Gator Country

Colleen Ward has been vital to Florida's resurgence since the Gators lost on the road to LSU three weeks ago /Gator Country Photo by Tim Casey

Since the 10th-ranked Florida Gators dropped their match to LSU three weeks ago, they have taken out their frustration on the rest of the SEC. Since that loss on the road in Baton Rouge, the Gators have not dropped a single set since the defeat.

Florida’s four-straight sweeps are the most for the Gators since 2007, when many of Florida’s current players were not on the roster and sets were played to 30 points, a format Coach Mary Wise said made it easier to get a sweep. That year, the Gators rolled off nine straight sweeps to end the regular season.

The Gators look to continue their hot streak as they head to Alabama (Friday at 7 p.m.) and Mississippi State (Sunday at 1:30 p.m.) this weekend to take on two teams that they swept earlier this season.

But the Gators know that if they take those early-season results for granted, they could be caught napping.

“I think sometimes that can happen,” said sophomore Kristy Jaeckel. “Most times that can be the downfall of a team. Right now it’s a point in our season that in the past couple of years we’ve dropped matches. We have to be aware that these are going to be hard matches.”

The Gators dominated the two teams the first time around, never letting either one score more than 18 points in a set. Sophomore Kelly Murphy controlled the matches from the setter position, leading the Gators to two of their highest attacking percentages of the season with .418 against Alabama and .390 against Mississippi State. Against the Tide, Florida also out-blocked an opponent for the first time all season, something they have greatly improved since that match.

But Florida knows that it can be an entirely different match when playing the two teams on the road the second time around.

“We go on the road to play two teams that we played very well against at home,” Wise said. “But understand that all that is moot when you play them on their home court.”

Wise has to enjoy her team putting it all together to put teams away early in matches, but when it comes to going on the road, she couldn’t care less how her team does it, as long as they come out with a win. Nothing can be taken for granted on the road in the SEC.

“I think the most remarkable ones are the ones we get on the road,” Wise said of her team earning sweeps. “But when we’re playing on the road, we’ll take any win. Three, four, five sets, it doesn’t matter. A win on the road is a win on the road.”

With the way Florida is rolling off points, their opponents will probably take whatever advantages they can get. As each match passes, there seem to be fewer and fewer for the opposition to exploit, but that is not by accident.

“Every single match we reevaluate what we need to get better on,” Jaeckel said, “and I think we really work to incorporate that into our game plans for the next match.”

It’s a simple recipe that Wise has concocted, but it is one that has been working to perfection as of late for the Gators. They are starting to see that if they continue taking care of a specific ingredient every week, the cream will continue to rise to the top and the finished product will be hard to beat.

“We haven’t changed the recipe in terms of each week we have our goals for what we’re trying to do to get better,” Wise said. “It’s still the long-term goal of playing our best volleyball at the end of the season. If we keep improving, the wins will take care of themselves.”

As they continue working on the little things, the Gators are trying to be better than they were last year on the road, where they only earned four conference road sweeps all season, a total the Gators are one short of tying. Florida also dropped two late-season road matches, something they are hoping to avoid this time around. Now that Wise’s young guns have experienced what SEC road matches have to offer, they not only know what to expect, but they can also focus on other things.

“They kind of went through a trial by fire a year ago,” Wise said. “But what a difference a year makes. They’ve been to every place. We can talk about what it’s like to play at Alabama or to play at Mississippi State, but now they know exactly what that’s like. We’re not spending any extra time on those types of things. We’re just working on getting better. That’s a big difference between a freshman-dominated team and this one.”

The team is now sophomore-dominated, as each sophomore continually improves with experience. The top-three attackers on the team are sophomores Colleen Ward (3.21 per set), Murphy (3.12) and Jaeckel (3.07). Murphy also leads the team in assists at 6.09 per set, while Cassandra Anderson leads the team in blocks at 1.26 per set.

Those numbers may continue to improve with each passing week, but perhaps the biggest improvement that the young Gators have shown lately is their killer instinct and knowing when and how to put matches away.

“I think we really need to focus on each game in front of us,” Jaeckel said. “We can’t think about keeping a streak alive or worrying about not losing. We just have to go after winning and really focus on going out to win a game.”

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