GREENVILLE, N.C. (UCFKnights.com) – UCF Volleyball (10-6, 3-1) swept East Carolina (13-4, 1-3) by a score of 3-0 (25-12, 25-15, 25-15) Sunday afternoon at Williams Arena in Greenville, North Carolina.
"The biggest question heading into today was 'how were we going to respond from [Friday's loss to Cincinnati],' UCF head coach Todd Dagenais said. "As the coach, you worry in the back of your head about how your team is going to respond. Is there going to be a hangover? But I was extremely proud of how well the team responded. I thought, not only did we compete hard, but we executed extremely well."
The Knights seemed to be on a mission against ECU as they won each set by a score of ten or more. The top four kill leaders on the day for the Knights all hit above .400 in the contest.
McKenna Melville turned in another double-double performance on the afternoon as she tallied 16 kills and 11 digs while hitting .452. Dresi Pass was another large contributor in the sweep as she had four service aces to go along with 18 assists and seven digs.
The victory marked the third conference win of the year for the Knights and their tenth overall. They will pick up where they left off on Friday, October 11, as they return to Florida as they take on conference foe USF at 8:00 p.m. ET at The Corral in Tampa, Fla.
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FIRST SET
The Knights came out of the gates hot in the first set as a service ace from Pass put them up 3-1 early, and a five-point scoring run shortly after would extend their lead to 9-3. UCF kept on rolling as they went up 19-9 to force ECU to call their second timeout of the set, but it would not slow the Knights as they went on to outscore ECU 6-3 to win the first set, 25-12.
SECOND SET
The Knights fell behind 6-1 to begin the second set before going on a six-point scoring run to take the 7-6 lead. With UCF already up 17-13 later in the set, they went on another six-point scoring run to pull away to 23-13 before going on to win the set, 25-15.
THIRD SET
ECU went up 5-4 over the Knights to begin the third set, but the Knights went on a 6-2 run to take back the 10-7 lead. Kristina Fisher solidified the UCF momentum as she hit a service ace to put The Black and Gold up 19-14, forcing an ECU timeout. UCF outscored ECU 8-1 over the final points of the set to claim the final set, 25-14, and the complete the 3-0 sweep over ECU.
DAGENAIS DIALOGUE
On what was working for the Knights in the match:
"Everything we wanted to do serving wise was working. Everything we wanted to do attacking wise was working. Our defense and our blocking caught up as the match went on. I thought we really performed well on the back half of a long trip, against a team that knows how to win. They were 13-3 headed into today. I thought we were extremely steady and executed well in important parts of the game. I was proud of the fact that we were able to come back and perform how we did."
On the efficiency on offense:
"We talk about it every day. The ability to spread the ball around. The key for us is being able to get the ball to our middles. That forces the opposing middle blockers to have to respect everybody. If we can do that, it is going to open up a lot for everybody else. I thought our middles did that and it allowed all four of our outside hitters to have seams that they could hit to and through… being able to spread the ball is really important for us because it takes away a lot of pressure and then we can find the right person at the right time and get an easier swing than having to hit through a double block."
On preparing for USF and Memphis:
"I think we have to focus on our consistency. We get into these funks where we aren't passing well or we make an error that leads to other errors, and I think this week, we still have to work on being efficient in all phases of the game. Offensively, being able to continue to use our middles and right-sides a lot more. Defensively, we can get better and be in the right spot more often. I think we can work on staying composed when things aren't going too well, which I think we did a great job of today."
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UP NEXT
The victory marked the third conference win of the year for the Knights and their tenth overall. They will pick up where they left off on Friday, October 11, as they return to Florida as they take on conference foe USF at 8:00 p.m. ET at The Corral in Tampa, Fla.
