Florida’s fifth-ranked volleyball team ran its record to 4-0 on the season with a stunning, come-from-behind win over 11th-ranked Stanford Friday night in the Community Bankers Classic in Stockton, California. The Florida soccer team wasn’t quite as fortunate, dropping a 2-1 decision in two overtimes to Indiana in Bloomington.
Here are match reports from UF SID Sean Cartell for volleyball and Gator Country’s David Gardner for soccer:
STOCKTON, CA — Trailing 24-21 in the fourth set and down 2-1 in the match, the fifth-ranked Florida volleyball team rallied to post a dramatic five-set (25-20, 15-25, 16-25, 27-25, 15-9) victory against 11th-ranked Stanford Friday at the Alex G. Spanos Center on the opening night of the 31st Annual Community Bankers Classic.
Florida (4-0) notched its second consecutive five-set win and it was its second consecutive match where it had to stave off an attempt at match point in order to post the victory. For the first time in school history the Gators have won back-to-back matches after being down at match point.
“Not only was it our second match in a row to win in five, but it was our second to come back from being down at match point,” Florida head coach Mary Wise said. “To do that twice in two matches is amazing. I can’t say enough about our team’s resiliency. It was match point for Stanford with Kristy Jaeckel serving and she just went back there and ripped the jump serve. We just got great play out of so many players tonight. That’s why you win big matches.”
Sophomore outside hitter Colleen Ward recorded a team-high 16 kills for a squad-best 18.5 points. Sophomore right-side/setter Kelly Murphy accumulated her
seventh career triple-double with 14 kills, a match-high 28 assists and 10 digs. Murphy also had three blocks in the match.
The Gators have placed at least three players in double-figure kills in each of their four matches this season and had four players in double-figures on Friday night. Junior right-side/middle blocker Lauren Bledsoe tallied 13 kills on .500 hitting, while sophomore outside hitter Kristy Jaeckel had 11 kills and two service aces.
Senior libero Elyse Cusack led the defensive effort with 22 digs and also added nine assists. Sophomore middle blocker Cassandra Anderson posted six kills and a season-high six blocks in the match.
Florida trailed 24-21 in the fourth set before Stanford’s Janet Okogbaa committed an attack error. Murphy then recorded a kill and Okogbaa committed another error to tie the score at 24-all. After another tie at 25, the Cardinal’s Cassidy Lichtman had a service error and Ward ripped a kill to give Florida the 27-25 fourth-set victory.
The two teams were even for much of the fifth set before Anderson and Murphy posted a powerful block to give Florida a 7-5 advantage. The Gators led 8-6 when the two squads switched sides of the court and a Murphy kill put Florida up 9-6 heading into a Stanford timeout.
The Cardinal cut to within one, 9-8, before the Gators posted three kills in a row, the last by Bledsoe, to go up 13-8 in the set. After a Murphy service error, Ward and Jaeckel tallied back-to-back kills to clinch the 15-9 set-five win.
Stanford raced out to an early 7-2 advantage to open the first set before Bledsoe and Johnson registered back-to-back kills to bring the Gators within three, 7-4. The Cardinal extended their lead back out to five at 9-4, before Florida used a 7-1 run to pull ahead 11-10 heading into a Stanford timeout. Anderson, Jaeckel and Murphy each had two kills during that run.
The Gators will face Pacific, which beat San Jose State in three sets Friday night, in the championship match Saturday evening.
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By David Gardner
Indiana handed the sixth-ranked Florida Gators their first soccer defeat of the season Friday afternoon in Bloomington, a 2-1 double-overtime thriller. The Gators (3-1, 0-0 SEC) will face ninth-ranked UCLA Sunday in Champaign, IL.
For the fourth consecutive match, the Gators failed to score in the first half. Indiana took a 1-0 lead in the 58th minute on a free kick by Chloe McKay that was headed into the goal by Devon Beach. Four minutes later, Florida tied the game off an Indiana own goal. Florida midfielder Angela Napolitano, who has been one of the team’s most consistent offensive threats this season, sent a cross into the keeper’s box where the Gators had numbers. Indiana defender Kerri Krawczak whiffed on an attempted clear, sending the ball back toward her own goal.
“Our goal came from getting numbers in the box for a cross, and we connected and got it in the back of the net,” Florida head coach Becky Burleigh told Gator Country in a phone interview after the game. “But I think that was due to our pressure.”
That goal ended IU goalkeeper Lindsay Campbell’s scoreless streak, which started in 2008. Campbell later left the game injured after a collision with Gators’ forward Lindsay Thompson.
Tied at 1-1 in regulation, the two teams played a scoreless first overtime but in the second overtime, Indiana won the game on a 15-yard shot by Leigh Anne Cummings in the 115th minute of play.
Burleigh said that the team was not suffering from the jitters of their first road trip.
“I felt our warmup was good, and that we came out pretty sharp,” Burleigh said. “But once we got into the game, we just never got into a rhythm. Our team kind of relies on that a little bit.”
Burleigh said that IU’s lack of pressure affected the Gators offense, and once again she stressed the need for the offense to get started in the first half.
“We suffered from a lot of unforced errors,” she said. “We weren’t under a lot of pressure, but were giving the ball away. Sometimes it’s harder to play against teams that don’t pressure you high. But that’s part of soccer, you have to play against teams that test your style.”
The Gators also suffered from poor passing, which is a concern for Burleigh.
“Our game is about completing passes and possession and we were never able to do that consistently,” Burleigh said. “We need to find a way to win when we are not connecting passes. It wasn’t just one person — we just weren’t in rhythm. Our game depends on rhythm and we struggled with that.”