“We played an incredibly efficient offensive match,” UCF head coach Todd Dagenais said “Sunday road wins are hard to come by. The team is excited about what we’ve done so far. I’m feel like we deserve to be where we are at this point.”

After trading points to open the match, UCF broke up a 6-6 tie with a kill from sophomore Kia Bright and took an 8-6 lead on a service ace from sophomore Shelby Foyer. Senior Jade Hayes served up an ace to give the Knights a 10-7 lead and prompt a Cincinnati timeout. The Bearcats came back to tie the set at 16, but a 5-0 UCF run that included kills from seniors Kaye-Alese Green and and junior Abbie Fleener extended the Knights’ lead to five, 21-16. The Black and Gold closed out the opening set with back-to-back blocks from Bright and Sarden to win the first set, 25-18.

The Knights opened the second set with three straight points. A Sarden kill pushed the UCF lead out to 15-9, which Bright followed with an ace to give the Knights a 16-9 lead. The Bearcats battled back, matching the Knights kill for kill to cut the lead to three, 24-21, in favor of UCF. Cincinnati’s Madi Lang tied the set at 25, forcing the set into extra points. Green’s kill was answered with a kill from Emma Roberson to tie the set at 27, but Bright came up with a kill that gave the Knights a 28-27 lead. Bright teamed up with Sarden for a block that gave UCF the 29-27 set win and a two-set lead in the match.

In the third set, Sarden gave the Knights a 2-0 lead before Cincinnati came back to knot the score at 4-4. A kill by Green put UCF up 11-7 and forced a timeout for the Bearcats, but the Knights kept the momentum out of the huddle with a block from Green and Fleener. After giving the Knights a 16-11 lead with a kill, Sarden went back to serve, putting together a string of three points to push the UCF lead to 19-11. Bright slammed consecutive kills, which were followed by back-to-back Cincinnati attack errors that gave UCF the 25-15 set win and the straight set victory over the Bearcats.

“There are still some things that we need to work out,” Dagenais said. “This wasn’t a great all-around match. We were able to buckle down when we needed to. Where we are as a team–mentally, the effort, the energy, the perseverance–is everything I could ever ask for as a coach.”

DeLaina Sarden finished with 16 kills on 19 swings. Her .789 hitting percentage is the sixth-best percentage in a match in UCF history. Sarden also had five blocks and three digs.

“DeLaina found ways to get herself into gaps and the setters found ways to get her the ball,” Dagenais said. “This could be the best offensive match I’ve seen her have; she was outstanding in her decision making. I think she put up national player of the week numbers.”

Kia Bright joined Sarden with double-figure kills, finishing with 13 while hitting .440 and recording five blocks. Senior Marie Reiterova posted her second straight double-double match, recording 24 assists and 10 digs. Jade Hayes posted a match-high 11 digs for the Knights, and junior Dana Faught tallied 20 assists for UCF.

“DeLaina did a great job with the matchups she was given this week,” UCF head coach Todd Dagenais said. “She continues to be such a versatile part of our offense despite the fact that teams are game planning for her each and every week.”

Sarden hit a team-best .656 for the week and averaged 3.29 kills per set to lead the Knights to a pair of conference road wins. She finished with 15 kills, while hitting a season-high .650 in the win over in-state rival USF on Wednesday. In Sunday’s sweep of East Carolina, Sarden continued her offensive efficiency, hitting .667 with eight kills and no errors in 12 attempts. UCF set an American Athletic Conference record for hitting percentage in a conference match, posting a .444 team hitting percentage.

She also served up back-to-back aces in a four-point run at the end of the second set against the Pirates, bringing her total to four aces for the week. For the week, she denied a team-best eight shots, averaging 1.14 blocks per set for the Knights, and led the team with 31.5 total points.

The Lawrenceville, Ga., native has been recognized four times as the American Player of the Week, earning the distinction three times in 2013. Sarden became the third Knight tabbed with the accolade this season, as sophomore Jale Hervey earned the first honor of the season and Kia Bright picked up the award last week.

“I’m proud of the team for going 4-0 and not dropping a set along the way,” UCF head coach Todd Dagenais said. “I thought we were remarkable at closing out sets all weekend.”

FIU was not going to hand the title to UCF, as the Panthers jumped out to an early 10-5 lead but a 6-1 run from the Knights put UCF on top. The Knights took the lead for good on a block from seniors Kaye-Alese Green and Ashley Gialenios. Once UCF took the lead in the second set, they maintained it and persevered in the final set to become tournament champions.

