ORLANDO – The UCF volleyball team held off ECU Saturday afternoon at The Venue, 3-1, to move to 10-1 on the season and remain undefeated in conference play.
UCF wasted no time at all getting it going in the match as the Knights took a 6-1 lead in the first set to force an early ECU timeout. The Pirates would make a game of it late, coming to within one point of the Knights' lead, but the black and gold persevered late to pull off the set one victory, 25-21.
The Knights kept the momentum rolling into set two, going up 8-4 to force another early Pirates timeout. Despite the early deficit, ECU came back to tie it at 14. From there, the two sides would trade blows until UCF went on a six-point run late to win the set 25-19.
The black and gold found themselves behind early in set three, 9-3 before rallying back to make it a close game and eventually tie it at 17. A 3-0 run late gave UCF a 23-22 lead, but the Pirates would go on to score the next four of five to steal the set, 26-24.
The Knights seemed to take the third set loss personally as they came out hot in set four, going up 5-0 to force a Pirates timeout. Following the stoppage, ECU would come back to tie the game at nine apiece, but another five-point run by UCF would put them up front, 14-9, and the Knights would not relinquish the lead from there, going on to secure the final set 25-19.
"Day two is always hard when you play a team back-to-back like we did," said head coach Todd Dagenais. "We've seen it all across the league this year, where teams that play each other twice, on day two, the match is much closer… so I was pretty proud, especially after we lost that tight third set."
McKenna Melville continued to show why she is among the best in the league on Saturday, turning in a season-high 21 digs to go along with 19 kills for her sixth straight double-double this season.
Preseason all-conference honoree Anne-Marie Watson also had a nice day from the right side as she hit .313 and knocked down 13 kills.
The Knights will hit the road next weekend as UCF will take on Cincinnati at their place on Friday, March 12 and Saturday, March 13. Both matches will be at 1:00 p.m.
DAGENAIS DIALOUGE:
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