UCD roundup: Aggies’ Fipps has the Big West’s best week

Sydnee Fipps, who drained a career-high five 3-pointers in Thursday’s win over UC Irvine and averaged 18.0 ppg in UC Davis’ two games, was named the Big West Conference Women’s Basketball Player of the Week on Monday.

Fipps, a 5-foot-10 forward from Mariposa, was instrumental in the Aggies’ comeback win at Irvine, scoring 19 points and grabbing a team-high-tying seven rebounds. The sophomore scored 12 straight points for UCD at one point in the second half of a 47-43 win.

In Saturday’s loss at Long Beach State, Fipps nailed four more treys — she finished the week hitting 56.3 percent from beyond the arc — and finished with 17 points and six rebounds.

UCD women’s golf

Senior Demi Runas played the first 36 holes of the Juli Inkster Spartan Invitational only three shots over par and was tied for eighth for the 13th-ranked Aggies on Monday at Almaden Golf and Country Club.

Runas, who was named the Big West Golfer of the Month for February last week, opened the two-day tournament with a 1-over 73 in the first round and then came back with a 74 in the afternoon. UCD was in 10th place at 35-over after rounds of 309 and 302.

Freshman Raegan Bremer posted a 76 in the second round and was one of three Aggies to improve their scores from the morning to the afternoon. She was tied for 40th at 10-over. Senior Amy Simanton and freshman Betty Chen had matching scores of 79 and 76 in the two rounds and were tied for 43rd at 11-over, while junior Jessica Chulya was tied for 62nd at 17-over.

UCD women’s tennis

The Aggies stormed back to win the last three singles matches on Sunday at San Jose State, pulling off an exciting, 4-3 come-from-behind victory.

After losing the doubles point, UCD (5-7) got a singles win from Megan Heneghan when her opponent at No. 1 retired due to injury, but the Aggies still fell behind 3-1 to the Spartans (7-4).

That’s when Melissa Kobayakawa got the local comeback started with a 6-1, 6-2 victory at No. 5. UCD’s Nicole Koehly then rebounded from a 6-1 first-set loss to win consecutive 6-2 sets and tie the match at 3-3, putting the Aggies’ fate in the hands of Layla Sanders.

In the decisive match, Sanders took the first set, 6-1, but dropped the second, 7-5, before clinching the UCD win with a 6-4 victory in the final set.

UCD softball

The Aggies won a 5-1 contest at St. Mary’s in the first game of a Saturday doubleheader before falling 1-0 in the nightcap at Cottrell Field in Moraga.

Justine Vela started and earned the Game 1 win for UCD (9-10), nearly posting a two-hit shutout before allowing a run in the bottom of the seventh. She had eight strikeouts.

The Aggies, meanwhile scored all of their runs in the third fourth and fifth innings as first baseman Amy Nunez went 3-for-4 with a double and an RBI, and Cassandra Ginnis and Chandler Wagner each had a pair of hits. Wagner and Kayla Tyler each knocked in runs, while Tyler, Kelly Schulze, Krista Bava and Christa Castello added hits.

The split pushes the Aggies’ record to 9-10. St. Mary’s is now 3-9.

Game 2 was a pitchers’ duel between UCD’s Leah Munden and Jessica Lemmon of the Gaels (3-9).

Munden gave up just three hits in six innings, but one of them was a home run in the fifth that ended up being the only run of the contest.

UCD swimming

The depth of the Aggies was on display at last weekend’s Juanita Allington Memorial Senior Meet in Clovis, as the UCD swimmers who didn’t compete at the MPSF Championships — which the locals won — got a chance to shine.

Cara Silvas highlighted the Aggie performance, winning the 1,650-yard freestyle in 16:56.17 on Sunday, after taking second place in the 500 free on Saturday.

Also on Sunday, UCD’s Madeline Benavidez, competing in four of the day’s six events, posting her highest finish (seventh) in the 100 breaststroke. Also in that event was local sophomore Ali Paris, who took 10th. Paris added a first-place finish in her heat of the 200 individual medley — setting a personal record in 2:11.41 — a day after finishing third in the 200 butterfly and 400 IM on Saturday.

In group events, the Aggies had two of the top three times in the 400 medley relay on Sunday as the A team of Joann Liang, Caroline Weston, Paris and Sarah Winters captured second place, just ahead of Sarah Luibel, Benavidez, Cora Stebbins and Jessica Nicholson.

UCD track and field

Sophomore Veronica Smart was a double winner in the field events for the Aggies, while Ethan Ostrom and Ben Parodi each won field events for the UCD men, as the locals kicked off the outdoor season on Saturday at the Stanford Opener.

Additionally, the Aggie women picked up a pair of wins in distance events as Katie Fry captured the 1,500-meter race and Raquel Lambdin won the 3,000. Smart’s two victories came in the shot put and hammer throw, while Ostrom took first in the pole vault, and Parodi was victorious in the shot put.

The competition was the first of the season for UCD, which hosts the Aggie Open next weekend.