Coming into the weekend, LSU (12-15, 8-10 Southeastern Conference) had more digs than any other Southeastern Conference team. But No. 16 Florida (22-4, 16-1) fought fire with fire to defeat the Tigers in the Stephen C. O’Connell Center on Friday night to move one step closer to a conference title.
The Gators dropped the first set of the match after a dismal .057 team hitting percentage, but they climbed out of the early hole by out digging the Tigers 73 to 60 to win the next three sets (25-22, 25-22, 25-11, 25-13).
Wise said she needed the defense to step up after her offense uncharacteristically struggled throughout the match.
Florida’s top-two scorers, Živa Recek and Chloe Mann, hit .102 and .167 respectively, which led to a season-low .177 team hitting percentage.
“I think the offense was very impatient,” Wise said. “We were like a basketball team that was taking shots in the first five seconds of the shot clock. It was a lot of impatience. But it was the defense that got us back into it.”
Sophomore Taylor Unroe led the Florida defensive charge against LSU. She set her career high with 27 digs.
Unroe said when the offense isn’t producing like it normally does, it is her responsibility to keep balls alive and give her team a chance.
“The most important thing is that we won,” she said. “I could get 1,000 digs and we could still lose so that wouldn’t be good.”
Mann, who hit below .200 for the second match in a row, said her team showed why it was the “grind it out” team that Wise described it as earlier in the year. The Gainesville middle blocker said the Gators’ preparation before the match allowed them to adjust accordingly to the Tigers’ defense and come out on top.
“Our whole mentality this season has been grinding it out,” Mann said. “We knew what they were going to come out here and do and we came prepared. We knew that we had to make a couple of adjustments after the first set and I think we proved that we were able to execute a lot better as the match wore on.”
With Tennessee and Texas A&M winning Friday night, Florida was not able to clinch the SEC outright. However, with a win on Sunday against South Carolina, the Gators will be crowned SEC champions for the first time since 2010.
