Sports

After a breakout series against UC Riverside last weekend, the UC Davis baseball team hit the road looking for consecutive series wins for the first time all year.

Unfortunately for the Aggies, they ran into the No. 1 team in the country.

UC Irvine won all three games between the two clubs, earning its sixth Big West Conference sweep of the season in the process.

The Anteaters jumped out to an early lead and then coasted to a 9-3 victory on Friday. That's as close as UC Davis would get to UC Irvine, as the Anteaters' took Saturday's game by 13 before posting a seven-run win Sunday.

UC Davis looks to turn things back around when it heads to Stanford to take on the Cardinal today at 5:30 p.m. from Sunken Diamond.

Event: NCAA Championships

Where: Caves Valley Golf Club - Owing Mills, Md.

When: Today through Friday; all day

Who to watch: Sophomore Alice Kim will serve as the lone Aggie representing UC Davis at the NCAA Championships this year.

Kim led the UC Davis women's golf team with four top-five individual finishes. She boasts an impressive 73.4 stroke average through 33 rounds of play.

Did you know? Don't let Kim's class standing fool you. She already has NCAA Championships experience on her side.

A principle part of now retired coach Kathy DeYoung's "Cinderella" team from last year, Kim posted a team-best 300 over the four-day title event at the New Mexico Championship Course in Albuquerque, N.M. The Aggies finished at No. 21 in the nation as a team.

Softball

UC Davis is well represented on this year's Big West Softball All-Conference Team. A total of four Aggies were named to one of the three levels of awards. Alex Holmes received first-team honors as a designated player while Kelly Harman was named Freshman Field Player of the Year. Harman became the first Aggie to claim a major Big West postseason individual award. Honorable mentions went to Jessica Hancock (pitcher), Holmes (pitcher), Harman (shortstop) and Belinda Paine (outfield).

Things started changing for Daniel Descalso in August.

A third-round selection by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 2007 MLB Draft, the former UC Davis standout was hitting just .243 when he was promoted from High-A Palm Beach (Fla.) to Double-A Springfield (Mo.).

Coming off their first Big West Conference championship and entering as the No. 26 ranked team in the country, the Aggies went into this weekend's West Regional as one of the favorites to advance to the NCAA Championship.

Unfortunately for UC Davis, things didn't go according to plan.

After last year's dismal seventh-place finish, the Aggies were ready to show the Big West Conference what they could do.

They did.

UC Davis finished with 136.5 points as the runner-up to a dominant squad from Cal State Northridge (176.5) and just ahead of rival Cal Poly (121.5).

The Aggies have arrived.

A year after its seventh-place finish at its first Big West Conference Championships, UC Davis took fifth in a very closely contested meet.

The Aggies scored 94 points, leaving them less than 10 points out of third place.

Teams: UC Davis at No. 1 UC Irvine

Records: Aggies, 10-36 (3-15); Anteaters 31-11 (17-1)

Where: Anteater Ballpark - Irvine, Calif.

When: Friday at 6 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday at 1 p.m.

Who to watch? Infielder Justin Schafer has been on a tear as of late.

The Los Gatos, Calif. native has eight hits in his past four games, pushing his average to a team-leading .345. He also leads the club with a .415 on base percentage.

Three years ago, the UC Davis tennis club featured 25 people who enjoyed playing tennis, a select few of which had a chance to compete in national tournaments.

Today, things are different.

The program is now 250 members strong, with players' skill sets ranging from beginners to former intercollegiate athletes.

"We encourage players of all skill levels to join and participate in our club, from the complete beginner to the [United States Tennis Association] veteran," club president Justin Baker said.

The club was recently named the USTA Tennis Club of the Year. The On Campus Club of the Year Award is to honor a club for significant improvements to its program. How it commits its time and resources to benefit the community are also major factors.

Event: NCAA West Region Championships

Where: Lake Merced Golf Club - Daly City, Calif.

When: Today through Saturday; all day

Who to watch: Austin Graham has had about a good a year as anyone could have.

Graham has won three tournaments - including the Big West Conference Championships - and was named first-team All-Big West. The sophomore leads the team with a 72.0 scoring average.

Most recently, Graham qualified for the U.S. Open Sections by shooting a 5-under 67 at Yolo Fliers Club in Woodland.

"He's playing amazing golf right now and deserves to advance," coach Cy Williams said.

The San Clemente, Calif. native's next goal, though, will be to lead UC Davis past the regional round of the NCAA Championships.

Event: Big West Conference Championships

Where: Anteater Stadium - Irvine, Calif.

When: Friday and Saturday; all day

Who to watch: To say that junior Alex Wilright has been tearing up the track this season would be an understatement.

He has broken his own school record in the 400m hurdles, a 27-year-old record in the open 400m and ran a leg on the record-setting 4x400m relay team. That relay is ranked No. 2 in the conference. He's ranked No. 1 in both the 400m and the 400m hurdles.

"I want to win conference in the 400m hurdles," said Wilright. "As a team, I want us to go in and put in the best effort that we can. Hopefully, it will just happen to be enough to win conference."

After watching his team struggle to a 5-7 finish last season and lose a handful of close games, coach Bob Biggs knew he wanted to make changes on defense.

Not long into the off-season, he found his man.

New defensive coordinator Mark Johnson comes to the Aggies after spending four years in the same position at Utah State. While he has strong ties to UC Davis (Johnson played linebacker for the Aggies from 1985-1989, and spent eight years on the UC Davis coaching staff between 1990-2004), Biggs said he hired Johnson for the defensive package he employs.

Event: Pacific Coast Rowing Association Championships; Pacific-10 Conference Championships

Where: Lake Natomas - Folsom, Calif.

When: Saturday and Sunday; all day

Did you know? The Aggies' varsity 8 finished fourth at the Pac-10 Championships last year.

Event: Big West Conference Championships

Where: Anteater Stadium - Irvine, Calif.

When: Friday and Saturday; all day

Who to watch: Junior Chid Onyewuenyi has been dominating the throws all season, and the Big West has taken note.

Onyewuenyi - who has qualified for regionals in both the hammer throw and the shot put - is ranked No. 2 in the Big West for the hammer and No. 4 in the shot. While those rankings are nice, she knows they won't matter once the athletes enter the ring.

"You may have the best mark coming into this weekend," said Onyewuenyi, "but it all comes down to who has the furthest mark the day we compete."

It was a weekend of firsts for the UC Davis baseball team.

The Aggies claimed their first series-opening victory on Friday in a 14-8 win over UC Riverside. It was their first win in their past nine games.

On Saturday, UC Davis came back with another win over the Highlanders to claim its first series victory, winning back-to-back games for the first time all season.

UC Riverside salvaged the series with a win on Sunday, but UC Davis still walks away from its weekend of firsts with momentum. It'll be looking for more of the same when it travels to face Santa Clara today at 6 p.m.