Event: Stanford Duals

Teams: UC Davis vs. Drexel; Columbia; Stanford

Where: Burnham Pavilion – Palo Alto, Calif.

When: Saturday at noon; 2 p.m.; 4 p.m.

Who to Watch: Sophomore Barrett Abel was a bright spot in an otherwise disappointing defeat at Oklahoma State in Stillwater on Sunday.

The Placerville, Calif. native picked up a 16-4 major decision win against the No. 13 Cowboys in the 149-pound weight class. Abel had a strong finish to the first half of the season this year, placing at the Reno Tournament of Champions on Dec. 18. He looks to continue his success tomorrow in Palo Alto.

Did you know? Senior Marcos Orozco is ranked No. 15 in the country for the 125-weight class as he takes the mat this weekend at Burnham Pavilion.

Preview: UC Davis opened 2009 with a disappointing loss at the hands of the No. 13 Oklahoma State Cowboys. The Aggies are hoping for better success at the Stanford Duals this Saturday.

UC Davis last competed at the Stanford Duals in the 2006-2007 season where they lost to No. 23 Lehigh and Columbia but defeated the Cardinal. The Aggies will not face a ranked opponent this weekend as they take on Drexel (3-7), Columbia (0-5) and Stanford (3-8).

Head coach Lennie Zalesky is excited about the meet, but worried about his team competing in three consecutive duals.

“I’m a little concerned with the length of the day because it’s hard on your body,” he said. “All three teams have at least one or two ranked wrestlers and should be tough.”

Zalesky is hoping for a strong response from his team.

“We want to go in and have a good performance and pick up some wins,” he said. “It will be a good test for our guys.”

– Kyle Hyland 

Teams: UC Davis at Long Beach State

Records: Aggies, 5-7 (1-0); 49ers, 3-10 (0-2)

Where: Walter Pyramid – Long Beach, Calif.

When: Saturday at 5 p.m.

Who to watch: On a team plagued with injuries to veteran players, the Aggies will need the services of seasoned point guard Genevieve Costello if they plan to be near the top of the conference by season’s end.

A Spring Valley, Calif. native, Costello is 18-for-43 (41.9 percent) from beyond the arc and has dished out 24 assists. She was the only Aggie to score in double figures in an 84-49 loss at No. 8 Stanford on Dec. 28, dropping five three-point field goals to finish with 15 points.

Did you know? Since UC Davis started playing a Big West Conference schedule during the 2004-2005 season, the Aggies have matched up with the 49ers eight times with each team taking four of those contests.

UC Davis won both matchups between the squads last year – one game by two points and the other by three points.

Preview: After playing its first conference road game of the season yesterday, UC Davis continues Big West play away from home when they face Long Beach State at Walter Pyramid.

The 49ers are coming off their first two conference road games, having lost 66-48 to UC Santa Barbara on Friday and 74-66 to Cal Poly on Sunday.

Freshman Adelle Walton was a bright spot for the 49ers, scoring a career-high and team-high 16 points on 3-for-3 shooting from downtown against the Mustangs.

Long Beach State’s leading scorer, Whitney Fields added 14 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for the double-double.

The transfer from Arizona will be matched up against UC Davis‘ top post player in Paige Mintun.

Mintun is averaging 13.3 points per game and 6.8 boards per contest, leading the team in both categories. She scored career-high 25 points in an 86-66 win over Cal State Northridge on Sunday while grabbing 10 rebounds to go along with seven assists, six steals and three blocks.

UC Davis could use more of the same from Mintun from here on out, as Haylee Donaghe will miss the rest of the season due to a knee injury.

The Aggies are most recently off of a ____ (win/loss) against UC Riverside.

_______ scored ______ points and had _________ (rebounds/assists/steals) to lead the Aggies.

–Max Rosenblum

Teams: UC Davis vs. Long Beach State

Records: Aggies, 5-9 (0-1); 49ers, 7-7 (2-0)

Where: The Pavilion

When: Saturday at 7 p.m.

TV: Comcast SportsNet

Radio: KFSG (1690 AM)

Who to watch: He stands just 5-foot-10, but Ryan Silva came up big when the Aggies needed him.

A sophomore guard from Clayton, Calif., Silva netted a career-high 19 points on 7-for-10 shooting in a 84-81 UC Davis loss to Cal State Northridge.

The Matadors, who beat the Aggies by a combined 55 points in two games last season, were voted the preseason No. 1 team in the Big West Conference by unanimous decision.

Did you know? If you come to Saturday’s contest at the Pavilion, chances are you could walk away with more than you came with.

Aggie Pack will be giving away free lift tickets to Sugar Bowl, two season passes and snowboard jackets, boots and apparel, courtesy of GroundZero.

There will also be a body paint contest and a Greek competition in which the fraternity and sorority with the highest turnout win prizes. For more information, check out Aggie Pack’s website, aggiepack.com.

Preview: Home has been where the heart is for Long Beach State, as the 49ers are 6-1 at the Walter Pyramid versus a 1-6 mark on the road. The lone Long Beach State road win this season came at Idaho State on Nov. 25 in double overtime, 88-82.