UCF had four all-tournament selections, as senior middle blocker DeLaina Sarden, senior libero Jade Hayes, sophomore outside hitter Kia Bright and sophomore outside hitter Jale Hervey received the accolades.

Hervey led the Knights against FIU with 14 kills, while hitting .565 and serving up a team-high five aces. Hervey took home the tournament MVP honors, as she finished the weekend with 60 kills, 24 digs, and seven digs while hitting .481.

Bright added 12 kills and finished the match with eight digs. Hayes tallied double-digit digs for the fourth time this season, finishing with 13. Senior Marie Reiterova and junior Dana Faught had 17 and 15 assists, respectively.

˛Ń´Ç°ů±đ:Ěý

Looking for an encore to her AVCA All-American sophomore campaign, Sarden took her game to new heights in 2013. The Lawrenceville, Ga., native set career highs in kills, kills per set, attack percentage, service aces, solo blocks and points. Sarden led The American with a .409 attack percentage and 494 points while ranking fourth in kills per set (3.41) and ninth in blocks (1.05). She was also honored as the league’s Player of the Week three times.

“I don’t think it’s a surprise to anyone involved with UCF volleyball that DeLaina was a unanimous first-team selection,” Dagenais said. “Her numbers are on par with athletes being considered for All-American honors. She was a stronghold of our offense all year despite being often double-teamed. The numbers that she put up were absolutely remarkable for the situations she was hitting in. Being the overall leader in points and hitting percentage for this league as a middle is quite remarkable and that makes her worth of additional honors as we get into the awards part of our season.”

Crump finished just behind Sarden with 386 kills. The Atlanta, Ga., native finished her UCF career with 1,489 kills, the most in UCF history during the rally scoring era. Green led the team with 126 combined blocks and joined Sarden as the only players to start every match this season. Reiterova led The American with 11.39 assists per set and had a career-high 13 double-doubles. Hayes came up with 530 digs in her first season with the Knights, second most in program history for a single season.

“I think that the other four athletes receiving second-team honors ended up exactly where we thought they should be,” Dagenais continued. “When you have that many players on a second team, that’s a credit to the balance of your squad. If we featured just one or two players offensively, we’d have had more first team players, but our philosophy is balance. Balanced teams often find it difficult to put additional players on the first team.”

With their conference awards in hand, the Knights will now look at AVCA national awards. Region awards will be announced Tuesday, Dec. 10 with All-America teams coming Wednesday, Dec. 18.

The match featured high drama as the teams exchanged the lead 13 times to go along with 29 ties. The Bearcats (2-27, 2-13) showed off tremendous heart as they battled back from a 2-1 deficit to force a deciding fifth game with a four-point win in set four. The deciding stanza proved to be the most dramatic of all as the teams were deadlocked at one, two, three, four, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14 before UCF put the match away with back-to-back points.

“We have to give Cincinnati a ton of credit,” Dagenais said. “We played hard and we didn’t always execute well, but we were really fortunate to win this match. I told everyone from the beginning if they thought this match was going to be a cakewalk they were nuts. Cincinnati is a team that’s been in a lot of close matches all year long and was coming off a big win at USF two nights ago. They are getting better and better. Coach (Molly) Alvey and her staff go in day in and day out and improve their program. They are really going in the right direction.”

Freshman outside hitter Taylor Gallart shined with 15 kills and eight digs while hitting .312. The Germantown, Md., native did not start the match, but once again provided a huge spark offensively for the Knights in relief. Senior Angelica Crump led the way with 19 kills on 50 swings, including four big hits in the final set. Junior DeLaina Sarden was solid in the middle, smacking 12 kills, hitting .312 and coming up with three block assists.

“I’m proud to be a UCF Knight,” Dagenais said when asked about win 100. “I’m proud of the players that we have and the coaching staff that we have and the fact that we’ve won 100 matches in the six years we’ve been here. We’ve turned the program and the culture around and that’s something we’re all really proud of. You look back on 100 wins and there’s just so much that goes into that. I’ve been really fortunate to be surrounded by great people, both in the gym and at home.”

Defensively is where the Black and Gold truly shined as they held Cincinnati to just a .117 attack percentage while racking up 68 digs and denying 13 shots at the net. Juniors Kaye-Alese Green and Loren Cory proved to be a formidable tandem block as they each set new-career highs with nine block assists apiece. Junior libero bounced back from her first single-digit dig effort in two months on Friday with a team-high 28 digs (5.60 per set). Freshman Shelby Foyer also got into the act from her middle back spot with 11 digs, her double-digit dig performance of her rookie season.

