With Noami Santos-Lamb hobbling on crutches, Florida’s freshmen have given the team a leg to stand on.
The class of 2016, led by Živa Recek and Berkley Whaley, was instrumental in Florida’s trio of sweeps over the weekend.
As a whole, the newcomers have totaled more than half of the team’s kills, aces and blocks.
If Santos-Lamb never suffered an ACL tear on Aug. 18 during a scrimmage, much of that production most likely would have come from her — not the freshmen.
“(Santos-Lamb) had an awesome spring and stayed here the entire summer,” coach Mary Wise said. “Really the last scrimmage before the Orange and Blue, she was lighting it up and was by far the best player on the court during that scrimmage. It’s disappointing for her, but it also creates opportunity for other players to play in her absence.”
The injury to Santos-Lamb, a sophomore from Puerto Rico and the only returning outside hitter on the club, meant Wise had no choice but to rely on one of her five new outside hitters to step up.
But instead of choosing one from a group of many, Wise has been happy sprinkling several of Florida’s fresh faces into the rotation.
Three of the Gators’ top four attackers are freshmen, as are three of the top six blockers.
After last year’s first three matches, no freshman even ranked in the top five in any offensive or defensive category.
“Looking back on the weekend, I don’t think we could be any more pleased with the production that our team came up with,” Wise said. “Especially in terms of all that we were dealing with and trying out new lineups as late as Friday morning. We were still juggling that lineup trying to figure out what it was going to look like with the absence of Noami. The team responded better than we could have even asked for.”
When Santos-Lamb went down, Wise and the Gators didn’t have time on their side, either. Just six days after the injury, Florida opened its season at home against Florida International.
The freshmen had just six days to adjust to their new roles.
“They’re definitely adjusting great because a lot of girls, when they first come in, get caught up in not the volleyball part of it, but just the college life in general,” Whaley said. “They’ve all adjusted really well. They know what our focus is, and that’s to win.”
Senior and captain Betsy Smith said it was that determination by the young players that helped the team get to 3-0, and that experience will help the squad as the year progresses.
“We wanted three wins,” Smith said. “We wanted to get our lineups, we wanted to try and figure out how to play next to each other with a different, young team.
“Obviously there were some jitters for all of us. But they played through it and the three matches were big for us being able to get all that experience under our belt this weekend.”
As for Santos-Lamb, she will redshirt this season and have the chance to eventually play as a fifth-year senior.
“We talked as a group that we’re not going to feel sorry for ourselves, we feel sorry for Noami,” Wise said. “This won’t be easy for her, and it hasn’t been. But we’ll be OK.”
