GREENVILLE, N.C. – The UCF volleyball team (20-6, 13-1) extended its win streak to nine straight and got its 12th sweep of the season after sweeping East Carolina (8-14, 4-9) for the second time on Sunday's matinee in Greenville, North Carolina with scores of 25-20, 25-11, 25-22.
"Offensively, we were on fire," head coach Todd Dagenais said, "I never felt like we were not in control. We're happy where we are, but we're not satisfied nor content where we are."
UCF's offense was hitting on all cylinders as five Knights hit over .300. McKenna Melville led the team as she earned her 12th double-double of the season with 18 kills and 11 digs. Melville also added two aces and two blocks.
Anne-Marie Watson notched 15 kills, hitting .619, and had two blocks while Claudia Dillon hit .333 with eight kills and added two aces. Tali Marmen grabbed six kills while Nerissa Moravec had five kills and five blocks.
Amber Olson set up the offense with 45 assists and nine digs.
The Pirates came out swinging in the first to hold a lead early, 12-9. ECU then used a 4-0 run with two aces to lead by six points, 16-10, but that did not faze the Knights. UCF followed suit with its own 4-0 before tying the set at 18. The Knights kept the momentum going with another 4-0 with back-to-back aces from Dresden Pass, 22-19. UCF grabbed three-straight kills to take the first set, 25-20.
The Knights took control of the second set, going up 9-1 right away. UCF continued to dominate as it grabbed a 12-point lead, 22-8, with another kill from Anne-Marie Watson, who was hitting 1.000 with nine kills. The Knights walked away with a score of 25-11 to go up 2-0.
UCF got out to a 3-0 start, but ECU was not going down without a fight and came back to tie it at 4. The Knights kept an edge from there, leading by as much as five, 15-10. At match point for UCF, the Pirates tried to make it interesting with a 3-0 run, 24-22, but McKenna Melville got the kill to win the set, 25-22, for the sweep.
TODD'S THOUGHTS
[On East Carolina]
They're really good and responded well. Adler has done such a great jobs with the program and I think you have to beat them. You cannot just go step on the floor with ECU and expect to win. You have to go out there and you have to beat them because they were trying to beat us, that's for sure.
[On the offense]
Coach Jenny continues to do a great job of calling the offense and Amber Olson continues making the reads and finding the right person. We had five hitters over .300, so there's not a whole lot more we could ask for on the offense.
UP NEXT
UCF will begin its four-game homestand at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, November 11, to take on Memphis from The Venue.
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