The Knights return to action next week for their last two home matches of the season against SMU and Houston. Friday night’s contest v. the Mustangs will be “Family Night” as family members of all players will be honored. That evening will also see the 2003 UCF Volleyball team celebrate its 10-year anniversary of reaching the NCAA tournament. Sunday’s home finale against the Cougars is “Senior Day” and will honor UCF’s two outgoing seniors, Crump and Roxy Mendez.

Earlier this season, UCF topped the Bulls (13-11, 7-3), 3-0, on Sept. 27 in front of a record crowd of 1,669 fans at VolleyBowl VI. Friday night’s match was a tightly-contested contest as USF took the Knights to the limit in the first and third sets. However, the Black and Gold’s defense was just too strong as it tied a season-high with 14 blocks while also winning the dig battle, 62-60. The Knights hit well below their season average at just a .162 clip, but responded well by holding USF to just a .101 mark.

“This is one of those matches we’ve prepared for all year long,” UCF head coach Todd Dagenais said. “This was a match that started off with two teams being nervous. I thought we settled in a little bit quicker than they did and we were able to put pressure on them and create some of their errors. The important thing for us is that we were on the road against our arch rival who’s ahead of us in the standings and we handled the pressure of those circumstances extremely well. This was the same type of match to what we had in Houston, but we learned from that experience and applied it to tonight.”

Junior DeLaina Sarden had a monster two-way game as she racked up 13 kills on 24 swings for a .458 attack percentage. The Lawrenceville, Ga., native also picked up a season-high 9 total blocks. Sarden was backed offensively by senior Angelica Crump who blasted 13 kills of her own while shouldering the heaviest offensive load on the team with 47 attempts. Junior setter Marie Reiterova dished out 32 assists while chipping in eight digs and four block assists.

“We were very specific during timeouts with what we wanted to do when we went back out on the floor,” Dagenais said. “Any time we were able to run a set play, or communicate what we wanted our players to do, they went out and executed and I give our team a lot of credit for clearing their minds during timeouts and applying the instructions we gave them.”

Senior defensive specialist Roxy Mendez tied a career-high with a team-best 15 digs while chipping in a service ace. Junior libero Jade Hayes assisted Mendez on the back row as she extended her double-digit digs streak to 18 after digging out 13 attacks. Freshman Taylor Gallart got in on the act defensively with a career-best three block assists.

The Knights get a full week off before heading back out on the road for a pair of conference matches against Rutgers at 7 p.m. next Friday followed by a Sunday matinee at 2 p.m. against UConn.

The Black and Gold, wearing pink uniforms for breast cancer awareness, held the Scarlet Knights (4-13, 0-3) to a .140 attack percentage on the match. The Knights’ defense got better as the match went on, limiting Rutgers to hit percentages of .100 in the second and .050 in the third frames.

“I think any win in conference is a quality win especially when you consider we played two teams this weekend we had never seen before in person,” UCF head coach Todd Dagenais said. “Once we figured out how Rutgers was trying to attack us, we made some adjustments with our serving and overloaded some of our blocks. Rutgers is way better than their record. They hung in there and the first and third sets could have gone either way.”

Sophomore setter Dana Faught got the nod to start for the second-consecutive match and she responded well with 34 assists, 11 digs, three block assists and two service aces. It was the second-straight double-double for the Round Rock, Texas, native as she registered a 49 assist, 12 dig effort in Friday’s victory.

“I want to give a lot of credit to Dana for her efforts this weekend,” Dagenais said. “Dana has worked really hard to put herself in a position to contribute when called upon and she deserved an opportunity to get some playing time. For her to out there and grind out two wins for us this weekend, that’s what a team player has to do. I’m really proud of her, her effort and her composure. We have all the confidence in the world in Dana and this weekend proved why.”

The Knights were led offensively by junior middle DeLaina Sarden, who blasted 10 kills and hit .421 for the match. Sarden was backed by freshman Taylor Gallart, who also recorded 10 kills and eight digs. Defensively, junior libero Jade Hayes extended her double-digit digs streak to a season-best 11 matches with a match high 16.

The crowd of 1,669 broke the all-time attendance record of 1,603 that the Knights (10-4, 1-0 The American) set in the 2009 season, also against the Bulls (6-9, 0-1) in VolleyBowl II.

“First and foremost, we have to give a big thank you to the marketing and event promotions group that put this event together and allowed it to have such a great atmosphere,” head coach Todd Dagenais said. “I think that absolutely carried us to victory. A great atmosphere can be worth three to four points every set and you look and we won by three points all three sets.”

