May 24, 2023. Big 12 Business Summit. Arlington, Texas.

Eric DeSalvo ’09, UCF associate athletics director of #content, settles into his seat among the crowd of marketing and sales leadership staff from around the Big 12 Conference as the league’s commissioner, Brett Yormark, takes the stand for his opening remarks.

“He starts it off and he goes, ‘These are the four things that are my pillars: innovation, creativity, disruption and taking risks,’” DeSalvo recalls. “And I immediately think, is he talking about himself or UCF?”

Being “bold” and “innovative” and “disruptive” might just sound like hot buzz words for brands to adopt in 2023. But in UCF’s case, it’s authentic. The Knights actually are all of these adjectives because they’ve had to be.

Without the resources of longer-established universities — University of Florida was founded in 1853, Ů��AV in 1963…

Without a longstanding history of fandom and donor support — University of Texas’ alumni association was organized in 1885. UCF’s in 1975…

Without decades of nationally televised games and promotional broadcasts — Ohio State has hosted ESPN’s College GameDay a record 22 times, UCF once…

UCF has had to strategically rely on its youth to find ways to break through the noise in a state that boasts three other Power 5 institutions.

Enter: The benefit of big and the power of social media.

Building a Brand

Established in 1963, UCF’s meteoric rise to the Big 12 Conference makes it the youngest Power 5 institution in the country.

“It’s a modern athletic department. I think it’s the future of higher education. It’s the future of college sports,” says Zack Lassiter, vice president of athletics for Abilene Christian University who served as UCF’s senior associate athletic director of external operations from 2012-15.

But it wasn’t always necessarily this way.

DeSalvo knows UCF’s brand arguably better than anyone. The son of UCF graduate Joe DeSalvo ’75, he grew up going to UCF games in the mid-1990s at the Citrus Bowl and went on to graduate from UCF himself. He has worked for the athletic department since 2011 — first in communications before he transitioned to what is now known as the #content department in 2013.

He says in his youth, he would have described UCF as having “a lot of potential” and “on the brink.”

“For a long time, UCF was “UC-If” — If we only didn’t get a phantom holding call against Georgia. If we didn’t miss the extra point here. And there were so many of those games across all sports that you were like, you’re right there —  if only,” he says. “But you saw the potential. You were definitely on the cusp.”

On3 National College Football host Andy Staples, who moved to Central Florida as a middle schooler and graduated from Lake Mary High School, echoes the same sentiments.

“You didn’t think of Ů��AV in the same way you would have thought of Miami or Florida State or Florida,” Staples says. “You’d go to the campus and you didn’t see a lot of UCF gear. It didn’t feel like a destination-type campus. We went there a lot for science fairs or somebody would be having their graduation at the arena — it didn’t feel as much like a place that people say, ‘I grow up wanting to go to UCF,’ or ‘I’ve been a UCF fan my whole life.’ You just never would expect anybody to say that back in the ’90s. Watching it change over the decades has been pretty amazing.”

“ ‘I’ve been a UCF fan my whole life.’ You just never would expect anybody to say that back in the ’90s. Watching it change over the decades has been pretty amazing.” — Andy Staples, On3 National College Football host

When former Athletic Director Todd Stansbury recruited Lassiter to join UCF’s athletic department in 2012, the west coast native didn’t have much familiarity with UCF.

Lassiter made it a point to ask a lot of questions and listen to campus counterparts, young alumni and students to gain a better understanding of how the university had gotten to where it was so quickly.

“We were young, but we were big, and so in that sense you could tell that, that was something that we could probably do better than anyone else,” Lassiter says.

Indeed, UCF’s enrollment in 2012 just tipped 60,000. Today it’s more than 68,000. The university confers more than 18,000 degrees annually, and its alumni base clocks in at more than 368,000 — nearly half of which still live in Central Florida.

Perhaps the most important stat is that the average alumni age is 42 years old. So, by the time that Lassiter joined the fold, social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter, founded in 2006) and Instagram (founded in 2010) were starting to really take off in the sports world and UCF’s biggest fan base was very active on social media.

It was the perfect combination.

