Women's basketball wins third straight, downs UAB 80-73

Women's basketball
The UCF women's basketball team won its third straight game, and first Conference USA road game Friday night at UAB 80-73.

The Knights (7-12, 4-6 in C-USA) got off to a slow start in the conference season, beginning with four consecutive losses that involved a 69-61 home defeat to UAB.

UCF was plagued by a slow start and did not manage a bucket for nearly the first five minutes and trailed 11-10 midway through the first half.

Marshay White had back-to-back three-point plays to put UCF in front 16-11.

The Knights led by as many as eight in the opening half, but UAB cut its halftime deficit to 29-26.

UCF scored a season-high 51 points in the second half, most coming from the season-high eight 3-pointers.

UAB made six  3-pointers after knocking down 11 in the teams' first meeting this season.

White led the Knights with 26 points in the rematch. She also added five assists and was three-of-five from beyond the arc.

Chelsie Wiley, a junior guard, has 971 points in her career, just 29 shy of the 1,000 point mark.

D'Nay Daniels chipped in 17 points, six rebounds and four steals.

The balance from UCF proved to be the difference as Wiley and Angelica Mealing each also had solid games.

Wiley scored 11 points, including two 3-pointers and Mealing had 10 points to go along with five assists and a couple of 3-pointers.

The Knights made 80 percent of their free throws.

UAB shot just 62 percent from the line.

The Blazers received big games from Jala Harris and Amber Jones who combined for 46 of UAB's points.

UCF has trailed for just four minutes in their past three games and have outrebounded their opponents in nine straight contests.

The Knights took on Memphis on Sunday but results were not available at press time. Go to www.ucfnews.com for a recap.

— Andrew Kennedy

Women's tennis
The women's tennis team improved to 4-1 on Saturday in a shortened match against Florida A&M.

The coaches agreed prior to the match to stop play when the clinching point was won due to cold temperatures in Tallahassee. The Knights won 4-0.

Sophomore Alexis Rodriguez and freshman Jenna Doerfler defeated Rachel Pye and Latreece Olgabegi 8-2. Sophomores Christy Core and Andrea Yacaman surrendered just one game to Britney Dean and Bethany Holt.

Senior Katie Orletsky defeated Alexis Brown 6-0, 6-2. Sophomore Taylor Dubins  topped Bethany Holt, 6-0, 6-2.

The Knights will host Memphis on Sunday.

Men's tennis
The men's tennis team improved to 2-1 with a 5-2 road victory over Stetson on Saturday.

The Knights grabbed one doubles victory. The 21st-ranked duo of senior Marc Rocafort and junior Blaze Schwartz pulled out an 8-6 win over Didrik Berg and Christopher Swanteson.

Rocafort and Schwartz also recorded singles wins. Sophomore Claudio Romano  defeated Cesare Gallo 2-6, 6-1, 6-1.

Senior Brock Sakey rolled to a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Berg and senior Johan Beigart beat Alex Hackett 3-6, 7-6 (5), 10-8.

UCF will play Florida Atlantic on Friday in Boca Raton.


Track and field
The women's track team posted a strong performance at the Tyson Invite in Fayetteville, Ark., this weekend.

The 4x400 relay team set a school record on Saturday.

Junior Champelle Brown and sophomores Jackie Coward, Sheila Paul and Aisha-Maree Frazier posted a time of 3:43.38 in the relay.

The previous record was 3:46.28.

Paul also posted a personal best in the 200-meter dash and her time of 24.21 was the second-best in school history.

On Friday, senior All-American hurdler Tiki James took second in the 60-meter hurdles. Her time of 8.21 was a NCAA Provisional Qualifying mark.

The team will travel to the Conference USA Indoor Championships in Houston, Texas in two weeks.

— Nicole Saavedra