Three Knights recorded double-digit kills, led by senior Angelica Crump who smacked 15. Backing up Crump were juniors Loren Cory and DeLaina Sarden who registered 13 and 10 respectively. Junior setter Marie Reiterova had a huge three-set double-double, dishing out 42 assists (14.00 per set) and digging out 16 shots (5.33 per set). Junior libero Jade Hayes continued her excellent play on the back row, extending her streak of double-digit digs to nine matches.

“Tonight was pretty cool,” Hayes said. “I wasn’t expecting there to be that much intensity in the UCF-USF rivalry, but it was really great. I’m glad we got our first conference win in our first try to get off to a great start.”

VolleyBowl VI provided an interesting challenge for UCF as a team. The Knights formula for success in non-conference play was to attack at a high percentage and generally outscore opponents in run and gun, offense dominated contests. With both teams hitting under .200 for the match, the Black and Gold had to really give a grinding defensive effort to win which it did as the Knights topped USF in digs, 60-43.

“This was the kind of match that I want,” Dagenais said. “I’m a blocking and defense, grind it out, score when you can kind of coach. That’s how you win in conference play.”

UCF gets a full week off before returning to action next Friday at 7 p.m. against UConn at The Venue.

UCF 3, Stephen F. Austin 2

Junior DeLaina Sarden was named tournament MVP after recording 36 kills, 14 blocks and hitting a stellar .508 in three matches. Sarden also set a new-career high with 20 kills in the championship match. Others named to the all-tournament team included freshman Taylor Gallart for her 35 kills, and junior setter Marie Reiterova who tallied 135 assists.

“We got into one of those matches where we got punched back pretty hard,” head coach Todd Dagenais said. “Even though we were up 2-0, we knew those two sets were really close. The thing Stephen F. Austin did so well is breakdown our serve/receive game. We going to shore that up, but I’m really excited that we still hit for some great numbers offensively.”

The Knights had a season-high four hitters top double-digit kills and clubbed another strong .356 team hitting percentage. Senior Angelica Crump led all players with a season-high 22 kills on a .348 attack percentage. Junior Kaye-Alese Green was a quiet force in the middle, tying her career-high with 10 kills on 16 swings (.375) and denying three shots at the net.

UCF continues to limit its opponents on offense, holding the Jacks (5-2) to a .187 hitting percentage, including .105 in the deciding fifth frame. Leading the way on the defensive end was junior Jade Hayes who totaled 22 digs. Backing Hayes up on the back line was senior Roxy Mendez who tallied a career-high 15 digs.

The Knights hit the road for the first time in the 2013 season next weekend as they travel to Atlanta, Ga., for the Georgia State Invitational. The Black and Gold will play Clemson, Davidson, Buffalo and tournament host Georgia State over two days.

UCF Classic Standings

UCF Classic All-Tournament Team

*Tournament MVP

The Knights (3-1) finished second in the tournament and return to action next Friday as they take on Elon on the opening day of the Holiday Inn Select UCF Classic.

UCF 3, Alabama State 0 – Box Score

UFC put together a balanced performance on both sides of the net in its opening contest as it hit .377 for the match while holding the Hornets (1-3) to just an .078 clip. The Black and Gold ratcheted up the defensive intensity up in the final game as Alabama State hit -.167 and recorded just six kills.

Sarden continued her dominant weekend with 15 kills on 21 swings with just a pair of errors in the opening match. The Lawrenceville, Ga., native also recorded five blocks for the third-consecutive match. Gallart made her first-career start as a Knight and responded with a strong all-around effort, tallying eight kills, four digs and one service ace. Senior defensive specialist Roxy Mendez was a steady presence on the back row with a team-high six digs.

UCF 3, UAPB 0 – Box Score

The Black and Gold were remarkably efficient in the night cap as they hit .456 as a team and committed just eight errors overall. UCF was especially strong in the serve and receive game as they racked up a season-high 12 service aces while only allowing one against.

The nightcap featured an interesting family dynamic for the Knights as freshman Shelby Foyer went head-to-head against her older sister, Jordan, a junior setter for the Lady Lions (0-4). Foyer, who has seen extensive playing time early in the season on the back row and in serve/receive, finished the match with three service aces and six digs. Gallart topped her efforts earlier in the day, leading all players with 13 kills on 23 swings for a .552 attack percentage. The Germantown, Md., native also chipped in with four service aces and a pair of digs.

UCF Invitational Standings

1. Valparaiso 4-0
2. UCF 3-1
3. North Florida 2-2
4. Alabama State 1-3
5. UAPB 0-4

UCF Invitational All-Tournament Team

*Tournament MVP