Impressed with the UCF volleyball team's defense after nine preseason camp practices and its quality work during last Saturday's Black and Gold scrimmage, head coach Todd Dagenais and his coaching staff looked to change things up during practice #10. With just one full-team practice scheduled for Tuesday, Dagenais put the team through a series of service and receiving skills with the primary goal being to get better in the transition aspect of offense.

One of the biggest challenges facing the team during week one of camp was a lack of options offensively after receiving a serve. The coaches were looking for more quality digs from the back line, which would allow the setters to get their footwork into the best position possible for more accurate sets that would set up easier and more effective attacks from the hitters.

You can check out more behind-the-scenes looks from practice on our official Facebook team page: Don't forget to "like" us if you haven't already.

When attending practice, one of the first things that jumps out at you is how competitive the players are during the drills. The reason for that is the coaching staff fosters a very competitive environment through the "Knights Points" system. Every drill is treated like a competition and the top finisher in each drill earns points that are recorded at each and every practice. At the end of each semester, the leader in "Knights Points" is rewarded with an engraved dagger as a trophy and crowned "Queen of the Court". With just four more practices until the end of camp, I expect the battle to see who gets the dagger above their locker first to remain intense.