STATE COLLEGE, Penn.—The UCF volleyball team (28-1) cruised past Yale (23-3) on Friday night in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Rec Hall on the campus of Penn State.
UCF tallied its first sweep in NCAA Tournament play advances to the second round for the fifth time in program history (2021, 2019, 2003, 1997) and extends the Knights' 16-game winning streak. The Knights will play Saturday night at 6:30 p.m. against the winner of Penn State and UMBC.
The Knights and Bulldogs exchanged points back and forth to start off the match. UCF broke away at 3-3 with a service error from Yale followed by a block from Amber Olson and Abby Hansen. UCF ended the set 25-22 with an outstanding .458 attacking percentage.
"Yale is ranked around 30 in the RPI, they are a fantastic team," said head coach Todd Dagenais. "We didn't get any favors or cupcakes in round one. I'm very happy with how we went out and played. You look at that team and they are mostly freshmen and sophomores, a young team. Defensively, watching them on film we knew we had to be able to establish the middle, right side and open things up because they are one of the top five defensive team in the country. The one thing that stood is they are as good of a serving team that we've seen all year long."
In the second set, UCF came out with a 3-0 run ignited with a kill by Kari Zumach followed by back-to-back blocks. The Knights polished off set two just like they started with a 3-0 run with a kill from McKenna Melville followed by Zumach then Melville to end it, 25-16.
The Knights came out on fire with a 5-0 lead sparked by back-to-back blocks from Claudia Dillon and Zumach. UCF cruised through the remainder of the match to take the win, 25-17.
Melville finished the night off with 15 digs, 14 kills and adding in four blocks. Heidi Bonde tallied nine kills.
Hansen led the Knights on defense with eight blocks adding in five kills. Chloe Scheer tallied up 10 digs on the night.
