LAWRENCE, Kan. – For the first time in program history, the UCF volleyball team finished non-conference play undefeated after a 3-0 (25-18, 25-15, 25-12) sweep of Lipscomb on Saturday afternoon in Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena.
"I think if you look at the weekend in its totality, it was a big jump for us as a team this year," Head Coach Todd Dagenais said. "Lipscomb is a good team. Don't let records fool you because that's a traditional NCAA tournament team. I think we just got them well while we were hot, but certainly, the numbers don't indicate how challenging of a match it was. I really thought we stepped up defensively, our block was okay, it was average, it did a good job of funneling the ball where we wanted the ball to go and then the defensive players made up for it with an awful lot of digs. We averaged over 10 digs a set. Today was a total team effort we got some players to get into the game and do some great things Makenzie again took advantage of getting into the game. She got to play about half the match, and she did a great job. Heidi did a good job starting but then we're able to get some other players in there and it was just nice to be able to see some new faces on the floor and it was nice that we played well enough to win"
That wasn't the only history that happened on the court, as McKenna Melville became UCF's all-time kills leader when she got her sixth kill to give the Knights a 23-17 lead in the first set.
The previous record of 2,151 stood for 25 years and was held by Renata Menchikova. With 10 kills today Melville sits atop the list with 2,156 in her illustrious career.
The second was another wire-to-wire win for the Knights. There was only one tie in the set as they used a handful of runs to stretch the lead in route to a 25-15 win.
The only lead change of the game happened in the third set after Lipscomb took the first point. UCF immediately tied it then took a 2-1 lead and never looked back, en route to a 25-12 win.
This win was an all-around team effort. 12 Knights entered the game, and all contributed to the win. Melville led the team with 10 kills, and Abby Hansen was right behind her with nine.
Kari Zumach and Claudia Dillon led the team with three blocks apiece.
The Knights will be back in action on Friday, Sept. 23 as they kick-off American Athletic Conference play against Memphis at 7 p.m. ET on the road.
