UCD roundup: Aggie women take second at Big West meet

RIVERSIDE — Sarah Sumpter finished second overall, with teammate Alycia Cridebring in third, to lead the UC Davis women’s cross country team to a second-place finish at the Big West Championships on Saturday

Davis High graduate Trevor Halsted paced the Aggie men to a fourth-place finish at the event, which was contested at the UC Riverside Ag/Ops Course in Riverside.

Sumpter finished the women’s 6K race in 19:44.4, while Cridebring crossed the line in 20:13.8. Katie Fry also finished in the top five, clocking in at 20:24.6 to finish fifth overall.

Cal Poly’s Laura Hollander won the individual event to lead the Mustang women to their first team title since 2001.

Rounding out the scorers for the UCD women were freshman Christine Hoffman (17th in 21:04.9) and Lauren Wallace (19th, 21:04.9).

Halsted was sixth overall in a time of 24:23.3 to lead the Aggie men. He was joined in the top 25 by freshman Brandon Pugh, who was 13th in 24:39.8 and Cody Nguyen (22nd in 25:21.4).

“Trevor paced the men again (Saturday) with a top-10 effort and we saw youth carry us through the middle with Brandon, Cody and Jordon (Rushing),” said UCD head coach Drew Wartenburg. “The desired team objective proved a bit elusive and will require a willingness to put forth a more assertive and concerted race.”

Nathan Strum (25:37) and Rushing (25:40) were 27th and 28th and former Blue Devil Grayson Hough was 40th in 26:10.1.

Cal Poly also claimed the men’s team title as the Mustangs swept the top three places in the men’s 8K event.

The Aggies will host the Doc Adams Open on Saturday at the Putah Creek Reserve Course, before traveling to the NCAA West Regional meet in Seattle on Nov. 9.

UCD volleyball

Junior outside hitter Devon Damelio tallied 11 kills with a .579 hitting average, while senior Allison Whitson matched that offensive total to lead the Aggies to a 25-13, 25-15, 25-16 sweep over UC Riverside in a Big West Conference match at SRC Arena Saturday night.

Damelio committed no hitting errors on 19 attempts for her match-high attacking efficiency. For her part, Whitson had only three attack errors to finish at .308, while sophomore middle blocker Victoria Lee went 6-for-9 with no errors. As a team, UCD (12-12, 6-5) hit .326, including a .435 clip in the third set. Furthermore, the Aggies finished with 10.5 team blocks to help hold UCR to a .063 hitting average while converting 73.3 percent of their side-out opportunities.

It was the second win on two days for UCD following a 22-25, 26-24, 25-15, 25-19 victory over Cal State Fullerton on Friday at Titan Gym.

Whitson contributed 15 kills and a career-high 19 digs in that contest, while sophomore middle blocker Katie Quinn provided .312 hitting on 16 swings with a match-high seven stuffs.

UCD swimming

Aggie distance standouts Samantha Shellem and Marissa Brown picked up event wins in the 500-yard and 1,000-yard freestyle, respectively, but San Jose State claimed all other individual events plus both relays to take a 208-92 victory over host UCD in a dual meet at Schaal Aquatics Center on Saturday.

Brown, a freshman, posted a time of 10 minutes, 17.08 seconds to claim a seven-second win in the 1,000 in the first individual event of the day. Shellem, a junior from La Verne, went 5:00.29 in the second distance free event, roughly a full second ahead of Brown’s 5:01.25. The two swimmers accounted for 23 of the Aggies’ points.

Sophomore Hilary Hunt added a pair of second-place finishes in the two backstroke events for UCD, while junior Liliana Alvarez matched those finishes in the breaststroke races. Her 100 time of 1:03.86 was a mere 13-hundredths behind Spartan Darcie Anderson.

Saturday’s meet marked the season debut for the Aggie divers. Freshman Hanna Tears led UCD on both boards, scoring 258.75 on 1-meter and 257.10 on 3-meter to place third in each event.

The Aggies hit the road next for back-to-back double duals at UCLA and Loyola Marymount next weekend.

UCD women’s soccer

Kiele Argente scored her fourth goal of the season to help the Aggies get within a goal of Cal State Fullerton in the second half, but UCD couldn’t find the equalizer as the Titans posted a 2-1 Big West Conference win on Friday afternoon at Aggie Soccer Field.

The Aggies (7-9-2, 2-5-1) were looking for their first win since Oct. 5, while the Titans (9-8-0, 6-2-0) looking to not only secure a conference tournament berth, but possibly win the league’s regular-season title.

Adriana Gjonovich scored her third goal of the season in the 42nd minute while JeAnne Mazeau added a goal off a direct kick in the 58th to account for Fullerton’s scoring.

With the Titans up 2-0, UCD halved the lead in the 71st minute when Argente fired in a straightaway shot from 20 yards out. The Aggies were only able to get one shot the rest of the way, however, as Fullerton held on for the win.

Goalie Taylor Jern made four saves for UCD, which will end its 2012 season on Sunday by hosting UC Riverside at 2 p.m.

UCD field hockey

The Aggies were unable to clinch second place in the NorPac West Divsion on Friday as host California defeated UCD, 6-0.

Both teams are now 6-11 with just the Aggies’ game against Pacific on Sunday remaining in the regular season. Cal finished its league season with a 2-4 record, the same as Pacific, while UCD slipped to 2-3. An Aggie win on Sunday will clinch the West Division’s No. 2 seed heading into next week’s conference championship tournament at Longwood. If Pacific beats the Aggies, it’ll force a three-way tie for second behind unbeaten Stanford, bringing into play tiebreakers.

Cal jumped out to a quick lead, scoring just 63 seconds into Friday’s contest.

UCD goalie Danielle Herrington had four saves, while Emily Mecke and Casey Wollbrinck each had two shots on goal.

Sunday’s game against Pacific begins at 1 p.m.