The 49ers have started conference play on the right foot, knocking off Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara en route to a 2-0 record.

Long Beach State is led by preseason all-conference selection Donovan Morris. The senior guard is pacing the 49ers in scoring (16.1 points per game) and foul shooting (87.5 percent free throw rate).

UC Davis‘ starting backcourt also knows a thing or two about scoring.

Senior Vince Oliver and sophomore Mark Payne have combined for an average of 29.8 points in the Aggies past five games, meaning this contest has potential to become the latest high scoring affair on the UC Davis schedule.

The Aggies (72.2 points per game) and 49ers (71.3 points per game) rank third and fourth in the conference in scoring, respectively.

– Adam Loberstein 

Dominic Calegari just wanted to keep playing.

By his own evaluation, he had been nothing more than a role player for his high school basketball team. Best-case scenario: he would walk-on at UC Davis or Cal Poly, help out on the scout team and that would be that.

Fortunately for Calegari, he didn’t exactly get what he wanted.

One of his teachers knew UC Davis head coach Gary Stewart, and she arranged a meeting. When that meeting arrived, Calegari walked into Stewart’s office with his lean 6-foot-10 frame, showed Stewart his film, and then took a tour of the campus. By the end of the day, he was offered a spot on the team.

It was a perfect fit.

Back then, Calegari and UC Davis were still developing. Both had room to get bigger, room to get stronger and both were still years away from finding consistent success on the basketball court.

Four years later, Calegari, a junior, is entrenched as the starting power forward for the Aggies, the fastest rising team in the Big West Conference.

Calegari and UC Davis are now bigger, stronger and hungrier than ever as they sit on the cusp of bringing back the winning tradition to a program with measured success at the Division II level.

Leading up to Saturday night’s televised home game against Long Beach State, Calegari sat down with Aggie Staff Writer Michael Gehlken to discuss how far he and the team have come. For Calegari, it is a journey that began on the ground, courtesy of 6-foot-9, 230-pound forward Jesse Lopez Low.

From an outsider’s point of view, looking at this team and comparing it to ones in years past, this is a completely different brand of basketball you guys are playing. In terms of the team, in terms of the program, this has just been one big turnaround.

Oh yeah. It’s just like, with the additions of Joe [Harden] and Todd [Lowenthal], and the experience with Mark [Payne] winning Freshman of the Year last year, and last year playing together and kind of getting a feel for each other, and then also playing in the spring – we knew in the spring what we had, and we knew it was the best by far that we’ve experienced. It’s really just a matter of executing because we know we’ve got what it takes. It’s been really frustrating so far to not win the games that we should be winning, which I feel like are the majority of them. We’ve had so many close games, but it hurts to lose each one. With each opportunity that comes, we want it that much more.

The conference schedule just began, but you guys didn’t hesitate to make an early statement, going on the road and giving a major scare to Cal State Northridge, the preseason conference favorite. After a pair of lopsided defeats to that same team last year, what do you take out of that 84-81 loss?

We went into the place kind of wanting revenge from last year because both times we played them, we didn’t really perform up to par. We definitely got blown out last year, so we had a chip in our shoulder going into it. We had the mentality going into the year that it’s really up in the air in the conference. There are no real favorites. We feel like we’re just as qualified to win it as everyone else, and we’ve stuck with that mindset. Looking back on it, we really feel like we should have won that game. We gave up so many transition points. We knew that’s what they were going to do. We gave up turnovers that turned into points. There’s a lot of mistakes that we made that kind of gave them the game, so we came away feeling good that we were able to play that poorly and stay that close.

Of all the teams in the conference, is there one you most want a win over this season?

I felt like Northridge at Northridge was a big one – we really wanted to win that one– but definitely Pacific. Obviously it’s a pretty huge rivalry, and to not have beaten them in so many years [68], it’s pretty astounding. Even in the past couple of years, they haven’t been that much better than us, and to lose by 40-something at their place last year was pretty ridiculous. Going up against them this year is going to be a lot of fun.

There are five seniors on the roster, including Kyle [Brucculeri] and Michael [Boone], who have been with the program for five years. How important is it to send that group off on a high note?

Pretty important because I’m going to be there next year, and I already know that I’m going to want to be respected like that and feel like the team is playing for me and to send me off on a good note. I’ve seen it already with a bunch of seniors that have already graduated. The way they finished, it’s got to be pretty bitter for them. And obviously, they’re only a year older than I am, so I’m really close to them, and I feel for them. I definitely want to be able to do it for them.

You’ve gotten noticeably bigger since first stepping foot onto campus. Even comparing your frame for last season to this season, you can see a difference. How many pounds have you put on?

From the end of the season last year until the beginning of the season this year, there’s probably 15 pounds that I’ve put on. It’s been wavering a little bit because I got sick for a little while, and then just the grinding and the practicing and everything of the season. I’m trying to keep it on, and it’s definitely helped out. I can battle a little bit more inside now, so it’s definitely noticeable.… I’ve put on 20 or 25 [pounds] since I got here.

Was that an early conversation you had with the coaching staff, getting in the weight room, putting on that weight, and then throwing it around in the post?

