
UCD's Ashley Kawasaki — shown here in an early-season outing — had the game's only goal as the Aggies edged UC Santa Barbara, 1-0, on Sunday at Aggie Soccer Field. Wayne Tilcock/Enterprise file photo
Ashley Kawasaki’s aggressive, heads-up play on a UC Davis counterattack midway through the first half of Sunday’s Big West women’s soccer season finale at Aggie Soccer Field led to the game’s only goal as the Aggies extended their win streak over UC Santa Barbara to four matches with their 1-0 victory.
The win ended the careers of UCD’s eight-member senior class — Kiele Argente, Stephanie Bell, Bridget Berman, Ashley Edwards, Hannah Hicks, Kirsten Holmberg, Emily Irion and Mary Beth Mazurek — and was the 200th of head coach Maryclaire Robinson’s career. The Aggies finished the 2013 season at 6-9-3 and 3-5-1 in the Big West.
The game-winning play originated with goalie Taylor Jern creating a UCD counterattack with a long ball that covered nearly two-thirds of the field before striking the turf.
Realizing that three players, racing at full speed head-on, were about to converge on the ball at the same time, Kawasaki wisely peeled off to the side to avoid colliding with a Gauchos defender and the goalie. After the two players collided, Kawasaki calmly sent the ball into the open net.
UCD men’s tennis
The Pacific Tiger Invitational had a decided UCD flair on the final day as five Aggie men’s tennis players came home with titles and three more made the championship match on Sunday to close out the fall portion of the locals’ 2013-14 season.
UCD’s top-seeded duo of freshman Alec Adamson and sophomore Adam Levie claimed the main draw doubles title while freshman James Wade in Flight A and the duo of seniors Adam Luba and Kyle Miller each claimed consolation crowns.
Levie added a title in Flight C main flight singles on Saturday.
UCD men’s soccer
Junior Matt Sheldon netted his team-high fifth score of the season midway through the second half, but a late equalizer by host UC Santa Barbara forced overtime and the Aggies played the No. 14 Gauchos to a 1-1 draw on Saturday night.
UCD (6-8-3, 2-4-2 Big West Conference) retained possession of the third and final playoff spot in the North Division with the draw, but fell three points behind second-place Cal Poly (and a host’s role for the first round) heading into Wednesday’s 2 p.m. home finale against the Mustangs.
On Saturday, Sheldon got UCD on the board first in the 71st minute off a cross from redshirt freshman Dashiell MacNamara.
The advantage did not last for long, however, as the Gauchos struck for the tying score 11 minutes later.
UCD women’s volleyball
Senior opposite Devon Damelio was voted the Big West Conference women’s volleyball Player of the Week for the period ending Sunday, marking the second straight week an Aggie earned the nod. Mary Schroeder won the award last week.
Damelio, a Fairfield native who prepped at Rodriguez, matched teammates Schroeder and Valerie Brain with a team-leading 12 kills in UCD’s three-set sweep of UC Riverside on Thursday, then had career highs of 28 kills and 24 digs in Saturday’s five-game win over Cal State Fullerton.
UCD field hockey
By recording her career-high fourth goal and second assist of the season in a win over Pacific in Friday’s season finale, Aggie sophomore forward Stephie Sabraw was named the NorPac West Division’s Offensive Player of the Week.
UCD, the second-seeded team in the West Division, will open this year’s NorPac Championships with an 8 a.m. Thursday contest against Radford, the East Division’s No. 3 seed. All tournament games will be played at Liberty Field Hockey Field in Lynchburg, Va.