For the second straight match, No. 13 Florida bounced back from a first set deficit to capture another victory. But for the first time this year, the Gators needed all five sets to do it.
Coach Mary Wise and her Florida squad (7-2, 1-0) showed grit in their opening Southeastern Conference match by defeating senior-dominated Arkansas (9-3, 0-1) in Fayetteville, Ark., on Friday night (23-25, 25-22, 25-22, 19-25, 15-13).
Wise, who has now won every SEC opener while at Florida, said she was pleased with the clutch attacks and digs by her team, but said it was her squad’s intangibles that grabbed her attention.
“Winning in Barnhill (Arena) against a veteran Arkansas team was huge for us,” she said. “For us to grind it out, I just can’t say enough about our players’ work ethic.”
Five Gators reached double-digit kills for the first time since November 24, 2007, with Chloe Mann, Ziva Recek and Tangerine Wiggs leading the team with 13 each. And although Florida’s hitting percentage of .277 was nearly 20 points lower than Arkansas’ clip, it was the clutch attacking performance by the Gators’ leading hitters that gave them the edge late.
Wise said those attackers were the difference makers, but it was Mann who led the charge for the Gators.
“It’s kind of like you see in a basketball player who may not make many points, many shots, in the first half or early in the second half, but boy down the stretch in overtime Chloe came through for us,” she said.
Florida saw the score become knotted up 37 times and change nine times throughout the match. Set No. 3 belonged to Wise and her team though.
The Gators took control early on in the last set, going up 3-0 against the Razorbacks. However, Arkansas kept pace with Florida and cut the lead to one late in the set to make it a 13-12 score.
Mann’s final kill set up the match point and Wiggs followed with one of her own to close out the match for the Gators.
“I couldn’t be more proud of this group and how hard they played against an Arkansas team that had everything going for them,” Wise said.
A UF radio broadcast contributed to this report.
