Sept. 27, 2009
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (UCFAthletics.com) - The UCF (8-8, 0-3 C-USA) volleyball team had four players register double-digit kills Sunday, despite Conference USA's top-ranked Marshall (15-2, 3-0 C-USA) staving off a late comeback to steal a win from the Knights, 3-2 (21-25, 19-25, 25-23, 25-21, 15-12) in front of a national audience at the Cam Henderson Center.
The C-USA match was the first of five league-matches to be televised nationally on CBS College Sports. The hard-fought event is set to air on tape delay Wednesday at 7 p.m.
Senior Erin Campbell (Kansas City, Mo.) once again paced the Black and Gold with a match-high 18 kills, seven blocks and five digs, and Kristin Fisher (Clearwater, Fla.) posted her fourth double-double of the season, and fourth in the team's last five matches, with 13 kills and 10 digs. Evija Vilde (Riga, Latvia) and Sara Rex (Oldsmar, Fla.) concluded the match with 11 and 10 kills, respectively, with Rex adding a .529 hitting percentage with three blocks.
Libero Meredith Murphy (Austin, Texas) led the Black and Gold with 16 digs, while senior Andee Youngblood (Castle Rock, Colo.) fell one dig shy of her fourth double-double of the year with nine digs and 43 assists. Freshman Jennifer Belew (St. Louis, Mo.) continued to get quality playing time in the league-match, dishing out a career-high 10 assists against the Thundering Herd.
In its third-set victory UCF hit .345 as a team, posting 13 kills on 29 attempts and committing only three errors. The Knights trailed almost the entire set, including as late as 22-23, but an error by the Thundering Herd and back-to-back kills from Vilde and Fisher sent the match into a fourth set.
In that set, the Knights had 15 kills on 35 attempts with only two errors to improve their hitting percentage to a match-best .371. Campbell guided UCF with five kills in the set, and freshman Tory McCutcheon (Milton, Ontario) hit .750 with three kills. UCF fell down early, 5-0, but continued to slowly chip away at Marshall's lead. A 7-0 run orchestrated behind the serving of Youngblood put the Knights on top, 15-12. The lead would stick and the Knights once again clawed their way into a decisive fifth set.
But, in the fifth, the Black and Gold fell down early and was never able to fight its way back into set, falling 15-12. The Knights strung together a 4-0 run late to pull within two, 12-14, but a Marshall kill stopped the comeback short and sealed the win for the home team.
UCF returns home Oct. 2 when they host league-foe UAB at 7 p.m. at The Venue at UCF, before playing at home again on Oct. 4 in a match-up against Memphis at Noon.
Season tickets for the 2009 season are still available for only $30, with the Knights hosting eight regular-season matches remaining 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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