“Perception is reality. And if you feel like you’re getting hit up by a bunch of UCF fans on Twitter, their reality is you are because the numbers are there between our enrollment and alumni,” DeSalvo says. “Our fanbase can celebrate the big moments with big numbers. They can pile on to somebody who shows some disrespect. They can win a Twitter poll like no other. By always showing up, they’ve backed up what is on paper.”

So, the department decided to lean into social to stand out. UCF Athletics hired a full-time social media manager, Keal Blache ’11, who served a short stint. When he vacated the position in 2013, Lassiter approached DeSalvo about the opening because of DeSalvo’s penchant for being creative with the social accounts in his role at the time as the communications contact for the volleyball and baseball teams.

“I’ll never forget — I think I’m at (former UCF basketball player and athletics staff member) Mike O’Donnell’s wedding. And Todd Stansbury’s there and he goes, ‘Hey you’re moving over to the social role, right?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah.’ He goes, ‘Alright. Push the envelope.’ OK. Todd is telling me to push the envelope. I’ll do my best.

“I can thank Blake Bortles and Storm Johnson and J.J. Worton ’14 �����Ի� Terrance Plummer ’21 and that crew for helping me push the envelope because there’s no greater year one than going to the .”

In the last decade, UCF has had three athletic directors — all of whom DeSalvo says have continued to buy-into the “push the envelope” mentality — four football head coaches and four university presidential leadership transitions. But the same voice on social media, which has benefitted Ů��AV immensely.

“If there is somebody better at what Eric has done and what he has built, I haven’t met him. And there were a lot of other talented people that were a part of that. But I think what made him so great is he believed it,” Lassiter says. “He could do it in a way that could connect, and a lot of our folks loved that it was a Ů��AV person doing this. That’s the authenticity of what social can be at its best — how do you become yourself in a way that galvanizes and gets people excited? He ran with it in ways that I hope 50 years from now if there’s a story about who were those individuals that played a part of that, I think Eric deserves a ton of credit for what he did. I think he had a lot of really talented people around him, and he was given kind of the keys to the kingdom so to speak, and we took off.”

Those talented people are who DeSalvo credits for the team’s ability to not only stay relevant but maintain UCF’s status as one of the best brands to follow.

“The staff is key. I can’t have all the ideas. The ideas can come from anyone — from the AD (athletics director) to the interns, and many have over the years,” DeSalvo says. “We also have a work environment to where it’s loose, but they are well aware of who our brand is. I always say, ‘There’s no bad ideas.’ I also get to say, ‘We don’t say no around here a whole bunch.’ If it’s trending and there’s a way we can insert UCF’s brand into this conversation and it makes sense, let’s do it.”

The Tweets That Made Us

Nicole Auerbach, The Athletic Senior Writer: Not everyone realized this as early as UCF, where social media is about fun. It’s about engaging and having fun, maybe going viral. But it’s about doing things that are different and not just having no personality. They always had personality, and I think that was immediately embraced by the fan base that was very online and very ready to engage on any topic.

Eric DeSalvo: The tweet was on a whim. I’m with (former Associate Athletics Director for Strategic Communications) Dan Forcella and I drafted it before the playoff selection show had gotten to it. We were wanting it to be Bama. And it happens, and I hit send. It really put us out there. It’s my favorite tweet I’ve gotten to send.

Eric DeSalvo: That was designed by (former graphic designer) Channing Curtis. We kept seeing the Elmo version, and I asked him, “Hey can you just put Knightro in his place?” The first time we ever got to use it — he made it that day — we cracked the top 10 in the College Football Playoff rankings.

Andy Staples: I use Knightro gifs pretty frequently. I think Knightro with flames behind him is a very effective way of getting your point across. Those folks are very online. They’re very savvy. They know how to get our attention in the media, and they know how to keep the discussion going. They will defend UCF tooth and nail. They will not let you get away with slandering Ů��AV in any way, shape or form. Which I appreciate. And there are other fan bases that are like that. But [UCF] seems to be a little more in on the joke than some of the others. The more established fanbases, you get people who are just mad at you. UCF Twitter, they know what they’re doing. And they know they know what they’re doing.

Eric DeSalvo: I wasn’t at that game — I was at my mother-in-law’s. But the game was on ESPN3. You could actually rewind, thankfully. He catches that ball. I’m losing my mind.

That was the No. 1 Vine for us for a long time. That one was getting so much national play.

