Taylor Unroe stepped to the back line to serve. By the time she was finished, the match was largely in hand and Florida was en route to its first Sweet 16 victory since 2005.
“At this point in the season, runs are so hard to come by,” coach Mary Wise said. “A run is two points. If we can score two points in a row, that’s a run.”
Unroe’s serving run lasted for seven points and took the Gators up to a 21-11 second-set lead in a match that had already seen them win the opening frame 25-21.
It was all part of a straight-set (25-21, 25-13, 27-25) victory for Florida (28-5) against Michigan (22-14) that now gives the Gators to an appearance in the Elite Eight against No. 3 seed Illinois.
As they have been all season, the Gators were led by stellar performances by their two most productive senior leaders.
Senior outside hitter and setter Kelly Murphy had her 29th career triple-double and second of the 2011 NCAA Tournament by notching 17 kills, 21 assists and 10 digs while hitting .517.
“We could have kicked it to Kelly and she would have killed it,” Wise said. “She was in that kind of a zone.”
One complete performance was matched with another by fellow senior outside hitter Kristy Jaeckel. Leading the team with 18 points, Jaeckel was Florida’s most dominant front-row player with four big blocks.
“Michigan has a really good slide offense, so it’s definitely something we worked on this week in practice,” Jaeckel said. “It paid off.”
Offensively, Florida started early by utilizing its middle blockers to offset Michigan’s defense and force the Wolverines into one-on-one defensive situations against Murphy and Jaeckel.
In the first set, the Gators’ middle blockers combined for six kills and a .600 hitting clip, clearing the way for a massive second set for Jaeckel, who had six kills on nine swings to propel the match’s most lopsided game.
“Our middles work so hard,” Wise said. “Low error, that continues to be our theme.”
The Wolverines fired back to make the third set interesting behind 10 kills from outside hitter Alex Hunt, but it was not enough to spoil the sweep.
With the win, Florida ended a slump of five consecutive losses in the NCAA Regional Semifinals, a streak that has marred an otherwise heavily decorated senior class. Florida’s .439 team hitting efficiency was the best mark it has ever had this deep into a tournament.
“It feels really good,” Murphy said. “When we started this senior year, we knew what it felt like to reach the Sweet 16, and to get one match closer is a feeling of relief.”
