The fifth-ranked Florida Gators did something they haven’t done since last year – block more volleyballs than their opponent.
Mary Wise’s Gators have been stressing the importance of blocking in every practice since the season began, so it was a welcome sight to finally see a breakthrough in the area.
Florida’s 8-to-1 blocking advantage helped the Gators put away Alabama in straight sets 3-0 (25-16, 25-11, 25-14) Sunday in the O’Connell Center.
The last time the Gators (10-1, 4-0 SEC East) outblocked an opponent was in the season finale, a loss to Stanford in the NCAA Regionals.
“It feels great because we’ve been working on blocking so much,” said sophomore Cassandra Anderson. “That’s one of the first things we work on when we start practice. To finally outblock a team feels great. It feels like we’re progressing.”
Anderson led the way with 2.5 of the team’s blocks, while sophomore Colleen Ward contributed two blocks of her own to help lead the way on the Gators’ defensive front.
Wise hopes that this is a trend that will continue to progress for the Gators as the season goes along.
“We’ve said all along that blocking will come, and it will come in spurts,” Wise said. “The blocks didn’t happen by accident. We’re doing something right. We’re working at it daily. I don’t think players were any less frustrated that we weren’t recording blocks than the coaches.”
Along with seeing that all of her team’s hard work on blocking balls has finally started to pay dividends, Wise also got to see some of her reserves in action for significant time in the second straight conference match.
Junior Erin Fleming saw time in each of the three sets, leading the Gators on several runs while serving the ball. Fleming also contributed with five digs and an assist in the match. She said that she had no idea that she would get so much time on the court against the Tide.
“It was just random,” Fleming said. “They called my name and I just unzipped my jacket and went in.”
Freshman Sundai Weston and sophomore Elissa Hausmann made an appearance for the second straight match as did redshirt freshman Betsy Smith, who played in all three sets and recorded her first career kill.
Smith is a player Wise sees as an important piece down the road for the Gators.
“She’s one of the futures of Florida volleyball,” Wise said. “The more reps she can get and the more time she can get, she can help us. The future might not even be next year but next week or two weeks from now. It’s taken Betsy a little while to get back to where she was before her ankle sprain.”
Those contributions helped the Gators sweep Alabama (5-9, 3-1 SEC West) after the Crimson Tide had won its first three SEC matches, including a five-set victory over South Carolina Friday night. Wise admitted that catching the Tide after such an emotional victory was advantageous for Florida, but she didn’t discount the fact that every victory in the SEC is a big one.
“We caught Alabama at a good time,” Wise said. “It’s not easy to win on the road in five games. It’s a huge emotional win, then you have to turn around and play on Sunday. We get that the team we see in Tuscaloosa will be very different. But having said that I thought our team took care of business in a big way.”
The Gators dominant defensive performance led the way in a match that saw the Tide hit for a .021 attacking percentage, including a -.172 in the second set, which the Gators won by 14 points.
The Gators definitely picked the right time to have their best blocking performance of the season to help neutralize Alabama’s quick attacking strategy.
“We just felt that Alabama was a really good side out team – pass, set, kill,” Wise said. “If we could just eliminate those and make them have to rally, we liked our chances.”
It didn’t hurt that the Gators also put together another dominant offensive performance, hitting .418 as a team and only committing nine errors, compared to Alabama’s 22. Sophomores Kristy Jaeckel and Colleen Ward led the Florida attack with 12 and 14 kills, respectively. The two combined for a .595 attacking percentage while committing only one error in the match.
“We thought we had a good matchup in terms of getting kills from our left side,” Wise said. “For Kristy and Colleen, the only error they made was just a mistimed swing out of the back row. They’re not only killing balls, but they didn’t get blocked today and they’re not hitting balls out of bounds. What you’re seeing is the maturing of two sophomores who are playing really well right now.”
The two scoring leaders were fueled by sophomore Kelly Murphy’s 22 assists and junior Brynja Rodgers’ 12. Murphy also logged seven kills and four digs in the match.
The Gators have raced out to an early SEC East lead with their 4-0 start, but they know that start doesn’t mean anything if they don’t continue playing as well as they are right now while continuing to improve.
“I don’t think we can draw huge conclusions because it’s only the second week of the season,” Wise said “We’re the only sport in the SEC that plays a double round-robin. It neutralizes a lot. If you play a team one time, then you don’t have to play them again. There are no adjustments that have to be made. I think a single round-robin (schedule) would be significantly easier. Twenty-five point games, rally scoring, double round-robin – it’s as hard as it gets.”
The players know how hard it is to consistently dominate the SEC, but their work ethic has shown that they can continue to do just that.
“We never feel satisfied,” Jaeckel said. “There’s always things we can work for and get better at.”
If the Gators continue improving, they may just make that round-robin schedule look easier than advertised.