Volleyball Set for Opening WeekendVolleyball Set for Opening Weekend
Tyler Thomas / UCF Athletics

Volleyball Set for Opening Weekend

by Jenna VanHoose
Watch Live Stats Match Notes

The Matchup

  • The Knights will kickoff their 2024 season in Blacksburg, Virginia against Virginia Tech on Aug. 31.
  • Followed by a trip to North Carolina for a matchup against Charlotte on Sept. 1.
  • The last matchup between the Knights and Hokies was in 1993 when UCF came away with a 3-0 win.
  • The Black and Gold last played Charlotte in 1993 and earned a 3-1 win.

Scouting Virgnia Tech

  • The Hokies finished the 2023 season with a 13-16 record.
  • Head coach Marci Byers enters her 19th year overall and fifth season with Virginia Tech.
  • The squad is comprised of 10 returners, eight freshman and one transfer.

Scouting  Charlotte

  • The 49ers ended last season with an 11-20 record.
  • Head coach Karen Weatherington is in her 10th season with Charlotte and is the program’s longest-tenured coach.
  • Lauren Kretschmer, the team’s leader in kills, blocks and aces will return for her fifth season at Charlotte.
  • Kretchschmer ended last season with a total of 265 kills and averaged 2.25 kills per set.

Road Warriors

  • The Knights start their season out with three weekends on the road.
  • UCF travels to Virginia, North Carolina along with two weekends on the road in Florida.
  • This will be the first time since the 2017 season that the Knights play their first three weekends away from The Venue.

Double-Trouble Trio

  • Three Knights recorded double-doubles last season led by Emily Wilson with eight followed by Abby Schomers with six and Avah Armour with two.
  • Wilson and Armour each produced a double-double in the first match of the season against Navy.
  • As a setter, Schomers dished out 46 assists and 11 digs to mark her first double-double of her career against Mississippi State.

Year Two in the Big 12

  • The Knights ended their inaugural season in the Big 12 Conference with a 17-12 overall record and 8-10 in conference play.
  • This season the Knights will open league play on ESPNU at Kansas on Sept. 25.
  • With the addition of four new members into the Big 12, the Knights will host Colorado for the first time since 2003, Utah (1996) and travel to Arizona and Arizona State for the first time in program history.

Ace it up

  • The Knights finished out the 2023 season ranked 16 in the NCAA and No. 1 in the Big 12 for aces per set averaging 1.91.
  • Emily Wilson ranked among the top 30 for aces per set at No. 28 with .46.
  • Last season, the Black and Gold tallied 199 aces to rank them at No. 45 in the NCAA.

Knight in Shining Armour

  • Headlined by 11 matches with double digits in kills along with a career-high of 17 kills against Cincinnati (9/21) in her rookie season at UCF.
  • Armour has recorded two double-doubles this season one in the first non-conference matchup (Navy 8/25) along with another one in the first Big 12 match (Cincinnati 9/21).

Ace and Double-Double Queen

  • Emily Wilson ranked No. 1 in service aces per set (0.46) and second in total service aces (63) in the Big 12 standings last season.
  • In last season’s matchup against Oklahoma, Wilson recorded a career-high six service aces in the 3-1 win.
  • Wilson led the team with nine double-doubles last season and has recorded 19 matches with double digits in kills.

Knights In The Rankings

  • UCF finished the 2024 season ranked in three categories in the top 50 of the NCAA.
  • 16th: 1.91 aces per set
  • 43rd: 0.252 hitting %
  • 45th: 199 team service aces

Familiar Face

  • Head coach Jenny Maurer announced the addition of Cameron Stevens to the staff as an assistant coach.
  • Stevens rejoins the Knights after spending the last two years as an assistant coach at High Point, where he helped lead the Panthers to consecutive Big South Tournament Championships.
  • Before this time at High Point, Stevens was a part of three straight American Athletic Conference titles at UCF.
  • Along with helping the Knights advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament twice during his first stint with the Black and Gold.

Calling All Newbies

  • The Knights added a total of four newcomers to the roster during the offseason.
  • Two of those are freshmen and the other two are transfers.
  • The freshmen include Cam Shelton and Mya Ball.
  • The transfer duo includes Alexia Kuehl (Colorado) and Sophia Kotsovolos (Gardener-Webb).

Bringing ‘Em Back

Preseason Olympic Trials

  • During preseason, the Knights participated in their own form of Olympic trials with various events.
  • The team was broken into five countries with three players in each group.
  • The five countries consisted of Papua New Guinea, Djibouti, Christmas Island, Oman and Zanzibar.
  • With a total of five events, each country was scored on their performance.
  • Event one consisted of each group receiving their country, making the country’s flag on a t-shirt and national anthem, which was then judged on a scale of 1-5 from three guest judges.
  • The team went bowling for event No. 2 as each country competed against each other and averaged the score.
  • Events three and four included another panel of judges with interpretive dancing followed by presentations from each group which consisted of information regarding their specific country and why the judges would want to live there.
  • The squad wrapped up their Olympic trials at Drive Shack as they tested their golf skills for the final edge in the leaderboard.
  • Final Leaderboard: 1st place: Christmas Island, 2nd place: Djibouti, 3rd place: Zanzibar, 4th place: Oman, 5th place: Papua New Guinea