The Taylor Unroe of the past was nowhere to be found Friday night when the No. 11 Gators took on Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
Instead, coach Mary Wise got a glimpse of what Florida’s libero is truly capable of on defense.
Unroe, the sophomore out of Muncie, Ind., racked up 18 digs in just three sets of work as the
Gators (16-2, 10-0) steamrolled over the Crimson Tide (14-8, 3-7) in their 11th sweep of the year (25-19, 25-16, 25-14).
Wise said although Chloe Mann and Ziva Recek stole the show offensively with 13 and 12 kills respectively, Unroe’s significant improvement on the defensive side of the net is what caught her eye during Friday’s victory.
“It’s really easy to go to the offensive numbers because they were very good, but the match was won on our defense,” she said. “Taylor Unroe had, I thought, her best match. Taylor made dig after dig. Balls that were kills a year ago, they came back and not just digs in play but digs like the three-option pass digs.”
Unroe’s 18 digs were the second most she has ever recorded in a three-set match. She fell just one dig shy of tying her career high, which was set earlier this year against Mississippi State on Sept. 30.
Wise said Unroe’s dominant performance in the first two sets is what kept Alabama’s hitters from hitting in her direction in the third and final set. And it was Unroe’s digging that allowed Florida’s blockers to come alive in the third set, Wise said.
The Gators blocked two balls in the third set alone compared to only the one they blocked in the first two sets combined.
“At the end of the match when it was like they were trying really hard not to hit at Taylor, that’s when we got our blocks,” she said. “We felt like we just weren’t getting digs that we needed to, and Taylor Unroe made a huge leap in her progression as a libero just this past week and it’s great that it paid off for her.”
Unroe and the rest of the Florida squad will travel to Texas A&M next to play the Aggies at 2 p.m. on Sunday in College Station, Texas.
Florida libero Taylor Unroe (5) serves during Florida’s 3-0 win against Missouri on Sept. 21 in the Stephen C. O’Connell Center. Unroe's 18 digs against Alabama on Friday her second-highest total in a three-set match.
