Teams: UC Davis at Pacific
Records: UC Davis (19-10, 10-5); Pacific (17-10, 7-8)
Where: Alex G. Spanos Center, Stockton, Calif.
When Saturday at 7 p.m.
Who to watch: Avreeta Singh keeps putting herself in the UC Davis record books as she surpassed 400 digs for the season last weekend. The senior librero is now the first Aggie to ever record 400 or more digs in all four of her collegiate seasons.
Singh, the Aggie co-captain and Fresno, Calif. native, has 1,819 career digs in a UC Davis uniform. She became the Aggies’ all-time dig leader earlier in the season and looks to add to her record in the season finale this Saturday.
Did you know? There is one scenario that would give UC Davis a share of the Big West conference title. On Friday, UC Irvine and Long Beach State must lose to Cal State Fullerton and UC Riverside. Then, on Saturday, if UC Irvine beats Long Beach State and UC Davis beats Pacific, the Aggies will claim a share of the Big West conference title.
Preview: The Aggies had a very emotional weekend as they gave their seniors a proper send off in their final home game, beating conference foe Cal Poly in five sets on Saturday night. However, the Aggies did fall to Santa Barbara the night before and after the weekend they found themselves tied for third in the Big West with the UC Santa Barbara.
Head coach Jamie Holmes knows that Pacific will be hungry for a win even though they are not in contention for a conference title.
“Pacific has some motivation coming into this match,” Holmes said. “They want a .500 conference season, which is motivation in itself to show up and give a good match. Plus, it’s Senior Night for them so the team will want to show up for their seniors.”
The Tigers have been a very up and down team this year, looking excellent at times, but poor at others.
“Pacific has shown themselves to be a Jekyll and Hyde team,” Holmes said. “They’ve shown themselves to be really great, with some good statistical outings. But, they’ve also shown that if you can apply steady pressure on them and control the tempo of the match, they can fold.”
In their first match of the year the Aggies beat Pacific for the first time in 13 tries dating back to the 1970s. Pacific will be looking for some redemption from that loss, as they take on the Aggies for their last home game of the year.
“Saturday will be the last memory we’ll be creating for our team,” Holmes said. “I get the sense that they have really enjoyed themselves. For me, that’s a winning season.”
– Kyle Hyland
