The Gators' 20th Southeastern Conference championship is one for the history books.
Coach Mary Wise labeled it as one of the best success stories in program history.
Florida clinched the SEC title outright on Sunday 15 weeks after league coaches predicted the Gators would finish the season in third place.
Tennessee, which captured the conference crown in 2011, was predicted to repeat as SEC champions while Kentucky was picked to finish second.
In addition to exceeding expectations, No. 16 Florida is the only SEC team ranked in the Top 25.
Before the season began, Wise said that knocking off the Volunteers would be a big enough challenge. Inexperience was expected to be UF's biggest weakness.
Making matters worse was the loss of sophomore Noami Santos-Lamb, who suffered an ACL tear on Aug. 18 — less than a week before Florida started its season.
“When Noami went down, there was none of us who didn’t think it was the ACL,” Wise said. “My discussion to [assistant coaches Dave Boos and Sally Polhamus] said, ‘If we can even get into the (NCAA) Tournament, it will be one of the greatest accomplishments of all time.’ And we’re in now. It happened.”
However, UF had a freshman step up. The Gators overcame the loss of Santos-Lamb at outside hitter with the emergence of Slovenian freshman Ziva Recek.
Recek, who has become a fixture in Florida's starting lineup, has earned three SEC Freshman of the Week awards and two SEC Offensive Player of the Week honors. She is the first Florida player in program history to rack up five weekly conference awards in one season.
“Ziva is not a typical freshman in many ways,” Wise said. “She just showed a maturity beyond her years and probably more than most of the 18 year olds we recruit. She makes some plays that show such a high volleyball IQ.”
With the severity of injuries, graduation losses and the difficult of UF's schedule, Wise believes the Gators' accomplishments are remarkable.
“I would say this will rank as one of the all-time greatest accomplishments by a Florida Gator team if the season ended today,” Wise said.
Ziva Recek spikes the ball over the net in Florida’s 3-0 win against Arkansas on Oct. 5, 2012, in the O’Connell Center.