Yeah, absolutely. [laughs] I remember the summer I got here right after high school, I was playing in a pickup game. It was the first time I had ever stepped foot on campus to meet the guys, and they threw me into a pickup game with Jesse Lopez Low, and Gus Argenal was the coach. I just remember I was matched up against Jesse, and in the first transition play, he gave me a forearm, and I just went flying [laughs]. Just sprawled out across the ground, did a couple of tumbles, and so I knew right at that point that I needed to put on some serious weight if I was going to try to battle with some of the guys in the conference.

Coach Stewart doesn’t like to talk about team goals, but maybe you do. What are some things the team looks to do every night it’s out on the floor, and by the end of year, what does this team want to have accomplished?

We definitely want to win the conference. That’s been our goal since the beginning of the year, since we went to Europe. We’ve been talking about that and making it to the NCAA Tournament. That’s been our goal since everyone’s gotten here, since we’ve gone Division I.

From a game-to-game basis, just play our asses off pretty much. Just play as hard as we can and see what happens after that. We feel like we have the talent. I mean, our talent matches up with any other team and has been better than a lot of the teams we’ve played. It’s just a matter of going out there and executing.

MICHAEL GEHLKEN can be reached at sports@theaggie.org. 

Teams: UC Davis at California, Sacramento State

Where: Haas Pavilion – Berkeley, Calif.

When: Saturday at 7 p.m.

Who to watch: After advancing to the NCAA West Regional and being named the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Gymnast of the Year in 2007, senior co-captain Andi Dolinsky had her sights set even higher for the 2008 campaign.

Due to a torn meniscus and a bulging disc, however, that was not to be.

After sitting out practically the entire 2008 season, Dolinsky is back and ready to make her senior campaign her best one yet.

“She’s had a string of little things that added up,” said head coach John Lavallee, “but she’s done a very good job in practice and I think we’ll probably see a similar performance to what we saw two years ago.“

Did you know? In their last meet as a full team in 2008, the Aggies set a school record 194.700 en route to their first MPSF team title in school history.

The team score is determined by adding the score of the four apparatuses – vault, bars, beam and floor – which are in turn determined by the scores of the top five individuals on each apparatus, though six athletes can compete.

Preview: Saturday’s season debut should be quite the test for the reigning MPSF champs, as both Sacramento State and California received votes in the national polls.

“I think competing against nationally ranked teams will only make us stronger,” said senior co-captain Adee Schoffman. “We have no room for slacking off. Hopefully, we will just perform the same way we have been in the gym.“

That optimism extends far past this weekend to the entirety of the season.

“This is the strongest team we have had since I’ve been here,” Schoffman said. “I think we can expect some new records this year. I also would like to see my team make it to regionals this year and sweep the conference championship again.“

Though big scores and accolades are likely on the horizon, Aggie fans shouldn’t expect another 194 this week.

“The reality is that this is our first meet of the year,” Lavallee said, “so we’re not necessarily looking for our best performance of the year. Really, we need to come out and compete well.“

This is especially true for Dolinsky, after sitting out nearly a full season.

“I pretty much spent the whole summer in physical therapy and not training in the gym,” Dolinsky said, “so my personal goal is just to get back into things. I’d love to get a super high score, but the first step is just to stay on my feet.“

Let’s hope she does – it’s a 0.5 point deduction for a fall.

– Alex Wolf-Root 

Headline: Women’s basketball preview

Teams: UC Davis at UC Riverside

Records: Aggies, 5-7 (1-0); Highlanders, 5-9 (1-1)

Where: Student Recreation Center Gym – Riverside, Calif.

When: Tonight at 7 p.m.

Who to watch: After missing 10 games in a row due to injury, freshman Vicky Deely made her return worthwhile.

In her first game since Nov. 14, Deely scored 12 points, grabbed three rebounds and committed zero fouls in an efficient 19 minutes of play, fueling UC Davis’ 86-66 victory over Cal State Northridge in its Big West Conference opener.

Did you know? The last time these two teams matched up was on Mar. 14 in the semifinal round of the Big West Tournament in Anaheim, Calif. The Aggies won 63-53.

Eight days earlier, UC Davis beat UC Riverside in its regular season finale at the Pavilion to wrap up the No. 2 seed in the conference.

Preview: After losing five games in a row to end the month of December, the Aggies look to be back on track in January as conference play begins to heat up.

UC Davis opened up Big West play at home by defeating Cal State Northridge, giving head coach Sandy Simpson his 200th career victory.

The Aggies shot 48 percent from the floor as a team, and 53 percent from beyond the arc.

Now, UC Davis heads south to face rival UC Riverside.

On Mar. 6 of last season, over 1,000 people packed the Pavilion to see the Aggies upend the Highlanders and advance straight to the semifinal round in the conference tournament.

The Aggies will be trying to do the same this season, but with a team that has a completely different look. UC Davis is comprised of seven freshmen and only four upper classmen.

UC Riverside on the other hand is made up of eight seniors out of 15 roster players.

The Highlanders are led offensively by senior Kemie Nkele, who leads the team in scoring (16.4 points per game) and rebounding (7.9 boards per game).

–Max Rosenblum