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POLICE BRIEFS

City News

City Editor

February 9, 2010

THURSDAY

Be aggressive, be, be aggressive

There was a panhandler with an aggressive dog on E Street.

That’s no way to leave a party

On G Street, an intoxicated male refused to leave and then became aggressive.

FRIDAY

The sound of music

A vehicle was burglarized on Alvarado Avenue. The driver’s window was broken, the stereo system taken and wallet stolen.

Camp out

A person was found sleeping near a small park off Benbow Court.

Must be the money

Male subject was drunk in public, screaming profanities and tapping on vehicles asking for money on G Street.

SATURDAY

Pre-Thanksgiving party

Officers found a flock of turkeys on East Eighth Street.

Stealing is never the answer

A shoplifter was arrested on Cowell Boulevard.

Above par

Stolen golf cart was found wrecked at a pole on West 14th Street.

SUNDAY

Rock-throwing alternative

A subject shot BB gun pellets through the window on Sycamore Lane.

Definitely Saints’ fans

On Valdora Street, a group of people were screaming and dancing outside.

Weekend wind-down

A noise complaint of tribal drum beating was called in on East 8th Street.

POLICE BRIEFS are compiled by SASHA LEKACH from the public logs of the Davis Police Department and represent the official version of what happened. View the crime blotter online at cityofdavis.org/police/log. This segment appears Tuesdays.

Law prof discusses possibility of constitutional convention

City News

City Editor

February 9, 2010

Davis residents and the advocacy group Saving California Communities (SCC) gathered last week at the downtown Seasons restaurant to hear UC Davis Law Professor Christopher Elmendorf speak about the likelihood, legality and logistics of a possible constitutional convention.

At the heart of the movement calling for a constitutional convention in California is the idea that the state’s system of governance is no longer able to effectively allocate resources to essential services at the local level.

Proponents of the convention argue the state’s constitution has been amended and altered so many times that the government can no longer manage the complex task of creating a feasible state budget.

The last such convention occurred in 1879.

Elmendorf explained the process of passing amendments. Amendments can be brought to popular vote by obtaining signatures from the equivalent of 8 percent of voters in the last gubernatorial election. There are also statutory initiatives that can be introduced to the ballot which, if passed, function like constitutional amendments. They can only be overturned by a constitutional amendment or popular vote. The statutory initiatives only require 5 percent of signatures from California voters.

Elmendorf said citizens do not see the consequences of policy they vote for, and true monetary tradeoffs are hard to bring to bear to the public.

“Lawmaking through initiatives tends to obscure tradeoffs,” Elmendorf said.

Voters tend to favor simple symbolic changes. These can feel satisfying but in the long run are damaging, he said. Since the legislature is bound to govern based on initiatives approved by the public, the government is hindered from governing effectively. This undermines the public trust in government and makes it harder for the legislature to make changes, Elmendorf said.

“Voters feel powerful but lose confidence in government,” Elmendorf said.

Repair California, an advocacy group partnered with the SCC, drafted two initiatives for the 2010 ballot.

The first initiative, if passed, would amend the constitution to allow voters to call for a constitutional convention by popular vote. According to the California Constitution, only the legislature may propose a constitutional convention that is decided by popular vote and a two-thirds agreement in each house.

The second proposal is a statutory initiative that would then call for such a convention in 2011 if passed by voters in 2010.

The convention would be held by roughly 461 delegates, selected from every county based on population, and three delegates chosen from the 80 assembly districts.

The delegates would deliberate on changes to the constitution and pass the ultimate decision to the general public in the 2012 elections.

The convention aims to allow citizens to participate in amending the constitution but in a more deliberative manner than is possible now, Elmendorf said.

Elmendorf, who is not affiliated with either the SCC or Repair California, noted there are difficulties associated with securing a convention.

“Ballot initiatives are the only things Californians trust,” Elmendorf said.

Any attempt to reform the process, such as requiring initiatives to have higher signature thresholds before appearing on the ballot might be greeted with mistrust at the polls, he said.

There are also organizations that oppose such reform.

“There is a ballot initiative industrial complex,” Elmendorf said, referring to firms that circulate the initiative petitions professionally. “These people will oppose reform and paint it as an attack on democracy.”

Another option for the delegation is to make it possible for Congress to pass its annual budget by simple majority instead of the two-thirds majority that is needed now, explained Elmendorf.

“Allowing the legislature to pass a budget [more easily] will restore public trust and let the legislature focus on structural changes in other areas,” Elmendorf said.

Members of the SCC describe themselves as a diverse group of concerned citizens rather than a political organization or interest group.

“We are promoting discussion and dialogue for now,” said SCC Member Susan Lovenberg, who is also a trustee of the Davis Unified School District.

Don Palm, the dean of the Davis Campus of the Sacramento City College, also presented at Friday’s event.

“We want to include everybody and restore the dialogue that has broken down,” Palm said.

SAMUEL A. COHEN can be reached city@theaggie.org.

Legislation aims to improve safety for young athletes

City News

City Editor

February 9, 2010

Walking off a sport injury isn’t as easy as it sounds.

