Oct. 13, 2011
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By Eric DeSalvo
UCFAthletics.com
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - The UCF volleyball team will venture onto the road once again in Conference USA play as it travels to Houston, Texas, to take on Rice Friday night at 8 p.m. EDT, and Houston in a Sunday matinee at 2 p.m. EDT. Both the Owls (10-8, 5-2) and Cougars (12-5, 5-2) are tied for third in C-USA.
The Knights (11-7, 3-4), who are in a three-way tie for sixth place, will be looking for their first win against either school from the Lone Star State since joining the league in 2005.
"We just have to find ways to win," head coach Todd Dagenais said about the weekend trip. "Somewhere along the line, we're going to have success with this new lineup. We will have a turnaround and will catch some break, but we will have to create our own breaks as well. We're going to find out if we have truly have what it takes to be the team and program we eventually want to be."
Dagenais is tinkering with different lineups to replace the loss of freshman outside hitter Kayla Keller (San Antonio, Texas) who went down with an ankle injury two weeks ago.
Without Keller last weekend, the Knights emphasized setting middle blockers Tory McCutcheon (Milton, Ontario) and DeLaina Sarden (Lawrenceville, Ga.) more against top-ranked UAB. The duo recorded 39 kills and averaged a hitting percentage over .260 against the Blazers.
Defensively, both McCutcheon and Sarden have stepped up their blocking, swatting nine and eighth shots, respectively, in the two-match stand.
The contests between the Owls and Cougars will see three of the conference's top setters go head-to-head. UCF's Rachel Vukson (Oakville, Ontario) leads the league, and is second in the nation, with an average of 12.16 assists-per-set. Rice's Megan Murphy has put up three 55-plus assists efforts this season, and Houston's Caitlin Ogletree and Vukson have both dished out a league-high 62 helpers in a single match this season.
UCF continues to rank in the top-half of all four major offensive categories, only trailing Tulsa in assists (13.31) and kills-per-set (14.16) in 2011.