That’s up there because it was so iconic.

DeSalvo: I joke that my iPhone that shot Danny White saying “national champs, undefeated” should go to the (UCF Athletics) Hall of Fame.

Nobody knew Danny was going to say that. We had a plan in place where we would continue to challenge the CFP. That’s what we were doing and needed to do for our team. (Senior Executive Associate Athletics Director of Brand Advancement and Chief Branding Officer) Jimmy Skiles took precedent from when he saw the year Auburn wasn’t in the national championship game and were undefeated — they had national championship rings made for their team. It was on the front cover of Sports Illustrated. And he remembered it. If they could do that back then, why can’t we?

So, we crafted messaging for like “undefeated champions.” We didn’t straight up say national champions. (Former graphic designer) Chris Stoney made some motion graphics, “13-0. Only undefeated team, who’s next?”

We knew if we didn’t do anything by the time our game ended and the playoff game started that day, we would be kind of irrelevant in the grand scheme of games. It would be a nice win and move on.

People should know Danny looking into my phone wasn’t anything new. I kind of conditioned him to do that, especially at road wins. I would go live at Facebook right as the clock would hit zero to take fans behind the scenes. A lot of the time we’d be walking by Danny as we went to the locker room. So, it wasn’t anything new for him to see my phone get shoved in his face.

He just quickly says those magic words. Oh boy. Here we go.

Andy Staples: Don’t run afoul of UCF Twitter. That’s all I got to say. This is a very passionate, very aggressive online fan base. Which listen that will fit right in (the Big 12). The good thing about Ů��AV is that passion will match with Kansas State and Oklahoma State and Iowa State — they are extraordinarily passionate people. They really love their teams. These are groups that will really appreciate one another.

Charging On

As social media has served as one of the tools to help define UCF’s brand over the years, one constant has been the Knights’ ability to rise up, to band together, to believe in its potential — to Charge On.

As a rallying cry, Charge On was introduced during the Stansbury and Lassiter era.

“It wasn’t as though there was one calling card that really captured the energy or the belief of a UCF fan — like ‘Go Knights!’ was something to where, well how many other Knights are there in college athletics?” Lassiter says. “And I remember thinking that in social media hashtags were really important. What is that we can do?”

“Obviously a decade later it’s become something that I feel is the perfect, simple way to describe who Ů��AV is.” — Zack Lassiter, UCF’s senior associate athletic director of external operations from 2012-15.

And then Charge On surfaced. Lassiter recalls the idea came from an alum, who suggested it because the phrase is part of the lyrics in UCF’s fight song.

“When the idea was proposed, it seemed to make too much sense,” Lassiter says. “This describes who we are. There’s a great history behind it. It’s incredibly nimble and flexible in how you can apply it certain ways.”

So, Lassiter conducted an experiment. He walked around UCF Athletics’ main administration buildings and starting using the term without explanation to elicit genuine reactions from the staffers.

“Nobody could figure out a way to say why that wouldn’t work,” he says. “Obviously a decade later it’s become something that I feel is the perfect, simple way to describe who Ů��AV is.”

There is still so much of UCF’s story to be written. More traditions to carve out. More pushing the envelope unapologetically.

And what makes DeSalvo and the rest of the gatekeepers of the brand excited about the next chapter is the union with the renegades of the Big 12.

“We’re finally in a league that is exactly where we should be … its identity is completely us,” DeSalvo says. “Not only do we get to do this stuff here and try to do it as big as possible, now we have the backing of a Power 5 league that is going to help just throw gasoline on the fire and get it out there further.”

“I could not be more proud of this group of women and group of coaches,”says head coach Todd Dagenais.”The last 13 months have been beyond comprehension in terms of putting it into words… The mental and emotional toll that it takes… And yet, as we watch teams all across the country crack or fail, we never did.”

With the win, the Knights finish the regular season with an undefeated record in conference play, a feat that has not been accomplished since 2018 when UCF went a perfect, 18-0 against AAC competition. In 2019, UCF rode the momentum of its home fans and stormed to a five-set victory over No. 1 seed Cincinnati to claim the .

The Knights posted a perfect, 8-0 record against American opponents in 2020-21, outscoring them 24-1 along the way. UCF has won 49 of its last 51 matches in The American dating back to 2017.

