Add Rebecca Donnelly, a 6’1” wing from Sydney, Australia to the 2026 recruiting class. Playing in the Northern Suburbs Basketball Association, Donnelly was named the league’s Junior Player of the Year this season. She was recently selected by Basketball Australia to participate in the FIBA U17 Oceania Championships this December.

TY!

The UCD Worm's Volleyball team returns home for the final week of the regular season, still in 1st place. On Thursday, the Aggies host 5th place CSUN (9-7 BW; 16-11 overall). A win clinches at least a tie for the regular season championship.

GO AGS!

For sure! Vic was on the floor twice after loose balls in her initial 2 minute stint, picking up a foul each time. Taking 5 minutes to get her last 3 fouls, was actually an improvement! Hope she got some of her frustration from missing 3 games out of her system.

Getting her back will improve the second unit. She can play all 3 of the backcourt positions, and with her length and willing physicality, can even guard some small 4's.

Always hate to lose, but Gross and staff will use this as a valuable, and probably necessary, learning experience for a young team. Offense wasn't the problem as the Aggies put up 77 points with solid numbers in each quarter. The problems were lights out shot-making by the Broncos coupled with uncharacteristically poor defense by UCD. Boise shot 54% from the field (+12% over season average) and 61% from beyond the arc (+96%)>. Those averages INCUDE last night's game, so even more over what BSU was shooting coming into the contest.

Takeaways:

• Vic Baker played 7 minutes after missing the first 3 games with an injured ankle. Hopefully, she came out with no setback in her recovery. Brought her usual intensity, but definitely rusty and tried too hard - typical Vic; 5 fouls in her 7 minutes. Another healthy body can only be a good thing, especially as Vic settles in and SETTLES DOWN.

• Emmy Ersdala continues to impress, get more playing time, and make a case for even more.

• Theoni Tsami is moving more naturally and playing more confidently with each game, even with limited minutes, as she works back from last season's knee injury. Both she and Carrington Davis got minutes last night, which is all to the good, longterm.

• The Aggies have an incredible starting backcourt. Ryann Bennett, Nya Epps and Avery Sussex are each averaging 13.8 ppg or more, and are all above 48% from the field, 37.5% from 3, and 83% from the line. Add in sterling defense from Epps and Bennett, and some consistent rebounding from Sussex. Pretty special group!

• A little concern about Megan Norris. I noticed tape on her hamstring in the opener and last night she was wearing a legging on the same leg. Hopefully something minor that she'll get over.

Lost opportunity last night to put a stranglehold on the regular season championship. Now the Aggies have to win out to keep the #1 seed for the BW Tournament.

Hoping for aan energetic bounce-back tonight against the Tritons.

GO AGS!

UCSB over Cal Poly in 5 sets! The Aggies have a 2 match lead over the Mustangs with 4 matches left to play. Tomorrow’s match at CSULB is HUGE!

The Aggies signed all four of their current commits to financial aid offers, so those players are in the fold. Or at least as much in the fold as possible anymore. If someone gets a better offer after an outstanding senior season? Who knows???

Layla Dixon (6'0" wing from Carondelet) seems pretty excited, as she posted to the Instagram sites of her 3 fellow commits.

This links to an article about Marta Forsline signing with the Aggies: https://www.mesabitribune.com/sports/forsline-signs-with-d-i-uc-davis/article_9c69e0bd-4b8e-4a7b-b145-88f5ad635d1b.html

Eliminating/reducing the sloppy/careless turnovers always needs to be a point of emphasis. 12-15 a game is considered the acceptable range. Any game with more than 18 is a problem.

Abridge, thanks for the information, though your post is definitely concerning, as well as sad for those ladies. So much upside with this group, but getting through a season with only nine healthy players is dicey. And currently, Jen Gross really only has a 7-player rotation. Hopefully Tsami and Davis will get to where they can take up some of the minutes.

The short bench should pay some longterm dividends, since the Aggies will return a very experienced core group for Y1 in the Mountain West. But it's imperative we get at least one experienced post player through the portal for next year. IMHO. Right now, incoming freshman Marta Forsline is next year's starting post, with a significant drop in size behind her. Ally Fitzgerald just can't be counted on being available. For her own longterm health, it's questionable if she should continue to try to play. Maybe the same with Sahana.

