Sept. 19, 2009
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - Freshman Meredith Murphy (Austin, Texas) extended her streak of matches with 10 or more digs to 10 with a team-best 15 digs Saturday afternoon, despite the UCF (8-5) volleyball team falling in straight-sets (9-25, 21-25, 20-25) to visiting Florida International (10-2) on day two of the Radisson-UCF Classic at The Venue at UCF.
"Overall, again we experienced an execution glitch at the beginning of the match," head coach Todd Dagenais said. "We just weren't scoring enough points with our outside hitters again, but I thought we executed much better in all facets of game starting in the second and third sets."
Murphy, the Knights' starting libero, began the streak on Aug. 29 when the squad defeated DePaul at The Venue to claim the UCF-Radisson Invitational title.
Fellow freshmen Dani Harrison (Tallahassee, Fla.) and Evija Vilde (Riga, Latvia) added six and five digs, respectively, for the Black and Gold defensively.
On the offensive side of the ball, senior Erin Campbell (Kansas City, Mo.) paced the Knights with nine kills and also tallied four digs and two block assists. The outside hitter is now 27 kills and 27 digs away from becoming only the fourth UCF volleyball player in program history to reach the 1,000-mark in both categories.
Kristin Fisher (Clearwater, Fla.) had eight kills for UCF with Vilde posting seven kills in the match to aid the offensive attack.
After dropping the first set 9-25, the Knights rallied back to post a .211 hitting percentage with 13 kills in the second set led by seven kills from Fisher, three from Vilde and 13 assists from setter Andee Youngblood (Castle Rock, Colo.). The set had 11 tie scored and three lead changes, with the Knights leading the set through the first 26 points.
In the third and final set, the Black and Gold once again posted 13 kills and fought the Golden Panthers to six tie scores, with the latest coming at 19-19. But, a late 6-1 run from FIU closed out the set and improved the team's record to 10-2 on the year.
"I cannot fault the effort of team today," Dagenais said. "I do not think that we have an effort issue, even in the 25-9 game I don't think that we lacked effort. I thought that we lacked execution of skill and maybe at times we lacked the ability to execute a high-level skill when it mattered most."
UCF concludes the Radisson-UCF Classic with a 3 p.m. match against Florida A&M Sunday at The Venue at UCF.
Season tickets for the 2009 season are still available for only $30, with the Knights hosting nine more regular-season matches at The Venue at UCF this year.
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.
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