A piece of California legislation aims to add precautionary measures to ensure the safety of young athletes.

Representatives Mary Hayashi (D-Hayward) and Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo) are working together with the California Athletic Trainers Association (CATA) to put forth AB 1646 and AB 1647. California Sen. Tony Strickland (R-Thousand Oaks) is one of the co-authors of this bipartisan legislation.

Ross Warren, chief consultant in the office of Mary Hayashi, believes the awareness on sports safety must improve.

“We want to raise awareness and the bar statewide,” Warren said. “This bill reinforces the notion that sports injuries can have serious consequences. The safety of sports is a continuing evolutionary process, like the equipment used in them.”

Warren said the bill is not a big mandate on schools and does not have a large impact from a fiscal standpoint. He believes it is necessary to elevate the status quo on the safety of high school athletes who can potentially sustain injuries such as concussions, heart ailments and heat stroke.

The intent of AB 1646 is to provide high school coaches a program to become more educated regarding sports injuries. The California Interscholastic Federation requires coaches to know CPR and first-aid, but this bill requires specialized education concerning potential catastrophic injuries.

AB 1647 focuses on the Department of Education working with CATA or another professional organization to provide safer standards. For example, the bill calls for an automated external defibrillator to be on site, as well as a detailed set of procedures in the event of an emergency. The main focus, however, is to ensure high school athletes who sustain a head injury are evaluated by a licensed physician or a trainer working under the directions of a doctor.

CATA President Mike West believes there is an epidemic in the country because of the significant increase in reported injuries among young athletes.

“Football is the target sport, but we want all coaches and staff to protect their athletes by being educated and aware of serious injuries,” West said.

A study done at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research, shows that over a 26 year time period, from the fall of 1982 through the spring of 2008, there were 152 fatalities, 379 disability injuries, and 374 serious injuries with complete recovery associated with high school sports across the country.

Lisa Varnum, an athletic trainer at UC Davis and Secretary of CATA, said the National Collegiate Athletic Association provides more safeguards, so the severity of the issue is not as great for college athletes.

“The possibility of a major injury exists in all sports,” Varnum said. “At the collegiate level, however, we have a more adequate staff because we follow an intensive set of guidelines and procedures.”

Knowing the conditions and the personality of the athlete helps assess an injury.

“No head injury is the same and most high schools don’t have the personnel to recognize – especially on a subjective basis – the symptoms that can signal significant brain trauma,” Varnum said.

The National Football League recently made stricter guidelines for players who sustain head injuries. If the medical staff, including specialized neurologists, observe certain symptoms the player will not be allowed to return to the game, whereas the old rule allowed players to return unless they lost consciousness.

MICHAEL STEPANOV can be reached at city@theaggie.org.

Wine experts seek to make wine industry more consumer friendly

Campus News

Campus Editor

February 9, 2010

For consumers around the world picking out a bottle of wine can be nearly as intimidating as the LSAT, but uncertainty may soon be put to rest with the help of research in tasting methodology.

Wine expert Tim Hanni has been on a 20-year long quest to make wine much simpler for consumers with mentors Dr. Michael O’Mahony and Dr. Rie Ishii from UC Davis’s food science and technology department. Hanni was one of the first Americans to become a master of wine, the highest credential attainable in the wine industry – a title that only 279 people hold worldwide.

O’Mahony and Ishii’s research shows that differences or changes in descriptive wording for food and wine can have an immense impact on how culinary judges rank taste during competitions.

The descriptive wording used in the wine industry and how the human brain works to describe metaphors for wine are not congruent, resulting in a lot of people pretending to know and recognize tastes, Hanni said.

Varying amounts of taste buds add more confusion to wine consumers. Ranging between 500 and 10,000 per person, the number of taste buds plays a critical role in personal taste preference.

Depending on the combination of a number of taste buds and personal preference for tastes such as salt and sugar, wine consumers can be divided into four categories: tolerant, sensitive, hyper-sensitive and sweet tasters.

“It’s like you’re at a store that sells hundreds of different styles of shoes, and no shoes fit you because no one has realized that people have different size feet,” Hanni said about the importance of taste bud count.

“Tolerant” tasters have the fewest taste buds, and can typically handle stronger flavors or extreme tasting beers. “Sensitive” tasters are the most adventurous, and have the greatest ability to move from one taste to another.

People with the most taste buds, typically those who add salt to everything are “hyper-sensitive tasters” and those who stick to sweets and those who consider Heineken adventurous are “sweet tasters.”

The upcoming Consumer Wine Awards in Lodi, now in its third year, uses the tasting methodology developed by O’Mahony, Ishii and Hanni. Rather than a panel of professional judges, consumers will decide the winners at the wine awards.

University of Wine founder and Consumer Wine Award co-founder G.M. “Pooch” Pucilowski suggests taking a wine class or swapping wine with fellow enthusiasts to learn more about wine.

“Finding the right wine bottle can be hard and intimidating,” said UC Davis student Thomas Valdez. “My method every time I go down the wine aisle at CVS or World Market is to try something new, and if I like it, I tend to write down the name and year.”

