ORLANDO – The UCF volleyball team bounced back after a tough weekend at No. 20 Baylor with a win against TCU Thursday night. After dropping the first set, UCF went on to win three straight sets to take the match 3-1 (19-25, 25-22, 25-19, 25-16).
The Knights (17-4, 8-2) recorded 55 kills on the night led by Emily Wilson with 15. The Black and Gold, however, had a balanced attack with Lauren Clark adding 12 kills and Abby Hansen and Claudia Dillon each contributing nine kills. Abby Schomers ended with 43 assists on the night. Hansen showed power on the front line with six blocks in front of Wilson’s four. Annika Sokol had a night setting a career-high in digs and services aces with 12 digs and 3 aces.
“I was pleased with how we finished tonight,” said head coach Jenny Maurer. “We’re still learning and it was good for us to bounce back from the losses last weekend. We made some adjustments to our lineup and so did they [TCU]. It took a little bit for us to get acclimated to that but once we settled I think we found our groove.”
The Horned Frogs jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the first set. UCF was forced to call its first timeout down 2-6 to collect themselves. The Knights came out firing with four straight points on a service error by TCU, two aces by Sokol and a block by Hansen. The Knights had only a .061 hitting percentage. Hansen, however, did not miss boasting a 1.000 hitting percentage and three kills on the set. Dillon led the team with four kills. The Knights were unable to take the lead, dropping the first set 25-19.
The Black and Gold came out firing on all cylinders in set two. The Knights took a commanding 7-3 lead, forcing the Horned Frogs to call their first timeout of the set. However, TCU did not go away and came back to tie the set 8-8. From there it was a back-and-forth set until the score was knotted at 20. Britt Carlson and Wilson both had six kills in the set. Wilson hit her team-leading eighth kill to win the set 25-22.
“It feels good to bounce back after last weekend,” said Dillon. “As a team, we were able to get back into the gym and work on things that we wanted to see out of ourselves moving forward.”
After the slow set one start, UCF came out strong again in the third set. The Knights jumped to a 3-1 lead behind two solid blocks by Carlson. Wilson again came alive in the third set with two kills and four digs while also eclipsing a double-double on the night. After taking the lead early in the set, the Black and Gold never looked back winning the set 25-19.
The Knights came out a little slow in the fourth set going down 3-7, but after a strategic timeout by head coach Jenny Maurer, UCF began to chip away at the Horned Frog’s lead. After an ace from Sokol, the Black and Gold tied the set up 12-12, taking the lead on a Dillon kill the Knights finished the set on a 12-3 scoring run, 25-16.
The Knights have a quick turnaround at home as they prepare for round two with the Horned Frogs on Friday, Oct. 27 at 7 p.m. at The Venue.