ORLANDO – The UCF volleyball team returns to The Venue for its annual Dig Pink match as the squad hosts West Virginia on Wednesday, Oct. 11, at 7 p.m.. The Knights boast a 5-0 start in Big 12 play with an overall record of 14-2.
The Matchup
- The Knights hold an 0-1 record against the Mountaineers with the last matchup during the 1988 season when matches were scored using rally-scoring, which means only the team that possessed the serve could score a point. Sets at this time were played to 15 points instead of 25, but matches could stretch on for hours at a time.
Scouting West Virginia
- The Mountaineers head into the matchup with a 7-11 record and an 0-5 record in conference play. West Virginia heads to Orlando on a two-game losing streak with its last conference matchup a 3-0 loss against No. 21 Houston.
- Head coach Reed Sunahara is in his ninth season with West Virginia and hs compiled a 104-145 record.
- West Virginia returned six players from last year's team and brought in 11 newcomers.
- As a team, the Mountaineers are ranked No. 1 in team kills (847) and No. 2 in team assists (769) in the Big 12.
- Hailey Green is ranked No. 2 in the Big 12 for points with 258.5 while Lauren DeLo is the team's setter and is ranked No. 1 in the Big 12 in total assists (625).
Taking Big Steps in the Big 12
- The Knights have started out their inaugural season in the Big 12 with a 5-0 start
- UCF opened Big 12 play with a familiar foe, Cincinnati, as the Knights and Bearcats moved to the Big 12 conference this season from the American Athletic Conference.
- Since Big 12 play started, the Black and Gold have only lost two sets, which is the feqwest of any team in the Big 12. Texas is 5-0 in Big 12 play but has lost three sets.
Dig Pink
- UCF hosts its annual Dig Pink game in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness.
- Dig Pink is an opportunity to honor those who have been impacted by breast cancer.
- Claudia Dillon’s mother (Kelly) was diagnosed a day after her 40th birthday with stage 2 breast cancer. She went through eight rounds of chemo and 30 rounds of radiation. She has participated in the race for the cure in Denver, Chicago and Dallas. Her mom was determined to not let cancer control what she did in life as she continued to work full-time and traveled to sports tournaments to watch her kids compete. Kelly has been cancer-free for 15 years.
- Michaela Franklin’s mom was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 44 in 2004 and will celebrate 20 years cancer-free in February. Michaela’s Aunt Nancy was diagnosed in 2006 and will celebrate 18 years in February.
Ace it up
- Currently ranked No. 1 in the NCAA for aces per set with an average of 2.57 per set.
- Three Knights are ranked in the top 100 for aces per set Emily Wilson (1st), Claudia Dillon (67th) and Avah Armour (75th).
- Against North Texas, the Knights came out strong with the serves firing a season-high 15 aces.
Knight in Shining Armour
- Headlined by seven matches with double digits in kills along with a career-high of 17 kills against Cincinnati (9/21).
- Armour has recorded two double-doubles this season in the first non-conference and first Big 12 match.
- Currently, she is the only freshman ranked in the Big 12 for service aces with 20.
Ace Queen
- Emily Wilson is ranked no. 1 in service aces per set (0.62) and total service aces (36) in the Big 12 standings.
- In the first matchup against a Big 12 opponent (Cincinnati), Wilson tied her career-high five service aces in the 3-1 win.
5-0 Start
- Headlined by a 5-0 start, head coach Jenny Maurer becomes the first UCF head coach in the DI Era to start the season 5-0 in their first season as head coach.
- Three Knights were named to the UAlbany All-Tournament Team: Abby Hansen (MVP), Abby Schomers and Avah Armour.
- Claudia Dillon earned the All-Tournament team for the UCF Challenge.
The Jenny Maurer Era
- Jenny Maurer was named head coach of UCF volleyball in May 2023.
- She is no stranger to UCF as she has been a member of the coaching staff since 2016.
- Her resume includes nine years as a Division I head coach --Lehigh (4) and Bradley (5).
