ORLANDO – The UCF volleyball team will travel to State College, Penn. to take on Yale University in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The match will take place at 5 p.m. at Rec Hall and will be streamed on ESPN+.
The Knights (27-1 overall, 19-1 AAC) wrapped up their 2022 regular season on a 15-game win streak, wrapped up with a five-set thriller victory over Houston on Friday to secure a share of the AAC Championship for the fifth year in a row. The match was full of new records for the Black and Gold, with Claudia Dillon and Amber Olson earning new career-highs and McKenna Melville, Dresden Pass, and Chloe Scheer recording new season-highs.
The Black and Gold had a dominant season, only dropping one game to Houston in early October. Melville became the 10th ever DI player to record 2,500 kills, securing her position on the NCAA Top 10 All-Time Kills Leader list and is currently the Knights' all-time kills leader. She was also unanimously voted the AAC Player of the Year for the second year in a row after earning Offensive Player of the Week honors nine times and honor roll twice throughout the season. Olson was named the AAC Setter of the Year once again, as well as being named to the All-Conference first team along with teammates Melville, Dillon and Abby Hansen. Kari Zumach was voted to the All-Conference second team. UCF had the most players named to the AAC All-Conference teams with a total of five.
This will be the Black and Gold's 13th appearance in the NCAA Tournament, and fifth consecutive berth. They most recently went dancing last season, defeating Pepperdine in the first round in four sets. The team was eliminated in the second round by No. 13 UCLA, dropping in five sets.
The Knights have met the Bulldogs one other time, at the VolleyKnights Invitational in 2019. UCF took the match in five sets (25-22, 25-23, 16-25, 24-26, 15-13) to hold the all-time series record at 1-0. Two of the players on that squad, Melville and Olson, will return to play Yale once more, this time at a neutral site. Melville matched her then-career-high kills, 24, and Olson recorded her first career double-double, earning 10 digs and 28 assists.
The Bulldogs
The Yale volleyball team went 23-2 overall and 13-1 in conference play on their way to the NCAA Tournament. Their only losses were to Florida State and Princeton, both at away venues.
They received an automatic bid after defeating Dartmouth and Brown to be crowned the Ivy League champions. This will be the Bulldogs' eighth appearance at the NCAA tournament. Their last appearance was back in 2018, where they lost to Syracuse in the first round.
The Bulldogs also had five players named to the All-Ivy teams. Setter Carly Diehl and outside hitter Audrey Leak were named to the first team, libero Maile Somera and outside hitter Mila Yarich were voted to the second team and middle hitter Gigi Barr received honorable mention recognition. Their head coach, Erin Appleman, was named the Ivy League Coach of the Year for the second time. She is the winningest coach in Yale volleyball history, guiding the Bulldogs to their 12th Ivy title.
The winner of the match will advance to play the winner of the Penn State-UBMC match on Saturday, Dec. 3. The game will begin at 6:30 p.m. and will be streamed at ESPN+.
TODD'S THOUGHTS
It will be a clash of two teams that are ranked very high in the nation. Yale has proved that they are the class of the Ivy League. Even in years they don't win they're still on the board for an at large bid because of how well they perform during the year I think you'll look at their history especially under Coach Appleman and you see a history of a team with the consistency. Something you would always want for your program year in and year out they're competitive they find a way to be successful.
We will have to score despite the fact they are good on defense. They play a challenging non-conference schedule year in and year out. So you look at their losses and Appleman does a great job of having her team prepared for preseason and season despite the lack of time the Ivy League schools get. She's competitive right off the bat and it's always difficult playing them because they understand the game well. They have a high volleyball IQ and they know where you're weak and they're gonna pick on it until they find a way to score.
