This past week and a half of UCF Knights sports saw one team getting a statement win, other teams hitting some bumps in the road and one more alumnus competing in Tokyo, plus we name the Knight of the Week in your latest KnightCap for Tuesday, September 7.

---

#18 Women’s Soccer Stops #7 Penn State

The No. 18-ranked UCF Women’s Soccer team earned a resume-defining win against No. 7-ranked Penn State Sunday night.

The win comes three days after the team lost, 4-2, to another Big Ten team, Ohio State.

Senior forward Kristen Scott scored both goals for the Knights. The first came in the 26th minute with assists from sophomore midfielder Maggie Jenkins and junior forward Ellie Moreno. The second goal came in the 62nd minute, after a two and half-hour long weather delay, with assists from Moreno and sophomore midfielder Katie Bradley.

Redshirt junior goalkeeper Caroline DeLisle got six saves on the night, two of which came in the final 15 minutes to prevent an equalizing goal by Penn State.

“We had such a great game tonight because Caroline DeLisle had a great game tonight,” head coach Tiffany Roberts Sahaydak said after the game. “She was so inspiring. We saw her doing things that were unbelievable and it required the rest of the team to do things just as great as her.”

This week, the team will be riding the momentum for this game as they head out on the road to Ole Miss on Sept. 9 at 7 p.m.. Information on the broadcast of this game remains forthcoming.

However, the team’s next match after that will be back in Orlando against No. 2-ranked North Carolina on Sept. 12 at 1 p.m.. The match is confirmed to be streaming on ESPN+.

---

Men’s Soccer Goes Winless in Raleigh

Despite a late-match rally, the UCF Men’s Soccer Team fell to NC State Monday in the George Tarantini Classic, 2-1.

The Wolfpack got both of their goals in the first half thanks to freshman midfielder Yaniv Bazini, with an assist from senior midfielder Alex Hernandez, and junior forward Jared Miller, with an assist from senior forward Ivy Brisma.

The second half belonged to the Knights as they attempted to rally from the two-goal deficit. The team forced seven corners (NC State had no corners in the second half) and shot the ball nine times in the second half.

One of those shots made it into the net in the 74th minute for UCF’s lone goal of the night, thanks to junior forward Gino Vivi, with the assist from fifth-year senior midfielder Nick Taylor. This was totally worth another look:

The Knights also fell 2-1 on Friday to No. 10 Virginia Tech.

Sophomore forward Lucca Dourado scored the Knights’ only goal in the 36th minute with an assist from sophomore defender Anderson Rosa.

However, two goals in the 60th minute by Virginia Tech’s sophomore midfielder Landon Ameres and senior forward Jacob Labovitz put the Hokies in the lead for the rest of the match.

It did not help that Dourado was ejected from the game with a simultaneous yellow and red card in the 82nd minute.

The pair of losses drops the team's record to 1-3.

Later this week, the team will return home to Orlando to take on Florida Gulf Coast on Sept. 11 at 1 p.m.. Broadcast information about this game remains forthcoming.

---

Men’s Golf Opens Season with Runner-Up Performance in Island Resort Intercollegiate

The UCF Men’s Golf Team finished in 2nd place to open its season at the Island Resort Intercollegiate at Sage Run Golf Club in Harris, Michigan.

The team finished +8 for the tournament, a distant runner-up to Michigan State, who won the tournament at -15 par. This comes despite UCF leading the tournament in pars, with 170, compared to Michigan State’s 153, which was the sixth-most.

However, the Spartans would make up for this by leading the tournament with 4 eagles and 60 birdies, 15 more than the three teams tied for the second-most. UCF was the only other team to hit multiple eagles (2).

Individually, senior Clement Charmasson hit the lowest round of the tournament with a 1st round -6, but would ultimately finish the tournament in a tie for 3rd place at -3.

Senior Luis Carrera and sophomore Egor Eroshenko also finished in the individual Top 20 with +3 and +6 tournaments respectively.

The team’s next tournament will be the Hartford Hawks Invitational from Sept. 20-21 in South Kent, Connecticut.

---

Volleyball Goes 1-2 in Palmetto Showdown

The UCF Volleyball team returns from the Palmetto Showdown in Columbia, South Carolina with a 1-2 record for the week, bringing the team’s overall record to 2-4.

The team started off the Showdown on Sept. 2 with a 3-1 win against Clemson. Senior outside hitter McKenna Melville led the team with 23 points and 19 kills, while sophomore libero Chloe Scheer put up 16 digs.

Later that day, despite a close third set, the team was swept in its first match of the Showdown against South Carolina. This came despite 22 kills from Melville.

The Knights lost to the Gamecocks once more, 3-1, in the last match of the Palmetto Showdown the next day. Though, in an improvement from the previous match, the team never lost a set by more than 6 points. The team even won in the third set on a kill from senior outside hitter Tali Marmen.

Melville once again led the team 20 kills and 22.5 of the team’s 67 total points. Scheer once again led the team in digs, with 18, but Melville was close behind with 17.

The Knights will return home this weekend for the UCF Invitational, which will see the team take on Florida Gulf Coast and Florida State on Friday at 10 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. respectively and Georgia on Saturday at 3 p.m.

---

Cross Country opens season with 2nd place finish in Boca

The UCF Cross Country team opened their season on Sept. 1 with a 2nd place finish at the FAU Invitational in Boca Raton.

The team’s Top 5 runners finished the 5K Run with an average time of 18:57.68 and a score of 49 (the sum of the Top 5 runners’ finishing places), which only came up short of Miami (FL), who won the meet with an average time of 18:38.60 and 26 points.

Individually, freshman Lillian Holtery led the team in her first collegiate meet, finishing in 5th place with an 18:41.42 time. Joining her in the Top 15 are sophomore Mariana Rodriguez (8th, 18:49.04) and freshman MacKenzie Czurak (10th, 18:57.83), Kambry Smith (12th, 19:07.28), and Rachel Wheatley (14th, 19:12.81).

The team’s next meet will be the Mountain Dew Invitational in Gainesville on Sept. 11.

---

UCF Alum Kyle Coon Finishes 5th in Paratriathlon

On Aug. 28, alumnus Kyle Coon finished 5th in the Men’s PTVI Paratriathlon in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics.

Coon finished with a 1:03:00 time, which was about two minutes behind the gold-medal winner, and fellow American, Brad Snyder. His time was just over three minutes slower than his winning time in the 2021 World Triathlon Para Series in Yokohama, Japan back in May.

Coon said in an Instagram post on Friday that his time was not “indicative” of his racing capability. He also revealed in the post that he will be attempting to qualify for the 2024 Paris Paralympics in Paris.

---

Knight of the Week: Kristen Scott, Women’s Soccer

Scott scored both goals for the UCF Women’s Soccer team in its 2-1 win against No. 7-ranked Penn State, and both were separated by about 36 in-game minutes and a two and a half-hour long weather delay.

They were her third and fourth goals for the season, giving her the outright team lead in goals.