July 18, 2013
UCF Athletics Social Media Directory
Written by UCF head coach Todd Dagenais
Sadly, our tournament run came to a conclusion as we lost to NOVA KBM in the bronze-medal match this afternoon. We fell behind early in the first set and were unable to recover as NOVA took the first set. We settled down, focused on fundamental volleyball in the second set, and were able to tie the match with a 25-22 victory to send the match to a 15 point tiebreaker for the bronze medal. Again, we fell behind early, but quickly made a push to get back into contention. However, the strong attacking and defense of NOVA allowed them to earn the bronze with a 15-9 final set victory.
We have decided to enjoy the culture and history of Croatia for the remainder of the day. The players have decided to stay together as a team and go to the town square in Pula to do some shopping. We will reconvene tonight for the tournament Championship as BIP SE (USA) will face Italy-Falconera in the finals. As you may recall, we lost a tight match to BIP in the semifinals last night. We will be there in force to root for our country to bring home a gold medal. GO USA
Tomorrow we will wake up early and take a 2.5 hour bus trip to Venice where we will spend the entire day touring and shopping the historic Italian city.
This team has become incredibly close throughout the entire International experience. They are wonderful young women, and their parents, schools, and their country should be very proud of how they represented themselves. We will be sad to leave each other on the 20th.
-Todd