The third time was a charm for Florida sophomore Collen Ward Saturday night. It’s not that Ward played poorly in the first two sets of Florida’s 25-20, 25-22, 22-15 win over Colorado in the State Farm Classic at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center. She actually played well but all that paled in comparison to Ward’s third-set explosion — eight kills, five digs and a service ace.
“Ward played awesome for us tonight,” said senior Elyse Cusack after the eighth-ranked Gators improved to 2-0. “She has worked really hard all summer and it’s definitely paying off. She was amazing tonight.”
Ward, who finished the match with 12 kills and 11 digs, was all over the court, even catching Coach Mary Wise’s attention with a down-the-line kill in the third set that had extra zing on it.
“Colleen hit a ball down the line that had a different pace to it,” Wise said. “Like kind of that ‘wow’ pace.”
Ward’s power display has everything to do with an off-season work regimen.
“If you talk to her strength coach, Matt DeLancey, he will say she had the most productive summer of all of them in terms of how much she improved and what she was able to accomplish,” Wise said. “She worked really hard. She’s also working out all the time. We benefit from that because of how physical she is right now.”
Ward was dominating in that third set but she deferred all the credit to unselfish teammates.
“I thought our team had great servicing and we got balls up,” Ward said. “So it was a lot easier for our setters to move balls around. That made the outsides more open, so that helped a lot.”
With that kind of team-first mentality, it’s no surprise that her teammates were happy to ride her hot hand and praise her after the game.
“Colleen really stepped it up,” said sophomore Kelly Murphy, whose stat sheet read 15 kills, 18 assists and seven digs. “She was just kind of our go-to that set and really turned it on. We just had a lot of fun setting her.”
While it was Ward playing the closer role in shutting down Colorado at the end of the game with her lights-out final set, Murphy put together her usual all-around performance in carrying the Gators up to that point.
Murphy came close to recording the seventh triple-double of her young career. She hit an astonishing .684 for the match. It’s the kind of performance Florida fans have grown accustomed to seeing.
“Kelly Murphy went out there and played her game,” said sophomore Kristy. “And when she plays her game, she’s an unstoppable player.”
Her performance highlighted a night when the Gators simply pounded the ball into submission, recording 52 kills at an extremely efficient .411 clip. Florida was able to hammer away because Murphy and Brynja Rodgers (19 assists) made it easy for the Gator hitters. Jaeckel had 10 kills while Lauren Blesoe hit .625 while registering six kills.
Wise expects those kind of offensive numbers from Murphy but what she really likes is a diverse attack that keeps teams from keying their defense to stop Murphy. When Ward, Jaeckel, Bledsoe and others are involved in the attack it makes the Gators that much tougher to defend.
“The fact that Kelly led us in kills isn’t surprising,” Wise said. “But how well Kristy Jaeckel and Colleen Ward have done in their roles, that has been a huge step for us.”
But while all of the attention can sometimes be placed on the offensive side of the ball, Florida’s defense put together quite a performance of their own.
“I think that people always look at us as a big, strong, powerful team,” Jaeckel said. “But people overlook our defensive toughness back there. We have the ability to dig balls and sustain tough rallies and win them.”
The defense was solid even though the Gators were unable to record a block on the night after recording eight against UNLV on Friday. Wise attributed that startling stat to the approach Colorado took to the match.
“They were purposely trying not to get blocked,” Wise said. “They were going to go ahead and pitch their changeups. They were not going to pitch their fastball at us. As a result, we might not have recorded big blocks, but we got the digs. We’ll take that any night.”
Where Florida really shined on defense was the back line, where the Gators were digging out just about every ball that came in their direction. The Gators posted 42 digs in the match, compared to Colorado’s 19.
“If the ball can’t hit the floor, they can’t score,” Cusack said.
Cusack and Ward led the way with 11 digs apiece, while the Gators also received major defensive contributions from junior Rodgers (7), Murphy (7) and Jaeckel (6).
The Gators have begun the season with contributions up and down the entire roster, a good sign if they can sustain it throughout the season. Unselfish players is a sign they’ve bought into the system and they have a comfort level when they’re on the floor.
“I think coaches talk a whole lot about chemistry,” Wise said. “What that means is players accepting their roles and understanding that it’s a process. We all want results right now. We want to be great right now. We want to be starting right now. But we know it’s a process.”
That process has started off on the right foot with back-to-back sweeps. The Gators are anticipating where their talent may take them once the ball really gets rolling.
“It’s really exciting to see how we’re playing now,” Ward said. “I’m just excited for the rest of the season because I thought we’ve been playing really well so far.”