ORLANDO—The UCF volleyball team (23-1, 15-1 AAC) cruised past Cincinnati (8-18, 6-10 AAC) in straight sets (25-18, 25-10, 25-19) on Sunday afternoon at The Venue to earn its 11th consecutive win.
"Cincinnati is dangerous and athletic," said UCF Head Coach Todd Dagenais. "They aren't a team that you want to get into kill for kill. Our best chance was ensuring that we kept the pressure on them. Offensively and with our serve we were able to keep that pressure on them. The stuff blocks were huge for us and that's something that we've been working on and I thought we did a decent job with that."
Kari Zumach led the Knights off with a kill to earn the first point. Followed by a block from Claudia Dillon and Zumach to take the lead 2-0. The Bearcats battled back and tied the game at 9-9. UCF answered with a 3-0 scoring run with a kill from McKenna Melville followed by an ace from Katelyn Grimes. The Black and Gold ended set one with a 2-0 scoring run, 25-18.
The Knights led off set two with a 2-0 start with back-to-back kills from Dillon and Zumach, respectively and UCF put together multiple 5-0 scoring runs throughout the set. The Knights ended set two with a 5-0 run with a block from Amber Olson and Abby Hansen to take the set, 25-10.
UCF followed suit from the other two sets to start off with a 2-0 lead in set three. A 4-0 scoring run propelled UCF with back-to-back kills from Heidi Bonde followed by a service ace from Chloe Scheer and a kill from Dillon. The Knights continued to fire on all cylinders with a total of 18 kills in set three to win the set, 25-19.
Melville led UCF with 19 kills, while adding six digs and a solo block. Dillon helped the offense with eight kills, while Hansen and Zumach each tallied five kills.
Olson led all players in the match with 28 assists and she recorded nine digs. Chloe Scheer recorded 13 digs on the day. Hansen accounted for four blocks and Bonde logged three. Grimes recorded a season-high four aces.
The Knights will head back out on the road next weekend with a matchup on Friday, Nov. 18, at East Carolina and Sunday, Nov. 20, at Temple. The matches are slated for 6 p.m. and 1 p.m., respectively.