Unbeknownst to most consumers, the bottle shape is an indicator of taste.

“There are only four or five bottle shapes, and most wineries put the same style of wine in the same bottle,” Pucilowski said. “If you learn little tricks [of the industry] you’re off and running.”

Hanni estimates that up to 80 percent of the potential wine market is discouraged from drinking wine because of wine intimidation and uncertainty.

“Our ignorance of taste physiology results in driving people away from wine and toward cocktails instead,” Hanni said. “We’re looking for new ways to train the industry to custom fit certain wines to certain people.”

To find out what kind of taster you are, visit consumerwineawards.com

GABRIELLE GROW can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.

UCD study of Mini E yields positive response

Campus News

Campus Editor

February 9, 2010

BMW Mini’s groundbreaking entry into the sports car market has received electric reviews from a UC Davis customer satisfaction study.

Four hundred and fifty leasers were selected to take place in the United States portion of the field testing, requiring them to keep a driving diary of their Mini E use for six months. Fifty-four of the leasers have done interviews with UC Davis researchers detailing their experiences.

The key to the study’s validity is that the participants pay a price to drive the new technology. The lease price is over $800 a month – which is why BMW chose to survey consumers rather than hand them out to testers, said Dahlia Garas, interim program manager for the UC Davis Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle Research Center.

“If people are paying to use this vehicle instead of having it given to them, they’ll be much more honest,” Garas said. “We’ve seen some really honest, constructive criticism of the vehicle from the people who are leasing it.”

Dr. Thomas Turrentine, the study’s leader and director of the UC Davis PHEV Center, explained how the study began last June.

“BMW has participated in our sustainable transportation energy program, so they knew about the work we’ve done with consumers, and they were working with a German university and found an opportunity to have us collaborate,” he said.

The vehicle in the American co-test is exactly the same as the German one, according to Turrentine, though the studies have their differences.

“We asked people to do a more intensive study than BMW does, with our focus group of 54 volunteers in Los Angeles and the New York area,” Turrentine said, referring to the interview process UC Davis added to the driving diary.

Issues noted by the surveyed leasers include lack of trunk space, that the vehicle is only available as a two-seater and the range of the electric battery. The Mini E gets between 80 and 130 miles on a fully charged battery, depending on how the car is driven, according to Turrentine.

“Some people think that it’s not practical to charge at home, but in this case, these people are of high socioeconomic status and have other cars at home,” Turrentine said.

Despite these reported limitations, most of the participants have been able to fulfill much of their regular driving activity in the Mini E.

“They just take a look and decide if they have enough to go and come back, or take another vehicle,” Garas said. “It’s rare that someone has to get close to 100 miles in a day.”

A full recharge of the battery takes between four to five hours. According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics’ National Household Travel Survey, the average driver spends 55 minutes behind the wheel and drives 29 miles in a day.

The Mini E pairs more horsepower than its gas predecessor with better handling, because of the increased weight on the wheels. Turrentine said the opportunity to test this innovation – BMW Group is the first to use the latest generation of lithium-ion technology in an all-electric vehicle – has led to the positive feedback.

“These are not your average buyers, many of them own brand new Porshes or Lexus’,” Turrentine said. “But it’s something they decided they want to spend money on, so they’re going in to it with intentions, and they’re very happy.”

The next step in the study is to see what the 54 volunteers have said about their Mini E when not asked to respond, Garas said.

“Many people have blogged about the vehicle or written on Facebook about it, so we’ll analyze those things and they should be a good source of info too.”

MIKE DORSEY can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.

UC Davis hosts first ever Financial Aid Awareness Week

Campus News

Campus Editor

February 9, 2010

With the due date of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid looming less than a month away, students are seeking different ways to offset the burden of funding their education.

For the first time in campus history, UC Davis is hosting a week of public presentations aimed at educating and increasing awareness for students in need of financial aid.

Katy Maloney, interim director of financial aid, believed that this was a particularly opportune moment considering students’ current financial situations.

“It’s great timing because of the FAFSA [deadline], the fee increases and the economy the way that it is,” she said. “[For students] to not know about ways they can alleviate [those] pressures is not helpful to their success.”

The week began on Monday with a “SMART Money” workshop focused on teaching students on a budget how to budget. Events continue today in the East Conference Room in the MU from noon to 1 p.m. with a presentation on scholarships and employment opportunities.

In the evening, there will be a workshop on filing the FAFSA at Wellman Hall from 6 to 8 p.m. On Wednesday, Maloney will facilitate a presentation debunking common financial aid myths and misconceptions. Following that, there will be a workshop on studying abroad and another FAFSA workshop on Thursday.

The week will wrap up with a program designed to inform students of various ways they can save money and finance their education during the summer.

Rachel de los Reyes, who came up with the idea for the week, spoke to the need she found apparent in the student population.

“I work in customer service,” she said, “I talk to a lot of students and the whole process of financial aid is very confusing to them. They need help, and we need to show the students that our office is here to help them.”