The Knights again made quick work of the Bulls in the contest, opening set one with a 25-23 win before taking set two by a nine-point margin and finishing the match off with a 25-22 victory.

Coach Dagenais and Associate Head Coach Jenny Maurer spread the offensive production around about as evenly as possible as six different Knights posted over five kills and none posted more than nine.

Leading the way, finished with a team-high nine kills, hitting .412 along the way and chiming in with three block assists.

continued on her career season as the senior middle blocker turned in a six-block performance and also knocked down six kills while hitting at a team-high .750 clip.

Following the weekend sweep over South Florida, UCF will now turn it’s attention to the postseason as the Knights will head to Cincinnati, Ohio to play in the second annual American Athletic Conference Championship Tournament. UCF will play Tulane in the semifinal game on Friday, April 2 at 2:00 p.m. The Knights faced The Green Wave at home earlier this season, defeating them twice, both 3-1.

With the victory, UCF secured the automatic bid representing The American into the NCAA Championship. The Knights will make their 10th appearance all-time in the NCAA tournament.

“I am so happy and so proud of these athletes who have worked so hard.” – UCF Volleyball Head Coach Todd Dagenais.

“I am so happy and so proud of these athletes who have worked so hard,” says UCF Volleyball Head Coach Todd Dagenais. “There was a lot of pressure put on us … but I also knew Cincinnati was probably the team to beat this year. They are a tremendous team.”

Unanimous all-conference first-team selection  powered the Knights with 27 kills and 12 digs, adding in four blocks. Melville finished the tournament with 59 kills, 37 digs and seven blocks to earn championship Most Outstanding Player honors. All-conference first-team choice  kicked in 11 kills, a .375 hitting percentage and nine blocks in the title match to join fellow all-conference first-teamer  (12 kills, 13 digs) on the American Athletic Conference Championship All-Tournament Team.

The conference title garnered UCF an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The Knights’ seeding, dates and location of play is all yet to be determined. The NCAA selection show will air on Sunday, Dec. 1 at 8:30 p.m. ET on ESPNU.

First Set

The Bearcats struck first in the contest, but back-to-back rejections from the Knights gave them the early, 2-1 lead. UCF held onto its advantage later into their set as an  service ace extended the lead to 12-9, but a five-point Bearcats run would put them up, 15-13 at the media timeout. As the Knights fought back, A  kill cut the deficit to 21-19 and Cincinnati would call their first timeout. The Bearcats would recoup after the stoppage as they would go on to win the first set, 25-21.

Second Set

UCF started off in control of the second set, going up 11-7 to force an early Cincinnati timeout. When play resumed, the Knights kept their momentum, outscoring the Bearcats, 3-1 over the next four rallies to bring the UCF lead to 14-8. UCF would only grow their lead as a  kill put them up 19-11, and another Cincinnati timeout was called. The Black and Gold would keep the pressure on as they went on to with the second set, 25-16.

Third Set

The Bearcats seemed to be in control for much of the third set, leading by as many as six points at 18-12 before the Knights called for time. UCF closed within two at 18-16 before the Bearcats ran ahead to set point at 24-18. The Knights answered with an outstanding comeback, utilizing three blocks and a pair of Cincinnati errors to sweep the final eight points for the improbable, 26-24 set victory.

Fourth Set

It was another classic of a set in the fourth, with the neither squad separating themselves by more than two points. Keeping with the same no-quit mentality they had in the third set, UCF fought off set point twice to square things at 24-all, but back-to-back Cincinnati kills provided the 26-24 winning margin to send the matchup to the fifth and deciding set.

Fifth Set

The final set began in similar fashion to the rest of the match, with the two teams’ neck-and-neck. Jordan Thompson missed an attack out of bounds to give the Knights the 7-6 lead and UCF broke an 8-8 tie after a block assist and kill, extending their lead as high as 13-8 on the 6-0 run. A kill by the Knights on match point gave Ů��AV its third overall American championship with a 15-10 victory.

Continue to follow UCF Volleyball on social media on , �����Ի� Instagram for the latest on the UCF volleyball season.

UCF will face Florida Gulf Coast on Thursday in The Venue. In the other side of the bracket, Florida will face Florida State. The winners of the two matches will meet at 7 p.m. on Friday.