The turnovers annoy me as well, but it’s what you’re going to get running the Princeton offense.

Back door cuts are not an easy completion. Beautiful when you connect, but it’s always a bang-bang play through lots of bodies into a tight window. Seldom any margin for error.

It looks like the defense clamped down after the first quarter. Boise State will be much tougher. Kind of like the young Aggies going into that contest feeling they played poorly tonight.

Early signing period starts Wednesday, Nov. 12, runs through Wednesday, November 19.

Another crucial week on the road,for the Aggies as they try to win their first ever Big West regular season championship - and their first championship of any kind since 1996.

On Friday, Davis takes on Long Beach, currently tied for 3rd with Santa Barbara, after dropping matches to both the Gaichos and Cal Poly last week. Mathematically still in the race, a loss to the Aggies ends title hopes for the Beach. Davis took the match in Davis, 3-1.

[Correction: The day before, on Thursday evening], Santa Barbara hosts 2nd place Cal Poly in a must win for both teams. A CP loss, coupled with an Aggie victory, would put UCD two matches ahead in the standings with only 3 left to play. A CP win puts the pressure on the Aggies since Cal Poly holds the tie-breaker.

The Age follow-up on Saturday at UCSD, which took UCD to a 5th set earlier in the year. Davis were twice down a set before coming back to win.

An Aggie sweep this week would all but clinch the regular season championship.

GO AGS!!

Cal Poly in straight sets.

The Beach down 2 sets to Cal Poly.

The Aggies take 3 straight from the Anteaters in Irvine. Tonight's Long Beach-Cal Poly match in SLO sure to be of interest to Coach Dan Connors and his team.

Sort of pulling for The Beach, since Cal Poly holds the tie-breakers over Davis. Either way, the tie for 2nd place will broken.

I couldn't go to today's game due to previous appointments. It was great to come out of lunch and see the final score.

Looks from the box score that the starters were lights out and that Lender and Ersdala did just enough. Hope we get some of the walking wounded back soon, or that Davis and Tsami get to the point where Gross feel they can play more minutes.

HUGE weekend for the Aggies. UCD needs to take care of business at UC Irvine on Friday and at Fullerton on Saturday. Long Beach travels to Cal Poly on Friday and UC Santa Barbara on Saturday. Davis winning both road matches could solidify possession of 1st place.

Idaho's win over Washington State looks like a very physical game - 53 called fouls, evenly divided. And Idaho went hard to the offensive glass - 20 boards there. The Vandals won it at the line: +4 there to offset -1 from 2 pt range. Not much D by either team - both were 40% or better both overall and from beyond the arc.

I think we'll play better team defense, - we defended them well last year, even though Mazzie missed the game. And we'll need to protect our defensive glass - again, we did last year. Beyond that, Norris needs to stay out of foul trouble, especially early. Finally, the bench is a question mark...beginning with who'll be available, and how healthy they'll be. Losing Sahana really hurts the rotation, especially if we're still short-handed. Our bench out-scored theirs 23-4 last year.

Worst case scenario, we soundly lose a game that, if healthy, would have been winnable, but the freshmen and Tsami get lots of minutes, which should be a plus in the long run, this season and beyond.

Thank you! Very kind!
However, I already spend too much time on my computer, like another contributor said on a different thread recently. As a retired AP Lit & Comp teacher, I tend to go down the rabbit hole with my posts. :>(

Also, we have grandkids spread out from Foresthill to Alameda (grades 4 - 12). Most have 1 or more activities or sports, and we try to attend as many as possible. That takes up much time. At least, Davis is pretty centrally located. For most it's admittedly just being present. But a couple seem to be pretty talented - one 9th grade granddaughter does theatre and is in the ACT youth program and the Lesher Center rep company. A 7th grade granddaughter plays soccer and is going to Spain with a travel club over Thanksgiving to play in Surf Cup International - Salou 2025.

Plus my wife actually expects me to interact with her and do things around the house! Imagine that! LOL. Best part of my day, actually.

So gotta pick my spots with AST. I finished my HS coaching with girls teams, and it was lots of fun. So gravitated there with Aggie teams.