For the past two years, Atlanta native Betsy Smith has returned to nearby Athens, Ga., and barely played a role in Florida’s volleyball triumphs over Georgia.
On Sunday, that all changed.
“I’m going to give props to Betsy Smith,” coach Mary Wise said. “What we’ve always talked about is work hard; your time will come, and when it comes, take full advantage of it. Well, that’s Betsy Smith.”
The junior had seven kills, six blocks and hit .700 in the No. 13 Gators' straight-set victory (26-24, 25-15, 25-23) against the Bulldogs on Sunday afternoon. Smith also had the match-clinching kill, finishing the day’s wildest rally off a set by sophomore Chanel Brown.
“Chanel understood I was going to pull her fingers off if she didn’t get the ball to Betsy,” Wise said. “We’ve had a lot of middles that wouldn’t have worked that hard at the end of that rally. But what you’re seeing is the work ethic of Betsy Smith.”
Two days after frustrating Wise with 17 attack errors in a victory against Auburn, Florida cut its attack miscues down to seven, highlighted by an error-free second set.
The Gators (11-3, 4-1 Southeastern Conference) out-hit the Bulldogs (6-10, 2-4 SEC) .720 to .240 with 18 kills in the second frame.
Florida’s dominance included a day of season highs for redshirt senior outside hitter Kristy Jaeckel.
“She’s in one of those offensive zones,” Wise said of Jaeckel. “I was so proud of her because her choices were so good in terms of when to hit off hands, when to go line, when to go angle. That showed a whole lot of maturity in her game.”
Jaeckel had her best performance of the year in both hitting percentage (.520) and blocks six. She also registered a team-leading 14 kills.
After an Auburn game in which Wise described Kelly Murphy as playing “a step slow,” the senior was back to her playmaking self against Georgia. Murphy had 13 kills, 20 assists and a .480 hitting percentage.
“Kelly was terrific,” Wise said. “We did a much better job getting her the ball.”
But it was Murphy’s defense that was a point of discussion after the match. One dig away from her 27th career triple-double, Wise was critical of the officiating and said she thought her All-American deserved a tenth dig.
“I’m just going to say for the record: If I go back in the stats and they cheated her a dig, someone’s going to pay for it,” she said.
Wise pointed to some defensive issues as the only real troubles of the day.
“Some of our players, namely our back-row players, aren’t going to really like the video that we’re going to be showing in terms of we left a ton out there,” Wise said.
Redshirt freshman libero Taylor Unroe came into the game with an illness and made just six digs.
“She apologized to me after the match, and Taylor’s going to win us a whole bunch more in the future,” Wise said. “You’re going to play sometimes when you’re not feeling your best, and you’ve just got to toughen up. It was a great learning experience for her.”
A radio broadcast contributed to this report.
