Set 2- The Knights would take an early 3-2 lead after a kill from Glendinning, and a Knight kill by Mckenna Melville that would eventually be overturned via challenge by Bearcats coach Molly Alvey to give the Bearcats some momentum. The Bearcats would see this match tied at six following a kill from Kailea Carrier. The Bearcats would take their first lead of the match at 7-6 after a Melville attacking error, but the Knights would respond with a four point run that started with a kill from Dillion followed by an error from Kailea Carrier, followed by a Katelyn Grimes service ace and UCF block that forced the Bearcats to call timeout trailing 10-7. The Knights would come out swinging as that four-point run turned into a seven-point run following a huge solo block by Melville on the outside gave the Knights a 13-7 lead over the Bearcats. The Knights would quickly extend their lead after Claudia Dillion and Abby Hansen continued to put balls away for the Knights as they would jump out to a 22-13 lead over the Bearcats forcing the Bearcats to call their final timeout of the set as they looked to build some momentum here late in the set. The Knights would hold on to take Set 2, 25-18 after their early 7 point run propelled them to a 2 set to 0 lead over the Bearcats. behind a .510% clip on the match.
Set 3- The Knights would come out firing as they took an early 5-1 lead over the Bearcats following a five point run resulting in five straight kills from Melville, Kari Zumach, Abby Hansen, where Claudia Dillion would follow with a service ace forcing the Bearcats to call timeout to stop the run as they looked to bounce back. The Bearcats would look to rally back as they found themselves in an early hole, but the Knights kept swinging as they led the Bearcats 13-4 following another four-point run resulting in three straight kills from Heidi Bonde. The Bearcats would look to build some momentum following consecutive kills from Tatum and Alcantara, the Bearcats would cut the Knights lead to 8. The Bearcats would get a spark off the bench as Sarah Norcom came in and provided the Bearcats with the spark of energy, they needed with four straight kills as the Bearcats would eventually make this a 21-16 match and it all started with Norcom’s burst of energy that turned this one around for the Bearcats after trailing as much as ten here in Set 3. The Knights would hold on to complete the sweep as they held on to defeat the Bearcats 25-16.
The Bearcats fell just short to a very tough UCF team, as the Knights proved why they are one of the top teams in college volleyball after the performance that was on display tonight. The Bearcats just fell short as they saw themselves get into those early holes after the Knights would rattle off their runs early, and in a sport where runs are very important the Bearcats just had no answer to the Knights tonight as they had to try to dig themselves out of those holes early and that’s just hard to do in a sport of volleyball.
The main stat that stands out here tonight is that that Knights hit .429% on the match compared to the Bearcats .114%, as the Knights dominated the net which made it very hard to get anything going offensively for the Bearcats. The Knights saw Claudia Dillion have a fantastic night as she finished with eight kills on nine attempts hitting at a .889% clip on the match while also chiming in with five blocks on the match. Meanwhile the Bearcats did a great job eliminating Makenna Melville from the picture as the two-time AAC Player of the Year had an off night as she finished with just 8 kills and 5 digs tonight and that gives credit to the Bearcats height at the net as they really made it hard for Melville to get going offensively.
Notables
Elissa Alcantara finished with a team high eight kills.
Carly Glendinning finished with six kills
Sarah Norcom provided a huge spark late in the match as she recorded four kills on four attempts, hitting a perfect 1.000 on the match.
Emme Madden finished with 22 assists
Payton Frederick finished with a game high 13 digs.
The Bearcats now sit 5-14 on the season, (3-5 AAC) as they head into their next match this Sunday where the take on the USF Bulls who are 7-12 on the season, (1-6 AAC) as the Bearcats look to bounce back in the win column as they approach the halfway point of conference play.
