Highlanders Cap Opening Weekend with Loss to Central Florida
ORLANDO – UC Riverside finished its season-opening road trip on Sunday morning with a 3-0 defeat to tournament host Central Florida at The Venue at UCF.
UCR picked up its feet later in set one with a 5-1 run, taking a 7-6 lead on Mia Delahoussaye’s third kill in the early going. The middles made their presence felt with back-to-back kills from Evelyn Hendrix, followed by Layla Hooks’ two successful blocks and a kill on two of the Highlanders’ next three points.
Hendrix set a new career high in the matinee with six kills.
UC Riverside capitalized on a service error early in set two to initiate a 3-3 scoreline, but aside from a 7-2 run that forced a UCF timeout, struggled to recover from that point on.
UC Riverside’s first four points of set three came on UCF errors, two at the net and two at the service line. The middle blocker duo of Hooks and Hendrix, already having made its mark, combined for four blocks. Nikki Hughes contributed one late in the set.
UC Riverside returns to action next weekend with another three-match weekend in Utah against Southern Utah, Sacramento State, and Weber State.