De los Reyes, a financial aid analyst at the Financial Aid office, proposed the idea to her superiors who approved it, but informed her that there was not money to fund her idea. However, de los Reyes was able to gain sponsorship for the week from ASUCD, the Student Recruitment and Retention Center, Internship and Career Center, UCD Student Housing, SPEAK! and the Junior Investors and Entrepreneurs at UC Davis.

“Everyone wants to know more about financial aid,” she said, “If emergencies come up, [students] should know that they can come to us to get assistance. I mean, they can increase tuition, but we will always find ways to help. There are actual solutions.”

According to Maloney, although the Financial Aid Office did not require permission from the administration to hold the events of the week, they worked in concordance with the Chancellor’s Office for publicity purposes.

Allison Zike, Student Assistant to the Chancellor, believes that this week is a good example of the Financial Aid office taking initiative in finding solutions to students’ financial woes.

“I think this year more than ever students need help,” Zike said. “With the mid-year fee increase coming as such as surprise, students need to see [what resources they] have available. I hope this is the beginning of a trend of departments on campus actively taking this vital information to the students.”

ASUCD Senator Joel Juarez sought to help advance the week’s publicity and support within ASUCD and shared his ideas with de los Reyes throughout the planning process. Juarez stressed how essential the week was to not only students currently receiving financial aid, but to all students.

“The inaccessibility of information has always been a problem,” he said. “People have gotten freaked out by how difficult it has gotten to pay for college. [These students] need to gain access to the resources they pay for, but they also need to feel comfortable using them. We need to demystify this whole process for students so that they can get what they need.”

KYLE SPORLEDER can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.

INFOBOX TEXT:

TODAY

Scholarships and employment 101

Noon to 1 p.m.

East Conference Room, Memorial Union

Free FAFSA workshop*

*bring a laptop and 2009 tax return info if available

6 to 8 p.m.

126 Wellman

WEDNESDAY

Financial Aid Mythbusters

Noon to 1 p.m.

King Lounge, Memorial Union

THURSDAY

Destination: Affordable

Information on financing your study abroad trip

3 to 4 p.m.

King Lounge, Memorial Union

Free FAFSA workshop*

*bring a laptop and 2009 tax return info if available

6 to 8 p.m.

126 Wellman

FRIDAY

Summer cash

Budgeting for summer sessions and summer abroad

Noon to 1 p.m.

East Conference Room, Memorial Union

For more information visit tiny.cc/finaid.

UC Davis alumnus prepares Baha’i law students for careers in human rights

Campus News

Campus Editor

February 9, 2010

Dr. Farhad Sabetan, a UC Davis alumnus and spokesperson for the international Baha’i community, spoke to 85 law students at King Hall about what he identified as the brutal and systematic persecution of Baha’is in Iran.

He began by discussing the many rights that are denied to citizens that identify as Baha’is, including the right to marry, the right to attain a higher education and the right to employment, among others.

He also discussed the lack of due process afforded to the Baha’is that are imprisoned and facing a trial. Dr. Sabetan closed by saying that international pressures to uphold human rights have contributed to preventing systematic execution.

– Deeba Yavrom

Aggies trample Mustangs, gashed by Gauchos

Sports

Sports Editor

February 8, 2010

Both of the weekend’s games were virtually identical.

In each game, there was one team that never relinquished the lead. In each game Mark Payne, Joe Harden and Dominic Calegari all scored in double figures. In both games, the losers outrebounded the victors.

The only difference was that UC Davis won one and lost the other.

Thursday – UC Davis 83, Cal Poly 63

On Jan. 10, the Aggies went down to San Luis Obispo to play the Mustangs. They came back with a 72-69 loss.

Thursday night at the Pavilion, the rematch went much differently.

UC Davis never trailed as it beat Cal Poly 83-63, thanks in part to a 22-4 run in the second half.

Ahead 46-36 with 13 minutes left in the game, a speech from coach Gary Stewart coming out of a timeout kick-started the Aggies’ run.

“He just kind of lit a fire under us,” said Calegari. “It was a collective effort on defense and Coach letting us know what we needed to do to break away.”

After the timeout, Adam Malik hit a three-pointer to start the run on offense. Several missed shots by Cal Poly kept UC Davis going on defense. The run, which set the tone for the second half, led to a much different result than the previous game.

“We just felt like we shouldn’t have lost that game at all down [at Cal Poly],” Calegari said. “We had a solid lead at halftime and it just went the opposite way as tonight. We were just extremely confident that we could beat them.”

The Mustangs shot just 36 percent from the field for the game. The Aggies, meanwhile, made 50 percent of their buckets. UC Davis also won the turnover battle, losing possession just twice in the second half and eight times overall. The Mustangs had 19 turnovers, leading to 23 Aggie points.

Calegari led the Aggies with 20 points and three blocks. Harden chipped in with 19 points and eight rebounds. Payne added 10 points and seven assists.

Saturday – UC Santa Barbara 81, UC Davis 77

After losing to UCSB by 21 points in the Thunderdome on ESPNU in January, UC Davis was looking to return the favor with star player Mark Payne back on the floor.

The result was better, but not quite good enough as the Aggies fell 81-77 on Saturday.

