It has been quite a week for the Florida volleyball program. First, the Gators earned the No. 1 spot in the American Volleyball Coaches Association poll last Monday, and then the Gators provided head coach Mary Wise with her 700th Division I women’s volleyball victory, beating Georgia 3-1 (19-25, 25-20, 25-19, 25-21) Sunday afternoon at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center.
Wise became the 16th coach in Division I history to win 700 women’s volleyball matches. She is 700-131 (.842) all-time in her 25th season as a collegiate coach. She is the eighth winningest active coach. Now in her 20th season at Florida, Wise’s teams won 18 straight SEC titles before the 2009 season, have reached seven Final Fours and have been to 18 NCAA regional semifinals in 19 seasons.
Currently, the Gators are 16-1 and 9-0 in the SEC. Sunday’s victory was Florida’s 11th straight. Florida had 14 blocks, tying a season-high, and hit .284 for the match while holding the Bulldogs (11-10, 3-7 SEC) to .244.
Wise was happy that the milestone victory came at home.
“It gives us a chance to say thank you to all those players and their families for choosing Florida, coming here and playing, and being a part of this program,” Wise said. “If it gives us a chance to take a timeout and thank all of the players, all of the assistant coaches and the support staff, then it’s worth coming up with that number.”
There were some anxious moments during the match, however.
“They were so low-error, especially in set one,” Wise added. “They didn’t give away points, we never got into a good rhythm and I felt like we were a step behind defensively, really, until the middle of the second set. I think that was so evident by how few blocks we had in the first set and a half.”
Four Gators recorded double-figure kills, led by junior outside hitter Kristy Jaeckel’s match-high 12 kills to complement six digs. Junior right-side/setter Kelly Murphy had a match-high 14.5 points with 11 kills, a team-high 30 assists and seven digs to go along with five block assists.
Senior middle blocker Lauren Bledsoe had 11 kills on 14 swings with no errors for an impressive .786 hitting efficiency with five blocks for 14.0 points, while senior outside hitter Callie Rivers charted 10 kills on .250 hitting with eight digs and four blocks for 13.0 points.
“It really helped to have good passing and that just allowed us to have more great looks at the ball,” Bledsoe said. “It was really nice to get more swings. Plus, Georgia is more used to swing blocking and they don’t really stationary block in the middle as much, so that really helped us.”
Junior middle blocker Cassandra Anderson posted seven kills on .417 hitting to complement a match-high seven blocks.
“Cassandra and Lauren’s offense were a big part of it,” Wise said. “The fact that we got 18 kills out of our middle and that’s just a little bit behind the 22 of our left sides was impressive. Credit the setters because they did a great job of getting them the ball.”
Freshman setter Chanel Brown dished out 20 assists and served two aces, while senior libero Erin Fleming recorded a match-high 11 digs with two service aces.
Tied at 17, the Bulldogs broke out on a 3-0 run, highlighted by a block from Kathleen Luft, Simone May and Valentina Gonzalez, to take a 20-17 lead. From there, the Bulldogs kept rolling, closing out the first set at 25-19 behind consecutive kills from Gonzalez and freshman Brittany Northcutt.
The two teams battled back and forth in the second set. Trailing 16-14, the Gators got even with a Jaeckel kill and a Bulldog error and later got a Rivers kill and a Brown ace in the midst of an 8-2 run that gave Florida a 22-18 lead. The Gators were able to close out the hard-fought set at 25-20 on a Jaeckel kill to even the match.
In the third set, Florida could never quite put Georgia away even though it twice had five-point leads, the last time at 20-15. The Bulldogs won four of the next five points to close to 21-19. But three kills by Murphy and Jaeckel put Florida back in command, 24-19 and the Gators went up two sets to one when Murphy and Anderson combined for a block on set point.
