Senior middle blocker Cassandra Anderson never took off her warmup jacket, a possible sign of new times for the Florida volleyball team.
In a continuation of her recent hot streak, sophomore middle blocker Chloe Mann got her second consecutive start and recorded another standout performance for the Gators.
“Chloe needs more playing time,” coach Mary Wise said. “We wouldn’t hesitate for no other reason. We just needed to give Chloe that opportunity.”
Behind a performance by Mann that included six kills, 2.5 blocks and a .417 hitting clip, Florida (18-5, 11-3 Southeastern Conference) got back in the win column after a two-game slide with a straight-set (25-16, 25-12, 25-21) victory against Alabama (11-15, 4-11 SEC) Friday in the O‘Connell Center.
“I definitely thought we came out with a lot of confidence after a rough weekend last weekend,” Mann said. “We came out strong from the beginning and worked together as a team, so it was good.”
For two sets, the Gators completely dominated the Crimson Tide, out-hitting them by a combined total of .463 to .166. Florida out-blocked Alabama 5-0 before a sloppy third set that saw the Gators commit eight attack errors and hit a lowly .139, while the Crimson Tide had more errors (11) than kills (10).
Alabama was able to get five blocks on Florida in the third set, largely due to poor decision-making in the front row.
“Alabama did a few smart things,” Wise said. “But we just got impatient offensively.”
Until that point, it was a balanced performance by a Gators team looking to get back in line after dropping four spots to No. 17 in this week’s AVCA rankings. Junior Tangerine Wiggs finished the day with a team-high 10 kills while hitting .500. Senior Kelly Murphy was once again an integral part of the passing game with 21 assists.
“Sometimes I feel like it’s the least I can do for how hard the passers work and for how hard Murph works,” Wiggs said. “I couldn’t do anything I do without Murph.”
But it was a brief freshman cameo toward the end of the second set that had players and coaches alike buzzing after the game.
Puerto Rico native Noami Santos-Lamb entered the game and went a perfect 4 for 4, with three punishing kills and one utilizing agility. Wise also noted two perfect passes she made.
“Noami is such a stud,” Wiggs said. “I’m just happy that people got to see it because she does that in practice every day.”
Mann was not the only unusual substitution for the Gators on Sunday. Freshman Holly Pole, who had only played in 14 games this season, took the place of Madison Monserez in the defensive specialist rotation.
“Holly had a really good week of practice,” Wise said. “She’s been serving the ball well, she responded.”
