Riding the momentum of back-to-back triumphs over Arkansas State on Friday and Florida Atlantic on Saturday, UCF entered Sunday’s matchup with Brown eyeing a weekend sweep.
Instead, the Knights were stunned, dropping the finale in four sets to the Bears.
The loss came in UCF’s final tune-up before their upcoming conference opener against No. 21 Baylor on Tuesday, giving the Knights a chance to assess their strengths and weaknesses ahead of facing a top-ranked opponent.
Brown (3-3) quieted The Venue
early with a 25-20 opening set and seized control in a marathon 62-point second set, edging UCF 32-30 in a tense back-and-forth battle.
UCF (7-2) answered with a convincing 25-17 win in set three, but the rally fizzled as the Bears regained momentum to secure the upset.
Miscues piled up and proved costly for the Knights, with 21 service errors and 19 attack errors, while Brown kept cleaner with just nine from the line and 15 on the attack.
Head coach Matt Botsford said Brown’s pressure from the service line made the difference and exposed an area where the Knights struggled.
“This match really shows the power of serve and pass, which has been quite favorable for us over these past eight matches,” Botsford said. “Today was quite the opposite.”
Botsford highlighted the team’s defensive challenges against Brown and said improving in this area will be a priority as the Black and Gold head into conference play.
“We’ve got to find a better balance of understanding how we can weaponize serving but also how quickly it can turn against you if you’re not in the right frame of mind back there at the service line,” Botsford said. “We didn’t understand the flow of the game that well.”
Sophomore outside hitter Fallon Stewart said the team needs to be able to bounce back and recover in the moment, not when it is too late.
“Today we got into a few ruts where the other team strung together points that we could’ve stopped,” Stewart said. “Finding ways to break out of those ruts and developing coping strategies will be really helpful moving forward.”
Senior outside hitter Reaghan Thompson said the team is focusing on learning from its mistakes ahead of its matchup with Baylor and plans on making adjustments in practice.
“My mom always told me that L stands for learn, so I think just realizing where our weaknesses are and the different things that we can fix in practice will help us,” Thompson said. “Obviously, we only have one day until Baylor, but I have confidence in our team to use that day as a scouting opportunity and figure out what we need to do to win.”
Two players reached major career milestones during the second home opening tournament.
Senior libero Sophia Kotsovolos posted a season-high 20 digs against Florida Atlantic, pushing her past 1000 career digs. She now joins 55 active DI players with four-digit dig totals.
The following day, fifth-year outside hitter Skylar English reached the 1000-kill mark with 11 against Brown, becoming one of 50 active Division 1 players to achieve that milestone. English is also closing in on 200 career aces, currently leading all active D1 players with 193.
Looking ahead to Tuesday’s contest with the Bears, Thompson sits just four blocks shy of 400, with 396 to her name. Thompson has averaged just under a block per set (0.94) and is aiming to become the seventh active D1 player with 400 or more career blocks.