- Two-time DIII National Champion (1995 and 1996) as a player at Washington University in St. Louis.
Rounding Out The Staff
- Maurer added two associate head coaches to her staff along with a volunteer assistant.
- Jason Tanaka, a 25-year collegiate coaching veteran with Big 12 experience (Baylor, TCU).
- Michaela Franklin, former Big 12 volleyball champion (Kansas State) and nationally recognized recruiter.
- Tyler Hubbard-Neil, a former professional volleyball player joins the staff as a volunteer assistant.
- Erin Olson stays on the staff as the Director of Operations.
Calling All Newbies
- The Knights have added a total of seven newcomers to the roster.
- Four of those are freshmen and the other three are transfers.
- The freshmen include Avah Armour, Annika Sokol, Sasha Cohen and Doga Ocal.
- Three out of the four freshmen are from Colorado and Ocal is from Turkey.
- The transfer trio includes Lauren Clark (FGCU/ Penn State), Britt Carlson (Washington State) and Megan Holland (South Carolina).
Bringing ‘Em Back
- The Knights return eight from the previous season.
- Key returners for UCF include Abby Hansen, Claudia Dillon, Chloe Scheer, Emily Wilson, Katelyn Grimes and Heidi Bonde who all saw playing time last year.
Five Peat AAC Champions
- UCF volleyball ends an era in the American with five consecutive championships.
- The Knights started their inaugural season in the American in 2013 and ended in 2023 accounting for 11 overall championship titles.
New Kids On The Block
- UCF officially joined the Big 12 Conference on July 1, 2023.
- The Knights enter the Power 5 as the youngest school, having been founded in 1963 to supply NASA with engineers.
- UCF joins the conference with Cincinnati, Houston and BYU to push the conference to 13 volleyball programs.
- The Black and Gold are 43-36 against current Big 12 schools. The Knights were ranked No. 9 in the Big 12 preseason poll.
- In the AVCA poll, the Knights are one of seven Big 12 schools that are ranked or receiving votes.
Knights In The Rankings
- UCF is ranked in three categories in the top 10 of the NCAA.
- 1st: 2.57 aces per set
- 5th: 149 team service aces
- 8th: 0.296 hitting %
European Tour
- UCF enjoyed a successful foreign tour this summer after visiting the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia and Italy playing six matches against international opponents.
- Traveling from Orlando to Czech Republic, the team began its trip in Prague, walking around Old Town and the city.
- While in Prague, the Knights played back-to-back matches against the Czech national team.
- A short trip to Brno, where UCF played the U22 Brno team along with touring in the downtown area.
- Sightseeing in Budapest featured the Buda Castle, the Parliament building and the Danube.
- Kicking off its time in Maribor, UCF held a clinic for about 30 youth, presenting a further opportunity to get to know the local people and share some of the team’s volleyball knowledge and skills.
- Outside of the team’s two matches in Slovenia, the Knights rode a ski lift up part of the mountain to ride the alpine slide down the mountain and went for a bike ride to the city center of Maribor. For dinner, the team took a gondola up Pohorje Mountain on top of the mountain.
- UCF took a pit stop in Lake Bled, Slovenia for a few hours on the way to Italy which included a gondola ride to the church in the middle of the lake, swimming and enjoying the famous Lake Bled cake.
- Once in Italy, the Black and Gold checked out the amenities at the resort which included multiple pools and a hot spring. The team concluded their trip in Venice with a full day of sightseeing.
Home Court Advantage
- UCF reached a 22-match home win streak from Oct. 10, 2021 – Sept. 2, 2023.
- The Knights boasted a 13-0 record at home in 2022.
- UCF has only lost four games at home in the past three seasons.
- In 2022, the Black and Gold won the AAC Championship at home in a five-set thriller against Houston for a share of the championship title.
- With the move into the Big 12, season tickets have been selling like crazy.
- The Knights have sold a record number of season tickets.