After Ziva Recek’s 14th kill, Tennessee coach Rob Patrick screamed at his team to stay alert.
After No. 20, he lowered his head and walked toward the tunnel.
And by the time the freshman from Slovenia reached a career-high 26 kills, Patrick was reduced to throwing his clipboard on the floor, forcing the official to give him a yellow card.
Recek has that effect on opposing coaches.
But at the end of the five-set thriller, Patrick and the Volunteers (17-6, 10-4 Southeastern Conference) had the last laugh as they delivered No. 13 Florida’s (19-4, 13-1) first SEC and home loss of the season on Sunday at the O’Connell Center (25-17, 21-25, 29-27, 23-25, 17-19).
Coach Mary Wise said Recek, who also set career highs with 20 digs and 74 swings, did all she could to snap Tennessee’s two-match win streak against Florida, but the Gators’ sloppy play gave away the game.
“They took advantage of our unforced errors,” Wise said. “That really was the difference. We gave them too many easy points: the 16 service errors, the too many over passes.”
Serving, which carried Florida to victory on Friday against Georgia, was the Gators' downfall on Sunday. Their 16 service errors were a new season high. Taylor Brauneis had Florida’s only two service aces of the match.
When asked why there was such a significant drop off in performance over the weekend, Wise said she had no idea.
“It’s just one of those nights,” she said.
Redshirt senior Betsy Smith said the Volunteers exposed some of the Gators’ weak spots, but she added that Recek personified the “grind-it-out” mentality that the team has pushed all year.
“Ziva, with over 20 kills and 20 digs, that’s incredible,” Smith said. “That’s all we could have asked from her as a freshman. She did a great job coming in there and playing her heart out.”
And Recek wasn’t the only Gator with a career performance. Madison Monserez’s 23 digs and Taylor Brauneis’ 67 assists all topped their previous records.
Smith said Florida’s first conference loss will hurt because the match could have gone either way. But she added that the Gators are still ahead in the SEC and need to avoid becoming discouraged.
“It’s going to sting,” she said. “We’re happy it came to such a great team as it did. We put up a fight. We can kind of hold our heads high and say, ‘We gave them our best.’ But they had the better day.”