The Gauchos, who made a total of six three-pointers the last time the teams faced each other, began the game 7-for-7 from long distance.

“The start of the game was the worst possible situation that we could be in,” Stewart said. “They kept making shots and putting us back on our heels. By the time we were able to wrestle them to the ground and try to get some momentum, we were fighting a double-figure deficit.”

Despite the lights-out shooting from UCSB, UC Davis was able to make a late charge.

Down by 19 with 3:39 left in regulation, the Aggies went on a 19-4 run to cut the deficit to four with 21 seconds left.

“We picked up the intensity on defense,” said Harden, who scored 19 points and had a team-high 12 rebounds and seven assists. “We just, started switching, getting into people and making them play faster than they wanted to.”

Stewart believes that had there been more time on the clock, the Aggies could have pulled out the victory.

“We’re going to play wire to wire,” Stewart said. “There is no quit in us. If the game was longer, who knows what would have happened.”

In response to the late charge by the Aggies, James Nunnally hit a pair of free throws to silence the crowd at the Pavilion for the final time.

RICHARD PROCTER and MARK LING can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.

Down with the Dons

Sports

Sports Editor

February 8, 2010

Twentieth-century American writer Austin O’Malley once explained, “Revenge is often like biting a dog because the dog bit you.”

In relation to women’s tennis, San Francisco has been doing much of the biting in their matchups against UC Davis in the past decade. On Friday, however, the Aggies chewed through the Dons en route to their first win of the season.

After dominating San Francisco in five of the six singles matches, the Aggies (1-3) clinched the 6-1 victory in doubles play when Noelle Eades and Dahra Zamudio defeated their opponent by an 8-4 score.

“They’ve beaten us the last eight or nine years,” Maze said. “So to beat such a quality team is satisfying.”

Last year, the Dons defeated UC Davis by a slim 4-3 margin. So Maze made the necessary adjustments to ensure that history would not repeat itself for yet another year.

The play of Lauren Curry and Ellie Edles gave the Aggies their first doubles win, 8-4. Although the No. 1 doubles team of Herzyl Legaspi and Desiree Stone fell to the Dons 8-6 in their matchup, Maze saw no reason to make another change.

“The teams looked good,” Maze said. “We’ll probably stick with those teams for a while.”

Maze continued to praise his team’s singles play, especially Stone’s performance against former pro Jennifer-Lee Heinser. Stone would eventually fall to Heinser 6-3, 6-4.

Despite this setback, the Aggies had convincing performances in their matchups, including Zamudio’s 5-7, 6-1, 7-5 come-from-behind win in singles play. Legaspi provided the clinching victory in singles play with a 7-6, 7-5 win over Julia Wartenburger.

“It looks like we dominated,” Maze said, “but there were some tight ones in there. We just happened to win all the close matches. To win those close matches, you need heart and it showed we had a lot of heart.”

Maze refused to acknowledge the home advantage as the reason the Aggies ended their slump against San Francisco. He said there were many times in the past when the Aggies had the home court, but could not capitalize.

“It always helps to play at home,” Maze said. “The difference was we were just better [on Friday].”

Unfortunately, the Aggies could not ride their momentum into the second of their weekend matchups against Sonoma State. Fearful of weather conditions, the teams postponed the Saturday match for a future date.

The Aggies will now have to wait a little longer for the chance at back-to-back wins. Although their next match is not against a Division II team like the Sonoma State, Sacramento State could still offer a feasible opportunity for victory No. 2.

However, the Aggies did get their first win and with the monkey off their back can now concentrate on honing their skills in preparation for upcoming Big West Conference matches.

“It’s always nice to get the first [win] out of the way,” Maze said. “We don’t expect it to get any easier. We never expect it to be easy.”

MARCOS RODRIGUEZ can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.

Saved by Abel

Sports

Sports Editor

February 8, 2010

The Pavilion was packed. It was the final match of the night. The Aggies were down 22-18.

Then No. 15 Barrett Abel stepped up for UC Davis to face San Francisco’s Josh Nolan in the 149-pound division.

On the annual “Beauty and the Beast” event, Abel proved to be the beast, earning the fall against Nolan and propelling the Aggies to the 24-22 victory over the Gators.

Abel wasn’t the only nationally ranked wrestler to perform well on Friday.

No. 15 junior Brandon Low earned a decision at the 133-pound class while No. 15 heavyweight junior Ricky Alcala took care of his opponent with a major decision at 285-pounds.

Freshman Trevor Machado-Ching got a decision at the 157-pound division and sophomore Joey Wilson earned a technical fall at the 165-pound class.

With the dramatic last-second victory behind them, the Aggies took to the mats again the next night.

This time the opponent proved to be tougher.

UC Davis (3-10, 1-4) fell to Pac-10 Conference rival Stanford in a heartbreaker, 20-19.

“It’s never fun to lose like that and hopefully we can improve a little before [the Pac-10] conference [tournament],” said head coach Lennie Zalesky

The Cardinal overcame a forfeit at 285-pounds and a major decision by Machado-Ching to get their first conference win of the year.

Abel and Low each earned decisions in their classes while senior Bryan Osuna got a decision at 141.

