Being one of the best in college volleyball will earn a team extra attention — especially if that team is atop the rankings.
No. 1 Florida (18-1, 11-0 Southeastern Conference) will play on national television for the second straight week when it hosts South Carolina (5-16, 2-9 SEC) tonight in the O’Connell Center at 7. The game will air on ESPNU.
“It has been terrific to see the amount of television coverage for women’s volleyball this year,” coach Mary Wise said. “It’s hard to go two days in a row without seeing a match. It is terrific exposure for our sport.”
The Gators are ranked No. 1 for the third week in a row. It also marks the 300th straight week of being ranked in the top 25.
After defeating Tennessee on ESPNU last week, the Gators will try to stay undefeated in SEC play and increase publicity for volleyball, both at the same time.
“If you’re a young boy and you’re playing the sport of football and basketball, how many opportunities do you have to turn on the TV and see players that you can try and emulate?” Wise said. “Now we’re finally in a situation where young girls that are just deciding whether they want to try volleyball, now they can turn on the TV and see some terrific talent.
“It’s huge for our sport and great for our program that back-to-back weeks we’ll be on ESPNU, that’s a lot of homes that get that channel.”
The Gators lead the Gamecocks 42-7 in the all-time series. The only time South Carolina defeated UF in Gainesville was in 1986 — before Wise was coach.
South Carolina is last in the SEC in hitting percentage and opponent hitting percentage. However, Wise expects them to play an intense match.
“We play a South Carolina team that was young to begin with and they’ve had a number of injuries, so they’ve used a lot of different lineups,” Wise said. “Even though the personnel has changed, what hasn’t changed is that South Carolina plays really hard. They’ve always been a very good defensive team. They may not lead the league in blocks, but they’re going to dig a lot of balls and create effort stats.”
South Carolina’s Hannah Lawing leads the SEC in digs with 371 total and 4.95 per set.
With one month left in the regular season, the Gators are getting closer to winning another SEC title. But they aren’t getting too far ahead of themselves.
“We need to focus one game at a time,” senior libero Erin Fleming said. “We look ahead and we know what’s ahead but we stay focused on what we need to do to become a better team from now until December.”
South Carolina is the only SEC team UF has not played yet this season.
