Volleyball Set for Trip to StetsonVolleyball Set for Trip to Stetson
Conor Kvatek / UCF Athletics

Volleyball Set for Trip to Stetson

by Jenna VanHoose

ORLANDO - UCF heads north to DeLand for two matches, starting with one on Thursday against Stetson at 6 p.m. followed by UNCW Saturday at 2 p.m. 

The Matchup

  • The last matchup between the Knights and Hatters was in 2016 when UCF came away with a 3-0 win.
  • The Black and Gold last played UNCW in 2022 and earned a 3-0 win.

Scouting Stetson

  • The Hatters are 2-1 on the season after earning wins against Manhattan and Bethune-Cookman in the Bash at the Beach Tournament.
  • UCF boasts a 65-6 all-time record against Stetson.
  • Head coach Yang Deng is in her 8th season with Stetson.
  • Annabelle Standish leads the team in kills and is averaging 4.45 kills per set this season.

Scouting  UNCW

  • The Seahawks enter this weekend with a 2-1 record.
  • Head coach Dottie Hampton is in her 5th season with UNCW.
  • Quinn Manley currently leads the team in digs with 4.40 per set.
  • 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.
  • Schomers and Armour each produced a double-double in the first match of the season against Virginia Tech.
  • Schomers dished out 40 assists and 10 digs while Armour recorded 16 kills and 10 digs.

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 is currently ranked in three categories in the top 50 of the NCAA.
  • 1st: 1.000 match w-l %
  • 14th: 0.316 hitting %
  • 34th: 1.88 aces per set

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