ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFKnights.com) – The UCF Volleyball team (22-7, 14-2) secured their spot in the American Athletic Conference semifinals Friday afternoon after a convincing 3-1 victory (25-18, 25-10, 21-25, 25-18) over Tulsa (18-9, 11-5) at The Venue in Orlando, Fla. The Knights will take on west division champions SMU (18-8, 11-5) Saturday at 1:00 p.m. ET.
The Knights take down Tulsa to advance to the semifinals! #ChargeOn pic.twitter.com/SpdY6NUqqr
— UCF Volleyball (@UCF_Volleyball) November 22, 2019
"We knew that they were going to be a challenge offensively and we knew that it was going to be difficult to go out there and hit for high numbers consistently," said UCF Volleyball Head Coach Todd Dagenais." The thing I was really happy with was to go out there and hit over .300...I thought we were locked in and I thought we were ready to execute."
The Knights are looking to defend their conference crown and following the win over Tulsa, they are one step closer. They are coming off a season in which they went undefeated in conference play, going 18-0 in The American to win the conference title, becoming just the third team in The American's history to go undefeated in conference play. If the Knights take down SMU, they will advance to the conference championship match, which is to be played at 1:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, Nov. 24.
Lache Harper continued her strong final season for the Knights in the victory, posting a season-high nine kills on 11 attacks, good for an .818 hitting percentage. She also had three digs and three blocks. Meanwhile, McKenna Melville, who is fresh off being named First Team All-Conference, tallied her 1,000th career kill in the match after she had 13 of them against Tulsa. She is in just her second season with The Black and Gold.
The Knights will play SMU Saturday at 1:00 p.m. ET in The Venue. SMU received a bye in the quarterfinals due to them winning the west division. They are 18-8 on the season and 11-5 in conference action. In the Knights' last meeting with the Mustangs, UCF won, 3-1.
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FIRST SET
The Knights started off in control of the set as they were out to a 4-2 lead following an Alli Sabol and Nerissa Moravec rejection, but a service ace by Tulsa gave them their first lead of the set, putting them up 7-6. At the media timeout, the Knights had worked their way back into it to lead, 15-12. Tulsa would go on to take both of their timeouts over the next three Knights' points and UCF led 22-16 following the Golden Hurricane's final timeout. The Knights would go on to win the first set, 25-18.
SECOND SET
UCF kept the momentum as they began the second set and were leading 10-6 at the first Tulsa timeout. With the Knights leading 16-9, Tulsa called their second timeout, and following the stoppage, UCF continued to pull away, capping off a 9-0 scoring run with a 22-9 lead. The Knights would hold onto their sizable lead as they went on to claim the second set, 25-10.
THIRD SET
The Knights had a slow start out of the gates to begin the third set, falling behind to Tulsa, 3-9. At the media timeout, UCF trailed Tulsa, 6-15. The Black and Gold began to work their way back into the set, cutting the deficit to 13-17 to force a Tulsa timeout. The Knights continued to cut into the Golden Hurricane lead, making it a 21-24 score before Tulsa called their final timeout, but the Knights would ultimately drop the set, 21-25.
FOURTH SET
The fourth set was even throughout, with the two sides trading blows to begin. Anne-Marie Watson spiked it down for back-to-back kills to give UCF the 15-13 lead and the media timeout brought the set to a halt. When play resumed, the Knights outscored Tulsa, 4-2 to go up 19-15. UCF would keep the pressure on as they would outscore Tulsa 6-3 through the remainder of the set to claim the 25-18 set victory and win the match, 3-1.
POSTGAME PRESSER
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UP NEXT
The Knights will play SMU Saturday at 1:00 p.m. ET in The Venue. SMU received a bye in the quarterfinals due to them winning the west division. They are 18-8 on the season and 11-5 in conference action. In the Knights' last meeting with the Mustangs, UCF won, 3-1.