The pair of the duals were the Aggies’ last home matches of the year until they return to the Pavilion for the Pac-10 tournament which starts Feb. 26.

UC Davis takes on Cal Poly and Cal State Bakersfield next weekend to conclude their regular season. Two weeks later, the Pavilion will open its door to the Pac-10 Tournament.

KYLE HYLAND can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.

Women’s basketball sweeps season series from defending champ UCSB

Sports

Sports Editor

February 8, 2010

UC Davis outscored its opponents in three out of four halves over the weekend.

Unfortunately for the Aggies, one of the four halves was their worst of the season.

On Friday, the Aggies lost to Cal Poly by 21 after leading at halftime. They then responded on Saturday by beating UC Santa Barbara.

The hiccup caused the Aggies to fall a half game behind Cal Poly in the Big West Conference standings. Despite the loss, UC Davis (15-7, 7-2 Big West) shows no sign of slowing down as it has won eight of its last nine contests.

Thursday – Cal Poly 69, UC Davis 48

After 20 minutes of play, it appeared that the Aggies would win their eighth straight game.

As it turns out, appearances can be deceiving.

Despite leading 28-22 at halftime, UC Davis would falter in the second period and ultimately lose to Cal Poly by a score of 69-48.

“That was our worst half of the year,” said coach Sandy Simpson. “It was a combination of the fact we couldn’t find the basket and that they got super hot.”

In that second half, the Aggies shot just 20 percent from the floor and 21.4 percent from long distance. The Mustangs, meanwhile, had a 60.7 field goal percentage and shot 71.4 percent from beyond the arc.

In total, only Vicky Deely (10 points) scored in double figures. No player made more than three baskets or grabbed more than five rebounds.

Heidi Heintz had the best all-around game, recording five rebounds, four assists and four points in 28 minutes.

The Aggies were in such a funk that their uncharacteristic offensive woes spilled over onto the defensive side of the ball.

“They beat us down a little,” Simpson said. “We were having such a hard time shooting the ball that we couldn’t maintain our defense.”

The Aggies don’t see the loss as a sign of things to come.

“Sometimes, a loss like that eats at you,” Simpson said. “And other times, it’s so out of character that it’s easy to let it go. We have a short memory and our players have the resolve to bounce back.”

Saturday – UC Davis 62, UC Santa Barbara 54

Not only did the Aggies bounce back, but they never trailed in their road win over defending conference champ UCSB.

Simpson believes the win over the Gauchos was pivotal given the loss to Cal Poly earlier in the week.

“It was huge,” Simpson said. “You need that kind of win for players to understand that the loss is just an anomaly. We’ve taken a tough loss before and we’re always able to respond.”

While the Aggies got the win, the Gauchos made things interesting with a couple of late runs.

UC Davis would lead by as much as 15 in the first half, but UCSB would go on a 20-7 run to close the half trailing by only two points.

“To their credit, they cut the lead down,” Simpson said. “But we responded well.”

After the Aggies extended their lead to eight in the second half, the Gauchos would make one last charge, tying the game at 43 with 8:38 remaining.

UCSB would never take the lead as UC Davis pushed the pedal to the metal for the remainder of the game, ultimately winning by a score of 62-54.

Heintz recorded the first double-double of the season for UC Davis with 12 points and 10 boards.

MARK LING can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.

Aggies finish 16th in Hawaii

Sports

Sports Editor

February 8, 2010

UC Davis hadn’t competed as a team in almost three months.

The long break showed as the Aggies finished in the bottom half of the field at the Mauna Lani Invitational on Friday.

“It was disappointing because we know we’re capable of competing with anyone, and we didn’t compete this week,” said coach Cy Williams. “In a field like this we need everyone to be playing at their best and we didn’t have that.”

UC Davis took home a 16th place finish out of the field of 22. As a team, the Aggies shot a score of 904 over the 54-hole tournament, placing them 38 strokes behind first-place No. 2 Stanford.

The first two days of the tournament featured heavy winds, something UC Davis had trouble with. The Aggies shot a 306 on each of the days. The weather improved on the final day as did the Aggies. They shot a 292, improving their score by 14 strokes.

In a field that featured some of the best golfers in the country, it was Texas’ Bobby Hudson, the No. 218 in the nation, who finished in first place, at 7-under par. Hudson finished one stroke ahead of No. 11 Brooks Koepka of Florida State.

UC Davis’ leading player of the tournament was freshman Andrew Haggan who was 5-over par during the three-day tournament. He finished tied with No. 2 Diego Velasquez of Oregon State and nine other players for 29th place. Haggan showed consistency over the course of the tournament, shooting no higher than 3-over par on any day.

“He was really able to find success in the first two days of the tournament,” Williams said. “He dealt with the wind pretty well. Hopefully he’s beginning to see himself as one of the best golfers on the team, not just as a starter or a fifth man.”

Austin Graham shot a 1-under on Friday, improving his overall score to 11-over. Graham was in 74th place entering play on Friday and was able to improve to 54th place by tournament’s end.

