Oct. 5, 2008
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - The UCF volleyball team came back from two sets down to defeat Conference USA-rival East Carolina, 3-2 (21-25, 20-25, 34-32, 25-18, 15-13), Sunday afternoon at The Venue at UCF. With the win the Knights improved to 12-6 on the season and 4-1 in league play, while the Pirates fell to 1-4 in conference and 11-9 overall.
"The way out team played today was just gutsy," head coach Todd Dagenais said after the match. "Anybody can be resilient when they are playing well. To be resilient and gutty when you're not playing well and the other team knows it, that is a whole new level of resilience and it borders onto gutsy. That is where we were today."
Erin Campbell (Kansas City, Mo.) tallied her fifth-consecutive double-double in the match with 15 kills and 14 digs, while three additional Knights posted double-digits in kills.
Stephanie Serna (San Antonio, Texas) paced the Black and Gold with 20 kills, while hitting .351 in the match, which included .571 in the fourth set. Janine Williams (Gainesville, Fla.) added 19 kills, nine digs, three blocks and two service aces, and Jenny Heppert (Lawrence, Kan.) posted 14 kills while hitting a match-best .409.
Besides Campbell, two other Knights also recorded double-digits in digs, with freshman Kathleen Curry (Geneva, Fla.) leading the defense with 19 digs and Melissa Reinders (Winter Park, Fla.) contributing 12.
Setter Lauren Rosenthal (Colorado Springs, Colo.) posted 66 assists in the victory, her second-straight match with 66 assists or more.
After dropping the first two sets of the match to the Pirates, it looked as if the Knights were going to fall in the third set as well, trailing the visiting team, 24-22, but back-to-back kills from Campbell and Serna evened the score, 24-24. From there, the two teams battled back and forth through nine ties in the set before another pair of back-to-back kills from Campbell and Serna gave UCF the 34-32 victory.
"I just knew my team deserved the best from me and I wasn't going to let anybody down," Serna said about her set-winning kill. "Everyone had worked so hard while I was on the bench and I knew when I came in that I needed to join that. I just knew my team deserved the best from me and I wasn't going to give them anything less."
The Black and Gold took its momentum into the fourth set, outhitting the Pirates .419 to .179, while totaling 18 kills to even the match, 2-2, and force a fifth set.
Serna and Curry got the Knights out to a 3-0 lead early in the decisive fifth set, with Serna posting two kills and Curry serving up an ace. But, East Carolina fought back to even the score, 4-4, before two-straight kills from Heppert gave the advantage back to the Black and Gold. After the Pirates evened the score at 11-11, UCF went on a 4-2 run, capped off by a Heppert kill, to clinch the final set and secure the comeback victory.
UCF continues its four-match homestand at The Venue at UCF Friday, Oct. 10 when it hosts league-foe Memphis at 7 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)
East Carolina vs UCF (Oct 05, 2008 at Orlando, Fla.)
UCF def. East Carolina 21-25, 20-25, 34-32, 25-18, 15-13
East Carolina (11-9, 1-4 C-USA) (Kills-aces-blocks) - Stephanie Turner
16-2-2; Melissa Zentner 15-0-2; Erica Banning 11-2-6; Amanda Lutzow
10-2-2; Lizzy Bruin 8-0-3; Hannah Fenker 3-0-1; Trish Monroe 0-1-0;
Totals 63-7-9.0. (Assists) - Hannah Fenker 56. (Dig leaders) - Trish
Monroe 19; Stephanie Turner 10; Erica Banning 9
UCF (12-6, 4-1 C-USA) (Kills-aces-blocks) - Serna, Stephanie 20-0-0;
Williams, Janine 19-2-3; Campbell, Erin 15-0-1; Heppert, Jenny 14-1-3;
Williams, Lauren 8-0-2; Rosenthal, Lauren 1-0-2; Reinders, Melissa
0-1-0; Curry, Kathleen 0-2-0; Totals 77-6-6.0. (Assists) - ROSENTHAL,
Lauren 66. (Dig leaders) - Curry, Kathleen 19; Campbell, Erin 14;
Reinders, Melissa 12; Williams, Janine 9
Site: Orlando, Fla. (The Venue at UCF)
Date: Oct 05, 2008 Attend: 389 Time: 2:21
-UCF-