TULSA, Okla,-- The UCF volleyball team picked up its sixth consecutive victory with a 3-1 (25-19, 25-8, 25-21, 25-20) win at Tulsa on Friday night in the Reynolds Center.
The Knights (18-1, 10-1 AAC) put down 65 kills, while limiting the Golden Hurricane (10-12, 3-7) to 37 kills with a .120 attacking percentage.
"Road games in October are no joke," said UCF Head Coach Todd Dagenais. "Tulsa came out hungry and I thought they kept us off balance while we were focusing on the last play instead of the next play. Thankfully, the team noticed that and we were able to get settled in and start chipping away."
The Knights started off slow in set one as Tulsa jumped out to a 5-2 lead before UCF battled back to even the set at 6-6 after a kill from McKenna Melville. After the Golden Hurricane pulled ahead, UCF tied it up 16-16 with a kill from Kari Zumach. After a few lead changes, UCF took the lead at 20-19 and closed out the set on a 6-0 scoring run to take a 1-0 lead in the match.
Set two started out much different with the Black and Gold racing out to a 5-0 lead. A kill from Heidi Bonde ignited a 9-0 scoring run for the Knights with Katelyn Grimes serving and UCF cruised to the 25-8 second-set win. The Knights tallied an astounding .700 attacking percentage in the set with 14 kills on 20 attempts without an error.
Tulsa opened the third set by winning five of the first six rallies to take a 5-1 lead, but UCF quickly answered to trim the score to 8-7 following a kill from Claudia Dillon. After an attacking error to make it 22-21, the Golden Hurricane scored three consecutive points to earn the first set win against the Knights since Oct. 7 – a span of five matches without dropping a set.
The Knights had a rocky start to set four but quickly rebounded after a timeout to even the set at eight apiece following consecutive kills from Bonde. Tulsa looked to make a comeback in the set with a 3-0 run to make it 19-17, but UCF countered with three consecutive points to pull away 22-17 and win the set, 25-20.
Melville led the offense with a game-high 24 kills. Bonde recorded another stellar performance with a season-high 19 kills on 33 swings with a .455 attacking percentage.
"It's been great to see Heidi developing her swing and these past two matches have really showed, said Dagenais. "She's been solid in her blocking and attacking which has made it difficult for teams to defend her."
On the defensive side, Chloe Scheer tied her season-high with 21 digs, while setter Amber Olson tallied 57 assists and 14 digs to record her ninth double-double of the season.
UCF will head to Wichita State for a matchup on Sunday, Oct. 30. First serve is set for 2 p.m. and the match will air live on ESPN+.
