ORLANDO (UCFKnights.com) — The UCF volleyball team completed its first scrimmage of the 2017 spring schedule at USF on Saturday, February 25.
"This weekend was about getting experience, working out nerves, getting rid of jitters and gaining experience on the floor," head coach Todd Dagenais said. "I thought as the scrimmage went on, we got better in each of those areas. It is important for us to identify the things we need to work on, very early in the spring. We've been training for only four or five days. Some of these teams have been training for a few weeks. It's important to take a look at the things that we've improved on, especially the players who had very little or no collegiate volleyball experience and those who have never played positions that they played in all day (Saturday). I thought there were a lot of bright spots for this group as a whole."
The Knights, who played for a set periods of time rather than keeping score and playing sets, were led by Nerissa Moravec with 18 kills and a hitting percentage of .309, while Alli Sabol had 15 kills. Taylor Wickey tacked on 12 kills, while Laché Harper amassed 11. Kia Bright rounded out the group and posted eight kills.
Defensively, Jordan Pingel tallied 16 digs. In her first starting defensive specialist role, Abby Zimroth collected 14 digs.
"I thought both setters did a nice job of utilizing the middles," Dagenais said. "First of all, I thought Miranda (Watkins) really made a conscious effort to diversify the ball and to be less predictable, which showed for sure. Erin (Olson) stepped right in and was certainly a team leader on the floor. She (Olson) helped lead by example with her energy and was also very effective in her setting. I think what's nice is that both of them are pushing each other to make each other better every day. By them both modeling after each other, it has made them both better."
Our match against USF this weekend has been postponed and will be move to later this month. More info to follow.