ORLANDO – UCF clinched another Big 12 conference series with a 3-1 (25-23, 25-18, 23-25, 26-24) victory over Oklahoma inside The Venue on Friday night.
The Knights (13-2, 4-0) held the upper hand in kills (52-51), digs (60-56) and service aces (13-6) as the Sooners (6-7, 0-4) recorded 12 blocks and an attacking percentage of .232 compared to UCF’s .190 clip. Due to Oklahoma moving to the SEC next year, this will be the last conference series between the two teams.
“We believed in our team the entire time,” said head coach Jenny Maurer. “We knew these dog fights were going to be happening frequently and that it was going to be a tight-played match. I’m happy that we stayed locked in and didn’t give up.”
Emily Wilson led the Knights with 15 kills and 16 digs earning her fourth double-double of the season. Avah Armour tallied 10 kills adding in four digs and four blocks. Lauren Clark and Claudia Dillon each added nine kills and one solo block. Abby Schomers dished out 38 assists and 12 digs. On the defensive side, Chloe Scheer recorded 15 digs.
The Sooners jumped out to a 9-5 lead, but a 5-2 run by the Black and Gold put the Knights within one point, 12-11. A 5-0 scoring spurt at the end of the set gave the Knights an early 1-0 lead in the match, 25-23.
UCF jumped out to a 10-4 lead to start the second stanza. The Sooners chipped away at the Knights lead but the Black and Gold never relinquished the lead as they won the set 25-18.
Following a 6-0 run in the thrid set the Knights took the lead at 20-18 following a kill from Clark. The Knights and Sooners battled until the end of the set, but Oklahoma came away with the set win, 25-23.
“We had a lot of good energy coming into tonight we knew Oklahoma wasn’t going to back down after last night,” added Abby Schomers. “We focused on ourselves and minimizing our errors and it paid off in the end”
The Knights opened the floodgates with an early 6-3 lead as the Sooners answered back to traded points back and forth throughout the set with 15 ties and four lead changes. At 24-24, the Knights went on to earn the following two points as Clark terminated the match with a kill to clinch the 3-1 win.
UCF travels to Lubbock, Texas on Wednesday, Oct. 4 at 7 p.m. as they matchup against Texas Tech.