In the fourth set, Georgia had an early 5-3 lead but a Rivers kill knotted the score at 8-8 and Florida went on a 5-0 run highlighted by a Fleming service ace and kills by Anderson and Jaeckel. Two consecutive kills by Bledsoe gave Florida a 19-14 lead. Georgia got within 20-18 but Rivers ended that run for a 21-18 lead and Florida won the fourth set, 25-21, and the match on a block by Bledsoe and Jaeckel.
Georgia was led by a team-high 11 kills from Luft, while Gonzalez added 10 kills on 16 swings with no errors for a .625 hitting efficiency.
Florida returns to action Wednesday against No. 24 Tennessee at 8 p.m. at the O’Connell Center in a match that will be televised on ESPNU and broadcast on WRUF Sports Radio 850.
SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE STANDINGS
EASTERN DIVISION SEC/Overall
(1) Florida 9-0/16-1
(24) Tennessee 7-3/15-4
Kentucky 5-5/11-9
Georgia 3-7/11-10
South Carolina 1-8/4-15
WESTERN DIVISION SEC/Overall
(12) Louisiana State 8-2/17-2
Mississippi 8-2/14-5
Auburn 6-4/15-7
Arkansas 3-7/9-12
Mississippi State 2-7/10-10
Alabama 1-8/9-10
RESULTS
Sunday / Oct. 17
Florida 3, Georgia 1 (19-25, 25-20, 25-19, 25-21)
Kentucky 3, Mississippi State 0 (25-20, 25-22, 25-13)
Auburn 3, South Carolina 0 (25-13, 25-19, 25-16)
Tennessee 3, Alabama 0 (25-17, 25-21, 26-24)
Mississippi 3, Arkansas 1 (25-13, 25-20, 22-25, 25-22)
Friday / Oct. 15
Florida 3, Auburn 0 (25-16, 25-17, 25-22)
Mississippi 3, Louisiana State 0 (25-21, 25-18, 25-18)
Georgia 3, South Carolina 1 (25-16, 25-22, 23-25, 25-23)
Kentucky 3, Alabama 1 (15-25, 25-22, 25-19, 25-12)
Tennessee 3, Mississippi State 0 (25-16, 25-17, 25-18)
Wednesday / Oct. 13
Louisiana State 3, Arkansas 1 (25-17, 17-25, 25-13, 25-17)
SCHEDULE
Wednesday / Oct. 20
Tennessee at Florida, 8 p.m. (ESPNU)
Alabama at Mississippi State, 8 p.m.
Friday / Oct. 22
Louisiana State at Georgia, 7 p.m.
Kentucky at South Carolina, 7 p.m.
Mississippi at Mississippi State, 8 p.m.
Arkansas at Auburn, 8 p.m.
Sunday / Oct. 24
Kentucky at Florida, 1:30 p.m.
Arkansas at Georgia, 1:30 p.m.
Tennessee at South Carolina, 1:30 p.m.
Mississippi at Alabama, 1:30 p.m.
Louisiana State at Auburn, 2:30 p.m.
Wednesday / Oct. 27
South Carolina at Florida, 7 p.m. (ESPNU)
Louisville at Tennessee, 7 p.m.
Friday / Oct. 29
Florida at Mississippi, 8 p.m.
Georgia at Kentucky, 7 p.m.
Auburn at Tennessee, 7 p.m.
Mississippi State at Louisiana State, 8 p.m.
Alabama at Arkansas, 8 p.m.
Sunday / Oct. 31
Auburn at Kentucky, 1 p.m. (FSN)
Georgia at Tennessee, 2 p.m. (CSS)
Mississippi State at Arkansas, 2:30 p.m.
Alabama at Louisiana State, 2:30 p.m.
South Carolina at Mississippi, 2:30 p.m.
For the latest Bison/American Volleyball Coaches Association Division I coaches poll, click below:
http://www.ncaa.com/sports/w-volley/division_i1.html
For the latest 2010 NCAA Women’s Volleyball RPI rankings, click below:
http://web1.ncaa.org/app_data/weeklyrpi/2010WVBrpi1.html