Nov. 24, 2010
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By Sarah Tarasewicz
UCFAthletics.com
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - Head coach Todd Dagenais and his UCF volleyball team will wrap up the 2010 season this week with a home-and-home Conference USA series vs. UTEP. The Knights will travel to El Paso, Texas, Wednesday for a 9 p.m. ET, contest, before hosting the Miners at The Venue at UCF Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday's home contest will also serve as Senior Day for three members of the squad, as Kristin Fisher (Clearwater, Fla.), Sara Rex (Oldsmar, Fla.) and Brittanie Wallace (Austin, Texas) will be playing their last match as Knights, with all three scheduled to graduate in the spring.
UCF enters the series with a 14-16 overall record, a 7-11 C-USA clip and are tied with Memphis for eighth place in league standings after splitting a pair of contests on the road at Memphis and UAB last weekend. The Black and Gold opened the weekend with a 3-1 (25-13, 24-26, 25-18, 25-17) victory over the Tigers at Elma Roane Fieldhouse Friday night. The win was not only Dagenais' first in Memphis, but was also the seventh league win for UCF this season, its most since joining the league in 2005.
Redshirt freshman Nichole Riedel (Denver, Colo.) hit .556 with a team-best 11 kills and a career-high seven blocks in the contest, while Fisher posted 10 kills, nine digs, four blocks and a service ace.
The Knights concluded the weekend with a hard-fought, 3-1 (18-25, 25-21, 23-25, 25-27), loss at UAB. In that match, Fisher and Riedel combined for 34 kills. Fisher led the Knights' offense against the Blazers with 18 kills, while also posting 13 digs and two blocks for her 12th double-double of the year, and Riedel hit .306 with 16 kills and paced the defense with four blocks.
The Miners currently rank 11th in C-USA standings with a 4-14 league record and a 12-19 record on the season after dropping both contests last weekend on the road at UAB and Memphis. UCF is looking to capitalize on UTEP's 11-match losing streak heading into the final weekend of regular-season play, as a pair of wins for the Black and Gold would push its win total to 16 on the year and give the Knights' their most wins since 2003 when they went 23-7 overall.
Both matches of this week's C-USA series vs. UTEP can be followed live on UCFAthletics.com via Gametracker for live stats and Knights All-Access for a live video feed.