Gator Country

Kelly Murphy, left, and Betsy Smith lead the Gators to an upset of host Northern Iowa in the second round of the NCAA tournament./Gator Country Photo by Tim Casey.

The No. 17 Florida Gators volleyball team is coming home. According to script, they notched their way into the NCAA Regional semifinals in Gainesville by opening the tournament with a pair of wins in consecutive days. The Gators had to scramble a little to do it with a comeback victory against the No. 6 University of Northern Iowa Panthers, host of the NCAA regional. Senior leadership owned the night as Kelly Murphy and Kristy Jaeckel powered the rally in the McLeod Center after falling short in the first set to win the next three straight for the second night in a row: 16-25, 25-14, 25-14, 25-22, in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Florida takes on the winner of the Stanford sub-regional in the Stephen C. O’Connell Center, as the Cardinal plays the Michigan Wolverines tonight. No. 3 Illinois and Ohio State also will face each other in the Gainesville regional.The regional semifinals are Dec. 9-10 with times for the matches to be announced.

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