Women's tennis, basketball win key games

Women's basketball
Coming off a win over Marshall on Thursday, the Knights (6-12, 3-6 in C-USA) took a 60-50 win at home against East Carolina on Saturday, marking just second time this season the Knights have won consecutive games.

Against ECU (17-6, 6-4), point-guard Angelia Mealing led the team in scoring with 14 points and added a team-high four assists, while shooting 5 of 13 from the field.

"Coach always tells us that basketball is a game of runs, and they made runs, but we handled ourselves with poise," Mealing said. "We made the last run in the game that counted the most."

Junior Emma Cannon came up big for the Knights as well, posting eight points along with 10 rebounds in 23 minutes of action.

In a 56-47 win against the Thundering Herd (13-9, 5-4), junior Chelsie Wiley led the way for the Knights, pouring in 17 points. Wiley was 3 of 9 from beyond the 3-point arc.
Junior forward D'Nay Daniels stepped up her production as well, finishing with the only double-double of the game with 10 points and 13 rebounds.

"We worked hard for this and needed a win very badly just to try and get the momentum going," head coach Joi Williams said. "We wanted to start February out in a positive way. February is a time of year when you have to grind it out, and our kids were focused on taking possessions and trying to win those. Our defense was pretty good, and rebounding was what won the game for us."

The Knights have won three of their past five games after beginning the season 3-10.  They will go on the road to take on UAB on Friday and Memphis on Sunday.

— Brandon Ribak

Women's tennis
UCF women's tennis downed Jacksonville University 4-3 on the road Saturday to improve to 3-1 on the season.

Sophomore Alexis Rodriguez and freshman Jenna Doerfler edged Fernanda Carerro and Iva Jaresova 9-7. Sophomores Christy Core and Andrea Yacaman rolled to an 8-2 victory against Veronique Spencer and Virginia Iwinski.

In singles, Rodriguez and Doerfler each picked up straight-set wins. Freshman Allison Hodges also rolled to a straight-set singles victory, defeating Carrero, 6-1, 6-2.

The Knights will head to Tallahassee next weekend to take on Florida A&M.

— Nicole Saavedra

Women's soccer

The UCF women's soccer team had a successful recruiting class, following another successful season on the field.

Head coach Amanda Cromwell welcomed 11 new members to the Knights squad, including three players each from Florida and Texas. The five other recruits came from Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and two from England.

"This class definitely helps move us closer to our ultimate goal of winning a national championship," Cromwell said in a media release. "These ladies are good students, strong athletes and great people."

This is the list of the recruits that signed:

Defender April Asby (Oviedo High), defender Spayne Avant (Coppell, Texas), defender Casey Boyer (Hummelstown, Pa.), midfielder Kayla Darden (Marietta, Ga.), defender Marissa Diggs (Rowlett, Texas), defender/midfielder Sokhara Goodall (Kent, England), midfielder/forward Emily Grider (Forth Worth, Texas), midfielder/forward Katy Ling (Kent, England), defender/midfielder/forward Ashley Nicol (Jacksonville, Fla.), midfielder/forwardAlex Piercy (Brookfield, Wis.), midfielder/forward Kristina Trujic (Venice, Fla.)

The Knights (17-5-1) won the Conference USA regular season championship outright and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the eighth time in 11 years.

UCF finished the 2009 season with a No. 8 national ranking and a 3rd overall seed selection into the national tournament.

— Carlos Pineda