Tim Honeycutt followed a tough Thursday round of 81 with an impressive score of 69 on Friday. He shot the best round by any Aggie in the tournament and was one of only 13 golfers to shoot under 70 on Friday. The round allowed Honeycutt to move from 95th place to a tie for 63rd at the close of the tournament.

Four of UC Davis’ five golfers finished ahead of No. 1 Peter Uihlein of Oklahoma State who ended the tournament tied for 85th, with an 18-over par.

TREVOR CRAMER can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.

Stars align for Aggies

Sports

Sports Editor

February 8, 2010

Before the fifth week of competition, coach John Lavallee asked his team to step on the accelerator and gain momentum.

Lavallee got exactly that and more.

“They put the pedal through the floor,” Lavallee said. “To see the performance they put on was pretty impressive. We hit 24 out of 24 events. This is very rare. All six girls hit each of the four events. In the past four years we’ve only done that once.”

UC Davis marked its third victory over Seattle Pacific this season by a score of 194.250-188.550.

“With the Beauty and the Beast environment, we had an unbelievable crowd,” Lavallee said. “The Band-uh! and wrestling were there – the stars were lined up.”

Freshman Katie Yamamura tied senior Michelle Bobonski for first on vault with a score of 9.750. Following closely in second was senior Tanya Ho with 9.725 points.

Senior Lida Gehlen’s 9.875 tally on uneven parallel bars helped UC Davis increase the lead to 97.350-95.225 by the end of the second round.

Ho came in second place behind Gehlen with 9.775 points while Yamamura tied with senior Kendall McCann for third with a 9.700 score.

The floor exercise was led by sophomore Erika Van Dyke who scored a 9.800 on her routine.

“Erika is one of our strong and steady performers,” Lavallee said. “She’s long and elegant, and her performance was off the charts.”

Also performing well on floor were Yamamura with 9.775 points and freshman Taryn West with a score of 9.750.

“It was one of those nights when everything came together,” Van Dyke said. “It felt good to go out there and do my best when it counts.”

Before the judges even counted the final scores, the Aggies found another cause for celebration.

“Our goal was to average a 9.700 per athlete and achieve a [final score of] 194,” Lavallee said. “This was a breakout performance and earning 194 was a big step for us. It’s something we’ve been quietly gunning for.”

The team attributed the outstanding score to their hard work and Friday night’s high-energy environment.

“It was so exciting,” Van Dyke said. “The energy was so positive. It felt great to go out there and do our routines like we do them every day in practice.”

Lavallee agreed.

“Our girls love it when Band-uh! shows up,” Lavallee said. “It lifts the spirits. Being in the gym with wrestling along with an amazing crowd – all these things fed into getting everybody dialed in.”

GRACE SPRAGUE can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.

Column: Best class ever

Sports

Sports Editor

February 8, 2010

UC Davis football coach Bob Biggs looks for players that fit a certain profile: They must be good students, but also good football prospects.

Biggs got what he wanted.

Last week, a highly-touted group of 18 players plus one mid-year transfer signed national letters of intent to play at UC Davis.

“So many of them are football savvy guys,” Biggs said. “That’s what impresses me about this group. Football is part of their culture and obviously they’re good students.”

What makes this class more extraordinary than in previous years, though, is it’s considered by Biggs to be the best UC Davis has ever put together.

“I think we answered a lot of questions, depth-wise, across the board at every position,” Biggs said. “The quality of the people we recruited is as strong as we’ve ever had.”

The path to amassing this group of quality recruits was a long process, one Biggs says began last spring when he and his staff evaluated hundreds of high school juniors across California.

“After spring evaluation,” Biggs said, “we sit around as a coaching staff every day and watch 10 to 15 players that we’ve identified as the top players at their position. We rate the players and put the ones with the highest ratings on our board – one, two, three, four.”

The staff then seeks to bring the top guys at each position to UC Davis.

Mission accomplished.

“Most years, you don’t get the first or second guy,” Biggs said. “You end up settling on the third or fourth. This year, at just about every position, we got the top players we had rated. It was because of the work we did in the spring.”

Biggs and his staff started at the running back position.

“Running back was a critical area for us,” Biggs said. “We had not landed a top running back in the last couple of years.”

So UC Davis went out and signed three: Austin Edmonson (Moorpark), Jonathan Maricic (Elsinore) and Colton Silveria (Central Valley).

Tailback wasn’t the only focus. The staff also looked for a top-notch receiver to replace Chris Carter, the Great West Conference’s Offensive Player of the Year, and first-team all-conference selection Bakari Grant.

“We needed to pick up a home-run hitter much like Chris Carter was last year,” Biggs said. “We got that in Alex Cannon.”

The 6-foot-1, 175-pound wideout (Long Beach Poly) helped his team to a CIF-Southern Section Title as a junior.

Playmakers? Check. So who’s going to protect the quarterback so the ball can get to them?

Biggs had an answer for that.

“On the offensive line, we needed some tackles,” Biggs said. “We landed two great ones with size and athleticism.”

The offensive linemen they landed include Ian Joseph (El Dorado) and Jay Luchetti (Montgomery) along with Zach Perron (St. Joseph).

