March 21, 2011
Complete UCF Spring Fling Schedule in PDF Format
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By Sarah Tarasewicz
UCFAthletics.com
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - In its opening weekend of non-traditional competition, the UCF volleyball team is set to host its premier event of the spring, the UCF Spring Fling, Saturday at The Venue at UCF. Admission to the event is $5, with all proceeds benefitting the Central Florida Children's Home.
Besides the Knights, 14 additional teams will be participating in Saturday's event, including 2010 NCAA Tournament participants Florida, Florida State, Auburn, Miami and Georgia Southern.
"We are excited to have doubled the size of this event and significantly improved the competitive level," UCF head coach Todd Dagenais said. "It will benefit our student-athletes to play this high level of competition to prepare for the fall 2011 season. It should be very exciting for our fans and the central Florida volleyball community to watch many nationally-elite athletes play."
The Knights will play back-to-back matches vs. Auburn and Florida at 10 a.m. and 11 a.m., respectively, to open the day, and will also face off with Rollins at 1 p.m. Following an hour break, UCF will take on Miami at 3 p.m., before closing out the tournament with a 6 p.m. contest vs. Flagler. All of UCF's matches will be played on the main court.
"Our primary goals for this tournament are to experiment with different lineups and different offensive and defensive schemes," Dagenais said. "Some of which are part of our normal packages and some of which are new creations we are looking to implement."
The Black and Gold has made the UCF Spring Fling an annual event following its inaugural success in 2010. Last spring the Knights raised $540 dollars through entry fees and admission to the event and donated all proceeds to the Central Florida Children's Home.
UCF will also welcome the Professional Association of Volleyball Officials (PAVO) to the tournament for the second-straight year. The PAVO will once again hold its refereeing clinic at The Venue at UCF, while adding a line judge clinic and a scorekeepers clinic to its agenda as well.
In the fall, the Black and Gold posted its best record since 2003 with a 16-16 overall mark and also tallied a program-best nine wins in Conference USA action and have high expectations for its spring season heading into the 2011 fall campaign.
After three seasons of being the league's youngest and most inexperienced team in terms of matches started per player, the Knights look to return up to six of their seven starters from last season's team, including middle blockers Nichole Riedel (Denver, Colo.) and Tory McCutcheon (Milton, Ont.), outside hitter Angelica Crump (Atlanta, Ga.), setter Rachel Vukson (Oakville, Ont.), right side hitter Evija Vilde (Riga, Latvia) and libero Meredith Murphy (Austin, Texas).