ORLANDO- The UCF women’s volleyball team took No. 20 Utah to five sets Saturday afternoon in The Venue, earning victories in sets one and two before the Utes rallied off wins in the final three frames to take the match 25-22, 25-18, 18-25, 20-25, 12-15.
The Knights recorded 66 kills and 73 digs against the Utes’ 56 kills and 60 digs. Avah Armour led the Knights recording a career-high 20 kills. Emily Wilson followed with 19 and Alexia Kuehl added on with 16, also a career-high for her. Abby Schomers piloted the offense recording her sixteenth career 40-plus assist match with 53. Chloe Scheer racked up 24 digs during the match, reaching a milestone 1,500 career digs in the process. Katelyn Grimes added on with 13 digs, her fifteenth double-digit dig match of her career.
The Knights started set one strong with Scheer serving the team through a five-point run to get them up 5-3. UCF won multiple long rallies to keep the two point lead at 12-10. A kill from Kuehl ignited a long scoring run from the Knights with Ava Armour serving up back-to-back aces to get the Black and Gold their largest lead of the set at 19-13. The Utes didn’t let the set go easily though, pushing back to close the score gap back to two at 20-18. Utah kept it close down the stretch of the first but UCF powered through for the 25-22 set victory.
The second set started with a series of back-and-forth rallies tying it early at 3-3. However, a kill from Kuehl got the Knights going, sending them on a three-point run to take the lead. UCF kept the lead for the remainder of the set as a kill from Wilson began to help the Black and Gold pull away, putting them up 12-7. With both Armour and Wilson reaching double-digit kills in set two, the Knights dominated the remainder of the set, at one point going up by as many as seven points at 21-14 and ultimately winning the second stanza 25-18.
Set three was a battle early consisting of eight lead changes and seven ties. The Utes got on the board first, but the Knights immediately answered with a kill from Britt Carlson. The teams continued to trade points with a kill from Kuehl tying up the game for the fourth time at 4-4. The score evened again at 8-8 with a Utah kill, sparking momentum to build a 19-10 lead. Double aces from Kuehl allowed UCF to close the gap back to seven at 23-16, but the Knights went on to lose the third set by as many as they won the second at 25-18.
Utah took the lead to start the fourth set as errors from the Knights gave them an early 6-3 advantage. Wilson’s sixteenth kill of the day tied it up at 6-6, only to see Utah answer with a three-point streak of their own. The Utes continued to build their lead to 14-8 before a kill from Armor gave the Knights momentum to close the gap to 18-16. The Utes extended their lead again to 20-17 before the two sides traded the next six points as Utah ultimately grabbed the fourth set 25-20.
A trio of kills from Kuehl give the Knights their first three points of the game of the fifth set as UCF built a 4-3 lead. At 5-5, a three-point run from Utah consisting of two kills and a Knights error gave them the lead at 8-5. Kuehl continue to command set five, recording her fifth kill of the set to tie the game once again at 10-10. From there, Utah rattled off the next three points to take a 13-10 lead. Armour knocked down her final kill of the match to make it 13-11. Utah took two of the next three points, taking the set 15-12 and the match 3-2.
The Knights wrap up their home schedule as they host Kansas State for Senior Knight Wednesday, November 20 at 7 p.m.