ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFKnights.com) – The Knights continued their strong start to the 2019 campaign Saturday night, taking down UAlbany (1-4) in three sets (25-21, 29-27, 25-22) at the UCF Challenge.
MaKenzie Chambers started the scoring off for UCF (4-1) in their first set, getting the kill after being set up by Erin Olson. UAlabny tied it up at five, but the Knights answered back to go up 6-5 following a UAlabany service error, and the Black and Gold would not let go of the lead from there, going on to win the first set 25-21.
"I want to start by congratulating Albany on an intense match. It was a really great and physical and emotional match," UCF head coach Todd Dagenais said. "Defensively, we put a lot of pressure on them. Not as much as we wanted to, but they sure put a lot of pressure on us… they played really well."
The Knights continued to look strong in the second set, and were up 24-20 before UAlbany began to make a run and eventually tied it up. For every point that UCF put up, UAlbany matched it until the Knights finally secured the set and won 29-27.
The close match continued in the final set as the lead swapped hands seven times. Ultimately, UCF would go on to take the final set 25-22, capping off the match and completing the three-set sweep.
Anne-Marie Watson and McKenna Melville both had double-digit kill totals on the night, with 10 and 18, respectively. Meanwhile, Kathryn Wesolich led the squad by hitting at a .600 clip.
Erin Olson was another large contributor in the victory for the Knights, tallying 28 assists and 13 digs, trailing only Melville, who had 16 of her own.
The victory marked the fourth of the season for the Knights. They will face off against Kansas (3-1) tomorrow at 4:00 pm ET at The Venue.
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TODD'S THOUGHTS:
On the team's performance:
"I was really happy to see our middles and our right sides get much more involved in our offense. We have been trying to do that all year long. To have [Nerissa Moravec] get four kills and hit .500 and to have [Wesolich] get seven kills and hit .600, I thought that was awesome… we are spreading the ball around in the areas that we need to."
On the team's momentum:
"I think each match has its own character and I think each match reveals a little bit more about your team. We certainly found out that we can be resilient when things are close and I think that is putting us in a position where, in the future, when we are in those situations, we can say 'hey we have been in these.'"
On preparing to face off against Kansas:
"Kansas is physical. They were just in the final four not that long ago. They jump. They hit from every position on the floor. Right now, where we are, we have to worry about us. We are playing two opponents sometimes when we are out there. Not only are we playing a great opponent across the net, but we are playing ourselves. We are going to worry about the opponent on our side of the net… and hopefully that will take care of the other side of the net."
NEXT UP
The Knights wrap up their weekend action at the UCF Challenge on Sunday as they are set to take on Kansas (3-1) at 4:00 p.m. ET. The first 200 fans to show up get a free "Welcome to our block party" t-shirt.
