Beating FGCU (3-2) and FAU (4-2) in a double header on Friday, the UCF Knights (3-3) fell to the undefeated Miami Hurricanes (5-0) in the final game of the Sunshine State Classic.
In the first set, UCF fell to Miami in a 25-20 game. A few attack errors early on combined with Miami’s powerhouse offense gave the Hurricanes a lead that the Knights couldn’t quite catch up to.
In the second set, Miami took the win with a score of 25-19. The Knights and Hurricanes were close in score, trading serves and attacking errors. However, Miami finished strong with three kills to complete the set.
The Knights were closest to beating the Hurricanes in the third set, but still fell with the score of 25-22. Miami had multiple scoring runs and even though UCF was able to keep up, Miami could not be stopped.
Olga Strantzali lead the Hurricanes with 15 kills and only four errors compared to UCF’s Kia Bright and Kristina Fischer who both racked up nine kills each. Bright tallied 5 errors and Fischer’s errors totaled seven.
The Knights’ next game will be a match against Southern University on September 8 at 11:00 a.m. as a part of the Central Arkansas Classic.