BOX SCORE
ORLANDO - (Sept. 11) Seattle University volleyball closed out play at the Holiday Inn Orlando East UCF Area Classic in Orlando Sunday with a 3-0, setback to host Central Florida.
The Redhawks (5-5) got a team-high 13 kills from freshman Katarina Marinkovic, who also hit a match-high .387, and 12 kills from senior Matea Mamic. Mamic was also named to the All-Tournament Team after recording double-digit kills in all three matches.
"I am never happy with a loss, but today we saw the team we can be," said SU Head Coach James Finley. "We played great defense, played together and played harder than we have so far this year. UCF did not make the errors we did and played a strong match. If we can take this effort and frow from here, we will have a very good year."
UCF (7-3) was paced by Jale Hervey’s 15 kills while Kia Bright added 10 for the Knights who hit an impressive .324 for the match.
The Knights opened up a 17-11 lead midway through the first set, but SU slowly battled back and a pair of UCF attack errors brought the Redhawks within one, 18-17.
Back-to-back kills by Mamic and Marinkovic tied the score at 21-21 and SU briefly took a one-point lead , 23-22, on a Katarina Glavinic kill. But Jeanne Westney put down a kill for UCF and attack errors by the Redhawks closed out the set.
Set two saw a similar pattern as the teams went back and forth early, before UCF strung together points midway through, opening up a 15-9 advantage. This time, the Redhawks could not close the gap in a 25-18 final.
"We had strong performances today from Matea, as well as from freshmen Katarina (Marinkovic), Kahle (Elliott) and Kory (White)," Finley added. "Kahle came in and had a solid third set while Kory had a nice day in the middle and really grew all weekend long."
Leading two sets to none, the Knights never trailed in the third set as SU fell, 25-23.
The Redhawks remain on the East Coast next weekend for matches against Princeton, Seton Hall and Rutgers at the Rutgers Invitational Sept. 15-16 in New Brunswick, N.J..