Today the Woman’s Volleyball team welcomed the University of Central Florida to Fifth Third Arena. The Bearcats and the Knights were looking to Battle for 1st place in The American Athletic Conference as the Bearcats are 6-3 while standing 4-0 in the AAC. The Bearcats knew coming into today that today would be a very important game within the AAC, as the UCF Knights are 10-1 (4-0) in the conference as well. The Bearcats are coming off Back to back come from behind victories versus USF. The Bearcats starting lineup today was Maria Mallon, Maria Tobergte, Ashley Kozer, Madison Waters, Payton Frederick, Alex Kwasnik and Adria Oliver. Maria Tobergte gets back to action after missing the series versus USF.
Set 1- The energy was flowing early between both teams as they knew what was on the line. The Knights started out hot on a 3-0 run before Maria Mallon got the Bearcats on the board. The Bearcats followed Mallon with a kill from Maria Tobergte. The Knights jumped out to big 8-2 lead following a 5-0 run before the Bearcats head coach Molly Alvey called a timeout to end the run. The Knights continued the run which strung out for 7 points and the Bearcats were down 10-3 to the Knights early. The Bearcats found some energy as Alexandria Kwasnik had a monster kill that was followed up by two service Aces from Armania Heckenmueller to give the Bearcats momentum to cut the lead of the Knights to 3. The Knights went on a 3-0 run to have a 15-8 lead before a big kill from Shannon Williams. The Bearcats trailed 18-8 before a Knights service error. The Bearcats found their energy as Adria Oliver had back to back kills to give the Bearcats the momentum to try to cut the deficit. The Knights never looked back from their early lead as they had the energy the whole set after that early 7-0 run. Armania Heckenmueller had three service Aces for the Bearcats in Set 1. The Bearcats fell Set 1, 25-15.
Set 2- The HIgh energy continued as both teams knew they’d have to keep the energy up as first place in the AAC was on the line. The Bearcats found their momentum as Maria Mallon got a big kill, then followed with two service aces with her wicked jump serve. The Bearcats found their energy as of early and looked to keep their foot on the gas. Armania Heckenmueller recorded her 4th service ace of the match to give the Bearcats a 8-6 lead. The Knights went on a 5-0 run to fight back and go up 12-9. Alexandra Kwasnik got a big kill to stop the run before the Knights followed right back with a kill from Arianna Arojmand. The Knights went up 15-11 on the Bearcats after a run of their own. The Knights were very aggressive on the serving end as they had back to back aces from Mckenna Melville to go up 18-12. The Bearcats found their run as they cut the lead to 18-16 behind a big kill from Alexandra Kwasnik after an incredible save by Ashley Kozer on a hard hit ball from the Knights to set Kwasnik up for the kill. The Bearcats found their momentum, but the Knights shot back with a 4-0 run of their own to go up 22-16. The Bearcats freshman Sarah Norcom ended the run with a big kill to bring the momentum back to the Bearcats. The Bearcats couldn’t continue the momentum late in Set 2 as the Knights had a run 7-1 run to end the set and take Set 2, 25-17 from the Bearcats.
Set 3- The Bearcats were looking to flip the switch here as they trail 2 sets to 0. This is the time the Bearcats needed to find their switch and get this match turned around. The Bearcats got the scoring started in Set 3 following a UCF attacking error from Makenzie Chambers. The Knights continued to pour it on offensively as they jumped back to a 4-1 lead over the Bearcats before Shannon Williams ended the Knights run with a big kill to give the bearcats the ball. Ashley Kozer found a way to get the ball to Adria Oliver on the right side pin as she recorded two kills in as many plays. The Bearcats found themselves trailing the Knights 14-6 as they went on a 4-0 run. The Bearcats found some momentum as they went on a 3-0 run to cut the deficit to 4. The Bearcats had back to back kills from Shannon Williams to give the Bearcats some energy to try to pull this set back in reach. The Knights found a run of their own to go up 20-13 over the Bearcats before Maria Mallon found the back corner of the Knights defense for a kill. The Bearcats looked to find some momentum behind that as Sarah Norcom followed up with a kill of her own to cut the lead to 5 as the Bearcats trailed the Knights 20-15. The Knights answered back with two quick points of their own to go up 22-15 before a Bearcat timeout. The Bearcats ended up falling 25-17 to lose the match 3 set to 0.
Overall, the Bearcats dropped a tough one today as they fell to the UCF Knights 3 sets to 0. The Knights controlled the pace the whole match right from Set 1. The Bearcats started 3-2 in a close back and forth battle before the Knights went on a 7-0 run to take a quick 10-2 over the Bearcats in Set 1 and that run really set the tone for the match as the Bearcats knew they’d have to overcome some early adversity. The Bearcats knew they had to go there or it could be a long day as the nights were very effective out the gate. The Bearcats followed up the Knights big run with a kill from Alexandra Kwasnik followed by consecutive service aces from Armania Heckenmueller to cut the Knights lead to 4. The Knights early 7-0 run was all it took to propel the Knights in Set 1 as the Bearcats found themselves in a big hole right out of the gate and couldn’t find a way to crawl back. The Knights took Set 1, 25-15. The big stat for the Bearcats in Set 1 was Armania Heckenmuller on the serving line as she recorded three service aces which was very impressive. The 2nd set was a whole different sense of energy as they went neck and neck until the Bearcats took a 9-7. The Knights called a quick timeout which worked and sparked a 5-0 run to flip the narrative and take a 12-9 lead and they never looked back since. They got their run at the right time and never looked back as they had a 5-0 run here as well as a 7-1 run to end the second set. The Bearcats found themselves down 2 sets to 0 and were looking to make a comeback and try to extend this game to 5 sets as they knew they had to go now if they wanted to come back. Unfortunately the Bearcats found themselves in a hole and couldn’t dig themselves out of it as they fell in 3 sets to UCF who is one of the top teams in the nation in opposing hitting teams percentages. The main stat from the game was the Bearcats seemed to struggle finding a way to keep the ball in the court as they accumulated 30 kills and 22 attacking errors on 112 attempts. This means the Bearcats hit for a total of .071% on the match compared to UCF’s .425%. The Knights did a great job keeping the ball in play as they only committed five attacking errors. The Bearcats looked very well on the serving end as they recorded seven serving aces, five of them coming from junior setter Armania Heckenmueller. The Beacats stats leaders for tonight was Adria Oliver as she lead the way with seven kills, Shannon Williams had five kills, Maria Mallon had five kills, 10 digs and two service aces. Alexandra Kwasnik had five kills, one block, Ashley Kozer had 16 assists, three digs. Armania Heckenmueller recorded five service aces, 10 assists. Payton Frederick recorded a match high 17 digs for the Bearcats.
The Bearcats look to bounce back for Game 2 of the series tomorrow at 1 pm as they look to split the series and remain tied for 1st in the AAC.
