 19.
The weekend started bright and early with the match against the Santa Clara Broncos tipping off at 9 a.m. The powerhouse duo, Kylie Miller, a fourth-year managerial economics major, and Tabitha Mitchell, a fourth-year animal science major, took the first match in favor of UC Davis. However, Santa Clara rallied quickly to win the next three matches.
In the last match, Kate O’Steen, a third-year human development major, and Lindsay Heller, a fourth-year communications major, rallied to give the Aggies a second point, but it wasn’t enough. The game ended 3-2 in favor of the Broncos and UC Davis had to quickly regroup and shake off the loss. Having beaten Santa Clara in every other match-up this season, the loss was a tough one to ignore.
The next game against Washington kicked off almost immediately and followed a similar pattern. Mitchell and Miller again started the game and won their match. Washington won the next match, tying the score at 1-1. Skye Smolinksi, a second-year design major, and Mia Olen, a fourth-year environmental policy analysis and planning major, won their match to again give the Aggies the lead, but it quickly slipped away from the team. Washington won all of the remaining matches, for a final score of 3-2.
While two defeats in a row were difficult, the Aggies had 24 hours to regroup before their string of Saturday games. UC Berkeley, ranked ninth, proved to be a formidable opponent. Although many of the sets were close and the Aggies put up a strong fight, they lost every set. The Golden Bears walked away from the court with a 5-0 win and the Aggies left with the knowledge that they now had to face third-ranked Stanford next.
Despite the previous rout, they performed slightly better against Stanford. Stanford won the first four matches quite easily, by large margins, but in the fifth match, the Aggies caught them off guard. The pairing of Heller and O’Steen, which has proven to be dangerous over the course of the season, defeated the Stanford duo. Although they lost the first set of their match, they rallied to win the next one and the tiebreaker. This victory was a bright spot in an otherwise dismal day.
Although the Stanford Invite did not go as the team or fans hoped, they had to regroup quickly and get back into winning form. Despite losing all four games, their overall season record was enough to propel them into the Big West Beach Volleyball Championships. They played twice on April 24, beating California State University, Northridge but losing to the No. 1 seed California Polytechnic University.
Written by: Lucienne Brooker — sports@theaggie.org
