Nov. 18, 2005
HOUSTON - Junior outside hitter Maina Heming had a career-high 19 kills and 16 digs for ninth-seeded UCF, but it was not enough as top-seeded Marshall rallied for a 3-2 (24-30, 23-30, 30-25, 30-23, 15-10) win against the Golden Knights on Friday in the quarterfinal round of the Conference USA Volleyball Championship at Autry Court on the campus of Rice University.
UCF (9-18) won the first two games in the best-of-five match before Marshall (24-5) rebounded to spoil the Golden Knights' upset bid.
"We played phenomenal in games one and two and just couldn't maintain it," UCF coach Meg Colado said. "We stopped passing well after the second game and its hard for us to run our offense if we are not passing very well, especially against a team that is offensively driven."
Sophomore outside hitter Schanell Neiderworder also had 19 kills and added 13 digs, while sophomore outside hitter Lorin Lukas, who missed the two regular season meetings against Marshall with injuries, finished the match with 14 kills and 11 digs. Junior setter Leah Alexander had a match-high 59 assists.
Marshall was paced by Nickie Sanlin's 18 kills. Strong blocking and a good defensive effort by UCF throughout helped hold C-USA Player-of-the-Year Kelly-Anne Billingy to only 14 kills on 55 attempts, but four of those came in the deciding game after the teams were tied at five points apiece.
"We did end up holding the player of the year to a .055 hitting percentage which was fantastic for a five-game match," Colado said. "Unfortunately, in game five she kind of ran away with it."
UCF came into the match on a high-note after topping eighth-seeded Memphis, the only C-USA team to beat Marshall during the regular season, 3-1 Thursday, while the Herd had a first-round bye. It was the first match between UCF and Marshall this year when UCF had its full compliment of players.
"Overall, it was a good effort to push the number one team to five games and make it so close," Colado added. "It was a good showing and I think it says a lot for our future."