The staff also addressed the defense.

“We needed some linebackers,” Biggs said. “We hit a home run with [Ryan] Dimino, [Dominic] Greco and Steven Pitts. A quality corner in Jabari Howard – we got him. [Earnest] Sayles is a great safety along with [Charles] Boyett.”

Perhaps the biggest recruit UC Davis got was the one most under the radar.

As a senior at Kingsburg High School, London Lacy received all-league recognition at the quarterback position – as the backup.

“He didn’t start for his team because the starter ended up going to Tennessee,” Biggs said.

That didn’t stop the coaching staff from bringing Lacy in to take a look at him.

“We brought him into camp and he was head and shoulders above any other quarterback we saw,” Biggs said. “I think he’s a better player than the guy who started. Had he started, he probably would’ve had all kinds of big-time offers. Sometimes you have to look beyond what you see on the surface.”

With this class, UC Davis brings in 19 players – 10 on offense and nine on defense – all of whom will likely use their redshirt year next season. At least that’s what Biggs hopes.

“[I] hope not,” Biggs said when asked if his recruits will play next year. “I think some of them are physically gifted enough. It’s usually the mental side of it. They aren’t here for spring ball, so the first time they are exposed is fall camp. There’s just not enough time to get them ready.”

MAX ROSENBLUM is excited about the caliber of recruits the football program brought in. He’s disappointed that as a student, he will likely not see them play. He can be contacted at sports@theaggie.org.

Column: Tasty talk

Opinion

Opinion

February 8, 2010

Working at the Segundo Dining Commons is like being a Niners fan: It’s great, but sometimes you just want to stick a fork in your eye.

No, really. Working at the DC is awesome! It incorporates two of my favorite things: fun people (like Joe the Singing Cook) and food (like waffles topped with four inches of whipped cream). The hours are flexible. The managers are nice. If there’s anything to complain about, it’s … well, you.

You, the student, the DC patron. Okay, I know it was your friend who squirted ketchup into the flower vase, not you. And of course you always bus your table … unless there’s a fire drill. Or there’s too much to carry. Or you forget. Or you just don’t feel like it. It’s not like you’re some kind of raging jerk.

After working at the DC for a few months, I’ve started noticing the little things that can make or break an employee’s day. Here are a few points of dining commons sense to help you reduce the incidence of fork-related eye injuries:

If the fro-yo machine is dispensing an elastic green goo instead of orange sherbet, then you might want to tell an employee about it. However, pick anyone besides the guy bolting a massive plate of food. That guy is on a break. And not in the Rachel sense of “on a break,” but in the Ross sense.

Now, let’s say you’ve gotten as far as committing to bus your table. Great! You get a gold star. You start stacking up your plates, cups, forks, salad bowls, soup bowls, Tibetan singing bowls and so on. As you wad up your napkin and drop it into your cup, you hear a faint, anguished cry. That is because even though your über-compact Fiestaware tower looks nice and neat, the prisoners of the dish room die a little inside every time they have to fish a napkin out of a cup or go searching for utensils under a pile of carrots and noodles.

(However, you may be able to revive these weary men and women by making smiley faces on your plate.)

CRASH. Some poor dude just dropped a stack of plates on the ground. Before you start applauding with the rest of the classy and thoughtful people around you, consider this – a round of public mockery might be the last thing that person needs.

Maybe it’s one of our workers with a developmental disability, who’ve had a rough time since childhood and just wants to do a good job. It could be yours truly, having a really hormonal day and hanging on to sanity by the bent tine of a fork. It could even be my boss, Calvin, in which case I give you permission to point and laugh. (Haha! Please don’t fire me!)

Lastly, unless you were raised by wolves – or possibly the Weasley family – you know the magic words are “please” and “thank you.” When there’s a line from the Bistro to the chocolate milk and the food service workers are hard pressed on every side, when the preceding four people in line have said, “Can I have butternut squash and a potato and no steak but the gravy for the steak on the squash but not on the potato?” or “Can you carve the Mona Lisa onto the skin of a potato, slather it in sour cream, give it a 30-minute deep-tissue massage, and have it sent to that girl over there with the pigtails?” – when all this is going on, it may be difficult to get your own special order without receiving an involuntary death glare from the server.

However, whenever a UC Davis football player asks for a triple helping, I always end up smiling rather than charging my eye lasers. Why? Because I’m crushing so hard on the entire football team that I’d drive to South Dakota to watch a three-hour game, defying brutal snowstorms and ditching multiple days of class.

Er … did I write that out loud? What I meant to say is the football team makes me smile because they are so darn polite. Even though it takes two-and-a-half linebackers five seconds to clear out all our plates, the “pleases” and “thank yous” from every last one of them makes me tickled they came by.

You, too, can evoke these positive feelings in food service workers by simply using good manners, cleaning up after yourself and winning the Great West Conference championship.

BETH SEKISHIRO will be accepting paper napkin love notes and doodles via dish return from 5 to 9 p.m. on most Fridays. For a more reliable but less adorable channel of communication, e-mail her at blseki@ucdavis.edu.

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