UCF Escapes With 3-2 Victory Over ECU In Orlando

Friday, September 22

Orlando, Fla.

7:00 p.m.

East Carolina University

8-5, 0-1AAC

UCF

8-5, 1-0AAC

ECU

UCF

Photo by: Rob Goldberg

September 22, 2017 | Volleyball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

ORLANDO, Fla. – The ECU volleyball team entered Orlando faced with the task of defeating one of the American Athletic Conference's perennial top teams and nearly pulled it off, giving UCF everything it could handle in a five-set loss Friday night inside The Venue at UCF. The Knights won the contest by set scores of 16-25, 25-12, 25-15, 15-25 and 15-12.

Ultimately, UCF's efficiency on offense pushed it over the top as the Knights hit .296 in the match with 70 kills. ECU played a relatively clean match as well, hitting .212 and committing two fewer attacking errors than its counterpart across the net. The Knights ended up with a 71-62 edge in digs but the Pirates out-blocked UCF 11.0 to 4.0.

Senior middle hitter Natalie Montini paced the ECU offense with 13 kills while freshman right side Bri Wood and senior outside hitter Lael Ceriani chipped in with 12 and 10 respectively. Sophomore libero Brandee Markwith led the defensive efforts with 18 digs and senior outside hitter Ashton Mares tallied a season-high 17 digs of her own. Kia Bright, a league preseason all-conference honoree, racked up 21 kills and 18 digs to pace the Knights in both categories.

Freshman outside hitter Kaiya Heyliger-Powell provided a big spark of the bench, recording five kills and no errors for a .625 hitting percentage.

Team Records: ECU (8-5, 0-1 AAC) | UCF (8-5, 1-0 AAC)

Torbett's Take: "That was a heck of a match. We are doing some really good things right now and I was really pleased with our younger players. We will work on some things going forward and look forward to Sunday's match at USF."

Set One: A couple of big-time blocks put ECU out in front 7-4 and forced an early UCF timeout. The Pirates kept the pressure on from the service line and saw their lead balloon to 17-11. The Knights could not come up with an answer as the Purple and Gold took the first stanza by nine.

Set Two: UCF was able to shake off the first set loss and raced out to an 8-2 advantage. The Knights did not let up, allowing the Pirates just 10 more points the rest of the way to knot the match at the intermission.

Set Three: A kill by Osuegbu kept the third frame close with UCF leading it 13-12. The Knights began to pull away, however, using a 6-1 run to eventually put the set away and take a 2-1 lead into the fourth stanza.

Set Four: Looking to stay in the match, ECU pulled out to a 7-4 lead. The Pirates went further ahead at 9-5 following a kill by Wood. UCF rallied to within 11-9, but that was as close as they would get the rest of the frame as the Pirates cruised to the nine-point win.

Set Five: The exciting deciding set saw the teams trade blows for much of it. After the sides switched benches when the Knights edged ahead 8-7, Heyliger-Powell quickly knotted the score with a kill. ECU captured its last lead of the match at 10-9 when UCF committed an attacking error, but the Knights mustered up a 6-2 run to slip out of the door with the win.

News and Notes

Two of the last three matches between ECU and UCF in Orlando have gone to five sets.
The Pirates dropped to 1-1 in true road matches in 2017 while UCF improved to 3-0 at home.
Freshman setter Shelby Martin fell just short of her first career double-double, posting a career-high 48 assists and a personal-best nine digs.
ECU has out-blocked its opponent in nine matches this season.

Up Next: ECU closes the weekend Sunday with an American Athletic Conference match at USF in Tampa. First serve at The Corral is set for Noon.