Tickets for all matches can be purchased online.

The Knights are in the midst of a historic season. The Black and Gold enters the postseason riding a 24-match winning streak and a 27-3 record overall. The champion of the American Athletic Conference, UCF went a perfect 18-0 to clinch the league title, becoming just the third team to go undefeated in the league’s history.

Last month, the Knights moved into the American Volleyball Coaches Association Coaches Poll for the first time in program history, moving up to No. 21 nationally two weeks ago.

UCF has exceeded expectations all year long. Picked to finish fifth in The American, and consistently featuring a starting lineup with six underclassmen, the Knights have one of the most balanced programs in the nation. The Black and Gold led The American in assists, kills and blocks.

Freshman outside hitter McKenna Melville has been a force to be reckoned with this season, as the rookie ranks 15th and 16th in the nation in kills and points per set. Fellow rookie Kathryn Wesolich is closing in on the single-season block assists record, and lone senior Jordan Pingel, who has already smashed the program’s career digs record, needs just two saves to break the single-season record.

I love movie lines. So many epic motivational themes about overcoming obstacles come from movies like “Braveheart,” “Rocky” and “Remember the Titans.”

Admittedly my opening quote doesn’t come from any one of these award-winning cinematic masterpieces. It comes from the much-less-appreciated classic “Dumb and Dumber.” Yet “a chance” has become a seven-year running theme for our UCF Volleyball program.

Nearly eight years ago I walked into a room of about 10 young women who just lost their coach and suffered through two humiliating seasons in which their conference record was 1-31. I was their new coach, and I was expected to make them a nationally competitive team. I knew that UCF was a great school, in a great location, and the athletic department had the full support of the university to be nationally competitive in all sports.

Therefore, I knew UCF Volleyball had “a chance.”

Sure, this was going to be the greatest challenge in my career. As a matter of fact, as far as we could tell, no team has ever become a conference champion in women’s volleyball in the years after suffering through a season with zero wins. Combined with the fact that all current and future team members would come from the often criticized “iY” Generation made – those younger Millennials born after 1990 – the challenge was even greater. 

Would I be able to find enough players who didn’t feel “entitled” or demand “guaranteed” playing time? Even if I did, would they have the athletic ability, talent and dedication necessary to do something that has never been done before?

Standing in that room, in front of those players, I made only one “guarantee.” If they commit to being the best teammate they have ever been, if they are willing to work physically harder than they ever worked before, and if they commit to being the best possible students they can be, then I would guarantee them one thing: a chance.

The first team worked more than 1,000 hours in the gym, on the track, in the weight room, classroom, and tutoring sessions. They did everything I asked them to, and it gave them their chance. They won six conference matches, the most since moving to a more competitive conference. Most importantly, they planted the seed that would grow for the next six seasons.

Over the next five seasons every recruit heard the same speech. It went something this this:

“I make no guarantees. If you’re willing to do everything that I ask you to do, then you will be rewarded with ‘a chance.’ That chance is to be a member of my team. If you are willing to train hard, make smart decisions, and earn good grades, then you may earn a chance to play. While playing, if you are able to perform well, handle the constant pressure, and manage performance anxiety then you may earn a chance to start. If I could get enough like-minded starters who share the same goals, then we would have a chance to win.”

The 2008 team planted the seed, the 2009-2013 teams watered the seed, grew the plants, and protected them from the weeds. They were faithful to our core beliefs, ideals, and vision. They made lifelong friends, earned a wonderful education, traveled the country, but they never felt the satisfaction of being a champion. Those six teams were merely setting the table for the 2014 team to seize the ultimate chance.

The core group of the 2014 UCF Women’s Volleyball team has been in place for nearly four years. In those years they practiced 22 weeks a year for 20 hours a week. They were also full-time students with extremely high academic expectations. The amount of hours that they have invested in the classroom, on the court, in the weight room, and in the athletic training room, numbered in the thousands. Yet, those hours guaranteed them nothing more than a chance.

However, we knew that with six seniors on our roster, this was the golden opportunity to make a major breakthrough if we prepared the right way.

