ORLANDO—The 24th-ranked UCF volleyball team earned its eighth straight win on Friday, defeating SMU, (25-20, 18-25, 25-17, 25-21) in The Venue. The Knights move to 20-1 on the season and 12-1 in American Athletic Conference play, while SMU falls to 17-8 overall and 10-3 in league action.
Tonight's win marked it as the 300th win for UCF Head Coach Todd Dagenais.
"Tonight we did a great job," said UCF associate head coach Jenny Maurer. "It's always tough when you're on the second round of conference matches. We practice being out of system immensely and I'm proud of our team of being able to handle it."
The Knights started the night on a hot start with a 3-0 scoring run led by McKenna Melville with the first kill of the night. UCF kept its momentum going throughout the entire set to take set one 25-20.
The Mustangs came out strong and took the lead at 2-1 and ran with it. The Knights tried to rally back with a 3-0 scoring run to close the gap. SMU won set two 25-17.
Katelyn Grimes served up an ace to lead off set three. The Mustangs tied it up at one. Melville struck back with a kill to take the lead. SMU came back with a kill, but the Knights took advantage of an attack error from the Mustangs to take the lead and run with it through out the remainder of the set to finish out with a final score of 25-17.
UCF and SMU traded points early in the fourth set until the Knights took the lead with a kill from Heidi Bonde, 9-8. Bonde sparked a 6-0 scoring run with a kill, with Chloe Scheer serving for the Knights. The Mustangs went on a six-run rally to slowly close the gap, but the Knights pushed through to take the final set 25-21.
Melville recorded a season-high 29 kills with an attacking percentage of .418. Bonde contributed on the offensive side with 15 kills.
The Knights are back in The Venue on Sunday to host Memphis at 1 p.m.