ORLANDO - The No. 24 UCF volleyball team will be on the road this weekend to face off with East Carolina and Temple. Friday's matchup against ECU will start at 6 p.m. and Sunday's matchup against Temple will start at 12 p.m. Both games will be on ESPN+.
The Knights
The Knights continue to charge on with a 23-1 record, and 15-1 in conference play. This past week, UCF beat USF in Tampa, and returned home for a win against Cincinnati. The Knights swept both teams 3-0.
McKenna Melville continued her historic season by winning her third straight AAC Offensive Player of the Week award. Melville averaged 5.75 points and 5.33 kills per set this past week. Melville continues to lead the AAC in kills and points per set, with 5.39 K/S and 5.98 P/S.
Amber Olson, who leads the AAC in assists per set, was named to the weekly AAC honor roll on Monday.
East Carolina
The Pirates are 10-18 in overall play, and 5-11 in conference matchups. ECU won their last matchup against Memphis, 3-2. In its Oct. 16 matchup, the Knights took care of business, winning 3-0. The Black and Gold have now won nine matchups in a row versus the Pirates, and won 21 of their last 23 matchups.
Temple
The Owls are 10-17 on the season and have a 4-12 conference record. Temple has lost three of their last four games, and are coming off a 3-0 loss against SMU. In the home matchup on Oct. 14, the Knights came out on top with a 3-0 sweep. UCF has won 11 matches in a row against Temple.
THOUGHTS WITH TODD:
On East Carolina:
As we hit the stretch this weekend East Carolina and Temple each provide different challenges for us. East Carolina is going to run a 6-2 against us. They're gonna find ways to try to slow down our offense by mixing up their serving, to keep us off balance. It's a good opportunity for us to worry about what's happening on our side of the net. As well as taking care of the many things that we need to work on to become a more competitive team than what we are right now.
On Temple:
I think Temple's hitting their stride under first year coach Linda Hampton. They're still trying to figure out who they are and what their best lineups are which makes them a nightmare to scout and prepare for. Especially since you can't necessarily predict who's in what spot. They bring so many different attributes as individual athletes that you can't you can't get fixated on what you think they're going to do because the second you do they change things up. We have to go in there with a tough serve to keep them out of system We've got to be able to transition and to be able to score break points with our serve because those are the points that put the distance between us and them. Both teams are going to side out same number of times but it's the points you score when you're serving that makes a difference. We have to find ways to string a few points together with our serve and take care of the detailed things on our side.