Oct. 21, 2008
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - Stephanie Serna (San Antonio, Texas), Erin Campbell (Kansas City, Mo.) and Janine Williams (Gainesville, Fla.) all tallied double-digit kills, but the UCF volleyball team fell 3-1 (23-25, 18-25, 26-24, 18-25) to visiting Florida Gulf Coast (13-6) Tuesday evening in non-conference action at The Venue at UCF. The Knights fall to 13-10 with the loss.
Serna's double-digit performance was her 14th-straight and her 16th of the season. She finished the match with 19 kills and a .455 hitting percentage. Campbell added 14 kills, while Williams added 10 in the loss.
"Stephanie had a great match," head coach Todd Dagenais said. "She had 19 kills and hit .455, it was a great match-up for her."
After rallying to force set four, UCF was unable to even the match. The Knights trailed just 13-11 before the Eagles scored seven of the next nine points to lead 20-13 and never looked back.
Down two sets, UCF trailed throughout the first half of set three. However, the Knights rallied to take a 13-12 lead on a FGCU attack error. The Knights led 23-20 before the Eagles rallied to tie the set at 23 and then 24. Campbell notched a kill to put the hosts up 25-24 before Serna and Lauren Williams combined on a set-ending block.
In set two, the Eagles went ahead early and built the lead to as much as seven at 15-8. The FGCU margin stayed there for the 25-18 victory. Serna and Campbell both had 10 kills by the end of set two, but trailed primarily due to the Eagles' .441 hitting percentage.
The Eagles hit .357 for the match while UCF registered a .236 hitting percentage. The Eagles were led by Ana Kakanovic, who finished with 22 kills while setter Roberta Santos had 14 kills and 44 assists.
FGCU charged ahead in a closely contested set one with eight of nine points to move in front 9-4 and force a UCF timeout. UCF came out of the timeout with three-straight points. A back-and-forth contest from there was tied at 23 after a late Serna kill. However, the Eagles closed out the set on a Catilin Shawyer kill. Serna had seven kills in the set alone.
Defensively for UCF, setter Andrea Youngblood (Castle Rock, Colo.) and libero Kathleen Curry (Geneva, Fla.) shared team-high honors with 12 digs. Youngblood added a game-high 56 assists for the Knights.
UCF returns to conference play and the road later this week, playing at Memphis on Friday, Oct. 24 at 8 p.m.
Season tickets for UCF's 2008 volleyball campaign at The Venue are currently available by calling the UCF athletics ticket office at 407-UCF-1000. For the latest news on the Knights, log on to www.UCFAthletics.com - the official site for UCF varsity sports. The site, which also contains ticket and Golden Knights Club donor information, is also the home of UCF's new online apparel store. Also visit www.UCFPhotos.com, the exclusive fan source for UCF action sports pictures.
Short Box Score (Match)
Florida Gulf Coast def. UCF 25-23, 25-18, 24-26, 25-18
Florida Gulf Coast (13-6) (Kills-aces-blocks) - KOKANOVIC, Ana 22-3-0; SANTOS,
Roberta 14-1-4; SHAWVER, Catilin 10-1-2; YANCE, Ashley 8-2-5; CAMPBELL, Audrey 8-0-
3; JENKS, Cheyenne 2-0-1; Totals 64-7-8.0. (Assists) - SANTOS, Roberta 44.
(Dig leaders) - JENKS, Cheyenne 13; SANTOS, Roberta 10; YOUNGQUIST, Holly 9
UCF (13-10) (Kills-aces-blocks) - Serna, Stephanie 19-0-1; Campbell, Erin 14-0-1;
Williams, Janine 10-0-0; Williams, Lauren 8-0-1; Heppert, Jenny 7-1-2;
Reinders, Melissa 0-2-0; Curry, Kathleen 0-2-0; Youngblood, Andrea 0-0-1;
Totals 58-5-3.0. (Assists) - Youngblood, Andrea 56. (Dig leaders) - CURRY,
Kathleen 12; Youngblood, Andrea 12
Site: Orlando, Fla. (The Venue at UCF)
Date: Oct 21, 2008 Attend: 335 Time: 1:47
Referees: Michael Hertz, James Phillips
-UCF-