The 16th-seeded Florida Gators have gotten used to the friendly confines of the O’Connell Center over the course of the season, but opening the NCAA Tournament in front of the home crowd wasn’t quite what they expected it to be.
Instead of the usual crowd-pumping light show and pregame introductions that the players have fed off of the entire season, Mary Wise’s Gators were greeted with the simple name introductions that are customary with the neutral setting of an NCAA Tournament match.
“I do think there’s an adjustment that happens with the players,” Wise said. “They play in the O’Connell Center all year, but there’s a different feeling in the O’Connell Center during the tournament. It becomes a more neutral, sterile type of environment. I’m not sure we played quite with the emotion we needed to generate.”
Even without the extra adrenaline rush, Florida was able to muster its best hitting percentage ever in an NCAA Tournament match as the team hit .476 en route to beating the College of Charleston 3-0 (25-21, 25-17, 25-18) to move on to the second round of the tournament. The Gators will face Florida International, which defeated Miami in five sets, on Friday at 7 p.m.
The Gators relied on their dominant hitting game to win the match, but were never able to string together any runs to completely put away the Cougars at any point. Wise said the lack of preparation for the different pregame introductions led to her team’s “fragmented” play, saying they “never got on a roll.”
Florida also felt a little extra pressure going into their first one-and-done match, knowing that the mistakes are amplified and one bad night could end the season.
“It seemed mostly like a normal game, except there is that extra pressure,” sophomore Kelly Murphy said. “Every point matters because this could be our last match. It means we have to play extra hard for every point.”
But now that the Gators have gotten that first win under their belt, they know what they have to do on Friday to keep their season alive.
“We just need to create our own energy instead of relying on the fans,” sophomore Colleen Ward said. “They’ve always been here for us all year, but it’s totally different now. It’s up to us how we want to play.”
Even with the short spurts of dominant play, the Gators were able to hold off an emotionally-high Cougars team that was coming off an upset victory in the SoCon championship match to reach the tournament.
“Anybody you play in the tournament is either coming off a great season or a great end of the season tournament,” Wise said. “You have that feeling that no matter who you’re playing, you’re playing somebody that’s coming off of success.”
Wise noted that all season the Cougars relied on their strong front-line defensive play, but they were only able to block three of Florida’s attacks on the Gators’ record offensive night.
The Florida front line’s quick, lethal attacks were too much for the Cougars to handle. The Gators were described as “powerful” and unlike any team the Cougars had seen all season by Coach Jason Kepner and junior Cole Dawley.
Ward led the Gator onslaught with 14 kills in the match, and even though she had a team-high three attack errors, Wise only felt that she made one mistake all match, a far cry from her high-risk, high-reward play earlier in the season.
“There was only one ball that [Ward] hit out of bounds where I thought she made a bad decision based on her approach and where the ball was set,” Wise said. “When we started this season, we would have been thrilled if it was one a game. What we’re seeing is the maturing process of Colleen as a hitter.”
Kristy Jaeckel added eight kills, while Callie Rivers and Kelly Murphy each added seven for an all-around effort.
Murphy also dished out 31 assists in the match, seemingly picking and choosing which weapon she wanted to utilize for the kill on each and every play to perfection.
“I thought our passing was great tonight and it allowed us to get the ball to a bunch of different people,” Murphy said. “I think we just stayed patient and made really smart decisions with our hitting. Pretty much every play I had any option to set. It’s a lot of fun and it definitely makes setting a lot easier.”
The match also served as a homecoming for Charleston sophomore Katie Robinson, who played her high school ball at Oak Hall School. Robinson’s high school coach, Cari Martin, along with about 40 people showed up to cheer her on in her return. Robinson had two kills in the match.
“I was pretty nervous, but it was a good kind of nervous,” Robinson said. “I knew that a ton of people were going to be there.”
Up next for the Gators is a match against FIU that figures to be a tough obstacle on the way to the Gainesville Regionals. The Panthers ended the regular season with a record of 30-3 and finished 15th in the RPI.
Although the Gators won’t need any extra motivation heading into that matchup, Wise joked that she might use a flashlight and play some music in the locker room to imitate the regular-season pregame introductions.
But really she will only have to tell her team one thing to get them ready for Friday’s matchup.
“I think they will be one of the best round two opponents we have ever faced here at Florida,” Wise said.
Nobody said the road was going to be easy, but so far the Gators have passed the test with flying colors.