Construction officially begins on a stadium for women’s field hockey; the Schaal Aquatics Center prepares for an international match, USA vs. Serbia; and Aggie teams make the grade.

Field hockey stadium officially underway — Women’s field hockey players officially dug into the ground last week to officially launch construction of a stadium all their own, one where the artificial turf is USA Field Hockey-certified.

Head coach Tiffany Huisman and Director of Athletics Terry Tumey also participated in the groundbreaking that took place Tuesday (May 20) at the southeast corner of La Rue Road and Dairy Road. The stadium is due to be completed there by the time the team reports for preseason practices in August.

Donors, parents, the Department of Athletics and the campus are contributing to the $3.2 million project.

UC Davis field hockey has held its practices and games at Aggie Stadium since varsity competition resumed in 2009. The stadium’s artificial turf, while ideal for football and lacrosse, is not so good for field hockey, which requires shorter blades — otherwise the game is slower-paced than it should be.

The new stadium’s turf will put UC Davis on par with most other collegiate programs in the country, including nationally ranked teams that will come to Davis to play instead of meeting the Aggies at Cal or Stanford.

Read the complete news release.

Water polo: USA vs. Serbia — The athletics department announced late last week that UC Davis will host an international water polo match on Thursday, June 5: the USA Men's Senior National Team vs. the defending Olympic bronze medalist Serbia.

Tickets (general admission $15) are on sale through the UC Davis Ticket Office at Aggie Stadium East, in person, online or by phone, (530) 752-AGS1 (752-2471).

USA and Serbia are playing at UC Davis’ Schaal Aquatics Center as part of a four-game series:

• Wednesday, June 4 — University of Pacific, 7 p.m.
• Thursday, June 5 — UC Davis, 7 p.m.
• Saturday, June 7 — UC Berkeley, 3 p.m.
• Sunday, June 8 — Stanford, 3 p.m.

On June 6 and 7, USA Water Polo will put on a coach-referee school at Berkeley, featuring Dan Leyson, UC Davis head coach; James Graham, Pacific head coach; Dejan Udovicic, USA head coach; and Jim Cullingham, national referee director. More information (including registration link) is available online.

Academic progress — Nineteen Aggie teams scored 970 or higher in the NCAA’s latest report on multiyear Academic Progress Rates, led by women’s tennis with a perfect 1000 — giving them team a perfect record of perfect scores in the APR’s seven-year history.

All 23 Aggie teams beat the NCAA’s benchmark score of 930 (average over two years), measuring student-athlete retention and eligibility (based on classroom performance).

Seven teams led their respective conferences: women’s tennis, women’s gymnastics (997), women’s water polo (993), women’s volleyball (989), men’s soccer (984), men’s basketball (974) and football (972).

Read the complete news release.

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