For the Gators volleyball team, black and blue have become the unofficial team colors this season.
Sophomore outside hitter Noami Santos-Lamb became the first casualty when she went down on Aug. 18 with a torn ACL that will sideline her for the rest of the season. The Gators added a pair of names to the list of injuries last weekend, as Taylor Brauneis suffered a mild concussion and Jackie Swalchick fractured her arm.
Coach Mary Wise said she only held Brauneis out of Friday night’s win against Jacksonville as a precaution, but added she is still worried about whether most of her players will be healthy in time for Florida’s first Southeastern Conference game against Arkansas on Friday.
When asked if this was where Wise wanted her team to be going into SEC play, she said: “Where we wanted them to be was healthy. But there are . . . things you don’t have control over. One is really our injuries.”
Brauneis played in 255 of 257 sets without missing a single match in her three-year career before sitting out the Gators’ three-set sweep of the Dolphins on Friday night with a mild concussion. The junior transfer was one of the main reasons the Gators switched to a 5-1 system, in which there is only one setter on the court at a time.
Even after missing a full match, she still accounts for 76 percent of the team’s assists and is on pace to have the most assists in one season since Angie McGinnis had 1,485 in 2007.
Replacement setter Dana Backlund tallied 33 assists against the Dolphins.
“It was really nice to get a chance,” Backlund said. “My team did an awesome job of greeting me right in with open arms. It was a really nice opportunity.”
Despite the win and the chance to see a fresh face enter the game, Wise still wants a healthy Brauneis come SEC play.
“It’s good for us to have Taylor healthy,” she said. “And because she’s been running this system, the 5-1, now in her third year of her college career, she’s so steady for us.”
And although the loss of outside hitter Swalchick is not as detrimental to the team, her absence with a fracture in her arm will force other players to step up.
Wise said the freshman’s injury only adds to the uncertainty that has grown since the beginning of the season. Still, sophomore Taylor Unroe said last weekend’s matches, with all the off-the-court issues, were just the challenge the Gators needed.
“This was a great test,” she said. “We did a good job of recovering and playing hard, and that’s how we won.”
Taylor Brauneis sat out Friday's match against the Jacksonville Dolphins with a mild concussion. The junior played 255 of 257 sets dating back to her previous two years at Louisville.