We needed to do something special to prepare this team for the start of the 2014 season in August. In May, our team raised nearly $40,000 and we took a team training trip to Winnipeg, Canada. While in Winnipeg we lived together, ate together, and trained against the Canadian national team every single day for a week.

Despite all of the money raised, all the training time, and a week’s worth of competition against the Canadians, we were never guaranteed a successful fall season. It only gave us “a chance.”

After we returned from Canada the players took a few weeks off and then reported back to campus to begin a summer term. Not just one or two players were there, but the entire team. Lifting and running in the grueling Florida heat and humidity can be relentless and demanding, but they suffered through it together. Still, all those hours on the track, and all those hours in the weight room, didn’t promise us anything definite.

Our team reported to practice in early August with high hopes and great expectations. The coaching staff made a decision to play the toughest pre-season schedule possible to prepare us for the American Athletic Conference season.

As fate would have it, the first weekend of conference matches were on the road against SMU and Tulsa. Both teams were picked to finish in the top three in the American Athletic Conference. Somehow, we found a way to earn close wins both matches and started the conference season 2-0. This fantastic weekend may have given us the early lead in the conference standings, but we were far from a conference championship.  Those two wins, however, did give us a jump-start.

Over the next eight weeks, our players went through the most intense practices and volleyball matches they have had in their lives. Each coaching staff member was working 80-100 hours per week watching film, creating scouting reports, and preparing the team to compete successfully.

Finally, on Nov. 23, we were standing face to face with “the chance.”  Seven years of work, thousands of hours of training, relentless belief that we would be in that position one day to do something special.  That was the day, the day we had “the chance.”

With four matches remaining in the regular season we had a two-match lead in the conference standings.  A win against Houston meant that UCF Volleyball would defy history and officially go from “worst to first” in the conference. The match started at 7 p.m., and as you can see in the picture above at 8:46 p.m. we finally seized “our chance.” We finished the season at 25-7 and earned a spot in the NCAA tournament. 

What you won’t see in the photo is the 55 players, six coaches and several managers and staffers who unselfishly gave everything they had from 2008 to 2013 just so the 2014 team could finally wear the championship ring.

Those people never asked for guarantees. They just wanted to make sure at some time, in some place, somebody who had walked in their shoes would have that “chance.” We dedicate this conference championship to all of those people.

Todd Dagenais is UCF’s head volleyball coach. He can be reached at tdagenais@athletics.ucf.edu.

“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.

With wins over both SMU and Tulsa this weekend, the Knights (9-5, 2-0 AAC) defeated both the Mustangs and Hurricane on the road in the same season for the first time in program history.

“This marked the end of historic weekend for UCF Volleyball,” UCF head coach Todd Dagenais said. “To go on the road and defeat SMU and Tulsa was huge for us and it marks a milestone for the program.”

Tulsa took an early lead, but the Knights slowly chipped away until a kill from sophomore Kia Bright tied the first set at 18. After trading points, senior Loren Cory gave UCF the lead for good and the Knights capitalized with a 25-23 opening set win.

After a back-and-forth battle in the early going, the Hurricane used a six point run late in the second set to even the match at 1-1. The Knights broke up a 19-19 tie in set three with a kill and a block from senior Kaye-Alese Green, who also slammed a hard kill for UCF’s set point.

Trailing 12-8 in the fourth set, UCF went on a 15-4 run that featured five blocks from the Knights. Two Tulsa timeouts could not stop the Black and Gold’s momentum and senior Marie Reiterova set up a kill for senior DeLaina Sarden for the set and match victory.

Coach Dagenais noted that the Knights really worked on blocking this week, which showed as UCF finished with 12.5 team blocks. Green led UCF with seven total blocks, including a pair of solo blocks. Sarden and Cory both finished with five blocks for the Knights.

UCF started off with a .438 hitting percentage in the opening set and continued the efficiency by hitting above .300 in all four sets. The Knights finished with a .371 hitting percentage as a team.

“Today it was our offense that allowed us to win the match,” Dagenais said. “We had a match where we had to fight, knowing that we weren’t doing something we’re capable of doing. We got over that fact and executed the areas that allowed us to win.”

Sophomore Jale Hervey led the Knights with 17 kills while hitting .500 in the match. Green notched 12 kills while hitting .429 on the day. Bright tallied 15 kills for UCF while senior Jade Hayes recorded a match-high 19 digs and served up an ace. Junior Dana Faught finished with 28 assists, and Reiterova tallied 26 assists.

