Sports briefs: Nation’s No. 1 women’s team is at The Pavilion tonight

Coming off of in last weekend’s Houston Baptist Husky Classic — where the UC Davis women’s basketball team posted its first two wins of the year — the Aggies return to Hamilton Court tonight for their toughest test of the season.

UCD (2-2) hosts Stanford, the top-ranked team in the country, at 7 p.m.

The 6-0 Cardinal have won the last six contests against the Aggies, including a 93-44 home victory exactly one year ago and an 86-59 triumph in the first round of the 2011 NCAA Tournament. Stanford last visited The Pavilion in 2009, posting a 76-51 win.

This year’s Cardinal squad is paced by Preseason All-American Chiney Ogwumike, a 6-foot-3 junior forward who is averaging 19.8 points and 11.7 rebounds a game. Chiney is the younger sister of former Stanford star Nnemkadi Ogwumike, who averaged 17.7 points in those last three wins over UC Davis.

UCD, meanwhile, has been paced by sophomore sensation Sydnee Fipps. She is coming off of a career-high 28-point outing in the Aggies’ win over Houston Baptist on Saturday and is averaging 21.8 ppg.

In winning their past two games, the locals also got a boost from the return of senior Cortney French, who averaged 19.5 points on Friday and Saturday, making 8-of-17 from 3-point range to earn the tournament’s MVP award.

Though Stanford has dominated the recent matchups between the two teams, UCD actually holds an 8-6 edge in the all-time series.

UCD men’s soccer

For the second consecutive season, Aggie senior Mustafa Chopan has been named to the Capital One Academic All-America Division I Team, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America.

After earning a third-team selection in 2011, Chopan’s 3.94 grade-point average in neurobiology, physiology and behavior placed him on the second team for 2012.

Chopan is the only member of a Big West Conference institution included on the Academic All-America list and joins student-athletes from such programs as Akron, UCLA, Tulsa, Notre Dame and New Mexico.

A team captain this fall, Chopan appeared in all 21 games as a defensive midfielder, recording three shots on the year. He helped UCD post six shutouts and earn a berth in the Big West Tournament championship contest.

Chopan was instrumental in the Aggies’ sweep of rivals UC Santa Barbara and Sacramento State, along with a conference tournament semifinal win over Cal State Fullerton.

Academically, he ranks in the top 1.3 percent of his class of over 2,000 seniors in the College of Biological Sciences and was a top 10 finalist for the 2012 Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholars Award.

DHS girls tennis

Back in November, the Davis High girls tennis team played four matches in the space of five days — winning three — to finish second among Sac-Joaquin Section Division I teams and earn a spot in the NorCal portion of the CIF State Tournament.

The Blue Devils’ NorCal opener originally was scheduled for Nov. 16 at the Natomas Racquet Club, but then was postponed to Friday because of rain. Now, according to DHS coach Sally Hosley, weather has forced the match to be rescheduled again — for Tuesday at 11:30 a.m. in Natomas.

The Devils will take on St. Francis of Mountain View.