Three back-to-back-to-back kills in fourth set by Chloe Mann almost changed the pace for the No. 18 Gators (3-2). She was able to narrow a 5 point deficit to just 2.
However, Florida’s 57 kills wasn’t enough to secure a win over No. 9 Stanford (3-2) as they dropped 3-1 (25-22, 22-25, 20-25, 16-25) at the last day of the NIKE Big Four Classic in University Park, Pa., on Saturday.
“Give Stanford credit, a year ago I felt they beat us with their back row play, and they did it again,” coach Mary Wise said. “Give us one of their back row players and I think the match turns different.”
The Gators started off the match strong offensively as they took the first set without once letting Stanford get ahead. The Gators even racked up enough points to have an eight point led over the Cardinals.
Unfortunately for Florida, the momentum from getting 16 kills, 2 blocks and a service ace in the first set didn’t carry over to the rest of the match.
After hitting .333 in the first set, Stanford kept the Gators’ hitting down to .179 in the final three sets. The Cardinals also forced Berkley Whaley, Taylor Brauneis and Jackie Swalchick to hit in the negatives because of their back row defense.
“I thought their libero was outstanding,” Wise said. “I thought she pursued balls, balls that are kills in our gym, they brought back. After yesterday I thought we competed hard, but we did not win. This one you could say we were closer, we lost in 4.”
Despite the Gators losing their offensive rhythm after the first set, senior Tangerine Wiggs kept it going. The middle blocker had 13 kills against only one error to lead Florida in hitting with .522. This is the second highest single game hitting percentage for the Gators this year, falling short to Betsy Smith and Mann, who both hit .545 against FIU earlier this season.
“Unfortunately she only plays three rotations,” Wise said. “There’s some things we could do in practice. We’ve got to make our setter more offensive, we got to get more options. It’s not pretty right now, but we knew it wasn’t going to be.”
Florida will continue on with its season as they return home on Monday to play an exhibition game against the Slovenian Junior National Team. During the exhibition Wise is hoping to see improvements in the amount of digs from the Gators.
“We are obviously struggling in one position and that’s something were going to keep working on,” Wise said. “It got tough, and we didn’t toughen up. Nobody is going to feel sorry for the Gators this year, and I think a lot of our weaknesses were exposed.”
Chloe Mann help the No. 12 Florida Gators defeat the South Carolina Gamecocks on Friday night in Columbia, S.C. She set career highs with 20 kills and 22 points.