“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.

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As a parent myself, I get it. You should be your kid’s biggest supporter. But for parents of high school athletes, in particular, it’s important to maintain perspective. Don’t lose sleep worrying about catering to every need of your athletic child. Don’t spend insane amounts of money trying to get your child noticed by college sport recruiters, and please don’t relentlessly chase that athletic scholarship.

Does it shock you this advice is coming from a Division I collegiate head coach?

With a Division I scholarship worth upwards of $250,000, the race to earn a scholarship can be quite intense. In reality, it’s starting to get out of control. Private lessons, video-production companies and recruiting services have become such an unnecessary part of high school sports. Let’s examine some of the facts.

Just how many scholarships are given each year, and what percentage of graduating high school players actually earn a Division I scholarship?

In women’s volleyball, for example, roughly 100,000 young players graduate from high school each year. Each of them is technically part of the college recruiting pool. All coaches have a very specific list of athletic requirements their prospects must meet, without any exception. If they don’t meet the athletic requirements, they don’t make the list. For my volleyball program at UCF, 100,000 prospects quickly dwindles to a recruiting pool of 1,500.

Now begins the toughest part of the process. College coaches begin to evaluate prospects on two of the most important requirements: academic ability and character.

The sport of women’s volleyball is quite fortunate. For the most part, young women playing our sport range between above average to elite in their academic profile. There have only been a couple of occasions in my seven years at UCF when we were forced to eliminate a prospect due to a poor academic resume. Our team currently carries a 3.4 GPA, has a 100 percent graduation rate, and we are in the top 10 percent nationally in term of academic progress. Anyone who isn’t capable of maintaining my academic standards is off my list — again, with no exceptions.

It’s an incredible challenge to determine character and work ethic. We can decide in five minutes if someone has the athletic ability to play in our program, but sometimes it takes us more than a year to determine if they have the “character” to be a part of our program.

We spend time watching prospects at high school and club matches. We talk to their teachers and guidance counselors. We watch how they interact with their coaches, teammates and parents. A prospect’s true character is always revealed in moments of failure and stress.

Playing sports provides plenty of opportunities for both.

Corporate human resources and collegiate athletics recruiting are ironically similar. We seek out talented people, interview them, compare them to other candidates, and ultimately select the right person for the position. It’s extremely important that prospects understand they also are being judged by what they put on their Facebook page, and what they write and retweet on their Twitter account. One lapse in judgment could cost them $250,000. It’s already happened many, many times.

Our recruiting list that started at 100,000 and was cut to 1,500 based on athletic talents, now sits at 500 after we determine if the students are the right “fit” for our program. So how many of those 500 prospects will get a scholarship offer from UCF? Three. That’s right…three.

NCAA Women’s Volleyball allows 12 scholarships on a team per year, which equates to three in each graduating class. The odds are not very good, are they?

Even if we look at the national landscape, the odds don’t improve very much. There are 900-950 Division I scholarships awarded annually. Take into account the original 100,000 prospects, and then the true odds become painfully clear. Less than 1 percent of high school senior volleyball players are going to get a Division I scholarship. Add in Division II, Division III, NAIA, and Junior College combined, and less than 3 percent will be awarded a scholarship.

So my advice to parents of a high school athlete: Enjoy these years. Keep everything in perspective. An athletic scholarship shouldn’t be the goal; the goal should be all of the wonderful life lessons – achievement, defeat, teamwork – that sports can teach us.

Quit paying for private lessons and expensive club sports for the sole purpose of earning an athletic scholarship. Private lessons are for improving performance at something you love to do. Sports should be about enjoying the competition and spending time with friends who have similar interests. All that time and energy you are spending on being noticed by a college recruiter is better spent concentrating on academics.

Use that time to determine what skills your child is proficient in and what they are passionate about. As I tell my players: “Your career has an address, and it’s located at the intersection of proficiency and passion.”

Your child’s involvement in sports should be about determining what they love, what they’re good at, what they can learn, and how they can apply these lessons to real life. 

Todd Dagenais is UCF’s head volleyball coach. He can be reached at tdagenais@athletics.ucf.edu.