While Kentucky had a week to prepare for Florida, the Gators only had one day to prepare for the Wildcats.
UF’s freshmen had to learn a new game plan while trying to adjust to playing on the road for only the second time.
But outside hitters Ziva Recek and Gabby Mallette rose to the occasion.
“These players matured in front of our eyes,” coach Mary Wise said. “To come in to Memorial Coliseum with as talented a team as Kentucky is, knowing that they had a week to prepare for us, I really wondered, ‘Could we do it in a day?’ The game plan that Dave (Boos) had, I knew it was awesome. The issue was we had to put so much time in the Arkansas preparation, could we do it with a lot more video than time on the court?”
Offensively, Recek and Mallette combined for only 10 kills, but defensively the two tallied 7 digs and 4 blocks as they helped No. 13 Florida (8-2, 2-0 Southeastern Conference) sweep No. 24 Kentucky (6-5, 0-1 SEC) in a 3-0 (25-21, 25-14, 25-18) victory for the first time at Lexington, Ky., since Nov. 11, 2007.
“They’re not even a month into their career, and we’re just talking them through it and walking them through every scenario because we couldn’t practice it,” Wise said. “We’ve had some freshman that you could talk for days, and they wouldn’t be able to catch on mentally. Dave’s worked with Ziva and Gabby, and those two did not look like freshman defensively at all.”
The growth of the freshmen wasn’t the only factor that helped the Gators grab their second straight win of their SEC opening weekend.
Veterans Betsy Smith, Tangerine Wiggs and Chloe Mann held the Wildcats, who lead the SEC with 2.89 blocks per set, to just 2 blocks the entire match.
The trio accumulated 32 kills, hit .526 and accounted for half of the Gators’ eight blocks.
Florida also held Kentucky to a .150 hitting percentage, UK’s lowest against UF since Sept. 17, 2010.
The Wildcats’ 40-point total was the lowest they’ve scored in a match against the Gators since Nov. 16, 2003, when they managed only 39.
“When we look at this first road weekend, opening SEC weekend at Arkansas with all their returning talent coming back, at Kentucky; if you told me this would be a 2-0 sweep I’m not sure we would’ve believed you,” Wise said. “We’ll compete and play hard, because that’s who the Gators are, but this win, this win was a month in the making, and I couldn’t be prouder of the players.”
Contact Katie Agostin at kagostin@alligator.org.
Gabby Mallette tips the ball over the net against Florida Gulf Coast at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center earlier this season. Despite having only one day to prepare for Kentucky, Mallette and fellow freshman Ziva Recek led Florida to a rare win in Lexington, Ky., on Sunday.
