March 10, 2008

Complete Big West Conference release in PDF Format

DAVIS, Calif. -- Senior Jessica Campbell was honored on the All-Big West Conference women's basketball first team, junior Haylee Donaghe earned second-team honors, senior Heather Bates was selected honorable mention and Sandy Simpson was named coach of the year, it was announced on Monday morning.

The awards were announced during the league's media conference call in advance of this week's Big West Tournament at Anaheim. UC Davis was eligible for conference awards for the first time since playing in the California Collegiate Athletic Association in its NCAA Division II era. The Aggies are in just their first year of Div. I competition and their first official year in the nine-team Big West Conference.

The awards come on top off a season in which UC Davis has posted an 18-10 overall record and enter this week's Big West Tournament as the No. 2 seed with an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships awarded to the tournament winner.

Campbell, a 5-foot-11 wing from San Marcos, is second in the conference with a 14.9 ppg average, leads in free throw percentage at 87.7 percent and is second in field goal percentage at .528. She has twice been named the Big West Conference Player of the Week and has scored at least 20 points in seven games, including 29 at Saint Mary's in December. Campbell ranks on the program's all-time charts for scoring, rebounding, assists and blocked shots.

Campbell, who redshirted last year, was named All-Division I Independent honorable mention in 2005-06 and is a two-time honoree on the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District VIII team.

Donaghe, a 5-10 wing from Atascadero, leads the Big West in steals at 2.75 per game, having totaled 77 swipes in 28 games. She's second on the team in scoring at 13.0 pg and is among the league-leaders in field goal percentage (.472) and scoring. Donaghe had 11 straight double-figure games earlier this season, including back-to-back games of 23 and 22 points against Saint Mary's and San Francisco, respectively.

Bates, a 5-11 wing from Madera, was named honorable mention after averaging 10.1 points and a team-high 5.2 rebounds. She also led the team with 43 three-pointers and is among the Big West leaders for rebounds, steals (1.89), three-point percentage (.333) and three-pointers made (1.59). Bates had a season-high 22 points in UC Davis' win over Cal State Fullerton on Feb. 16, two weeks after scoring 21 against Pacific. She had five three-pointers at Cal Sate Northridge in early February.

Simpson is in his 11th season as the Aggies' head coach and owns a 194-113 (.632) career record. After serving as interim coach in 1996-97 and leading UC Davis to a third-place finish at the NCAA Division II Championships with a 29-3 record, Simpson took over on a permanent basis in 1998. He guided UC Davis through its four-year reclassification to Div. I status, including posting an 11-5 record against Big West teams in 2005-06 which would've tied the Aggies for the regular-season title had they been officlal members of the conference.

He is the second-winningest women's basketball coach at UC Davis.

Campbell was joined on the first team by Seyram Gbewonyo (UC Riverside), Megan Harrison (Cal Poly), Kat Suderman (UC Santa Barbara), Jessica Wilson (UC Santa Barbara) and Toni Thomas (Cal State Fullerton). Wilson was named the Big West Player of the Year while Lauren Chow of Cal State Fullerton was voted the freshman of the year.

The Aggies will open the Big West Tournament on Friday afternoon against the highest-remaining team, not including No. 1 UCSB. UC Davis' game will follow the Gauchos' semifinal matchup which begins at noon.

UC Davis is the No. 2 seed in the eight-team event and will play on Friday afternoon in the tournament semifinals. The Big West Tournament winner earns an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships.