After blowing out New Orleans in the first match of the day, No. 9 Florida came back down to earth against LIU-Brooklyn in the second game of the double-header Friday.
The Gators needed four sets (25-18, 25-11, 24-26, 25-17) and about two hours to take down the Blackbirds.
Even with Chloe Mann hitting .591 and Taylor Brauneis hitting .500, UF dropped its team-hitting clip from .500 against New Orleans to .285 against LIU-Brooklyn.
Coach Mary Wise said the challenge spotlighted some weaker areas of the team while also preparing the squad for the stiff competition in the Big Four Classic, which begins next week.
“We got a little impatient,” she said. “And when you play a good defensive team, the last thing you want to do is become impatient and try to hit the same shot, especially when the same shot isn’t working.”
Despite having greater depth at the pins with the return of Noami Santos-Lamb from injury, the Gators still relied heavily on Ziva Recek on offense as she took a team-high 40 swings against LIU-Brooklyn.
Wise said the weapons are there, but her team still needs to work on a rhythm offensively in order for those weapons around Recek to make an impact.
Santos-Lamb said the fast-paced game took the Gators a little time to adjust to after a long offseason. But she said the team is intelligent enough to adapt and still come out on top.
“We had to use our volleyball IQ a lot more,” she said. “It’s our first weekend playing against other people so it was a faster pace and it took us a little bit for us to catch up. It’s more about getting in a rhythm and getting it all down.”
Freshman Alex Holston played in all seven sets of volleyball today in her collegiate debut.
She said the double-header taught her that NCAA volleyball is faster than any level she has played before.
“You definitely have to have a lot more communication with the team and depend on your team at times,” Holston said.
The Gators close out the Campus USA Credit Union Invitational with a match against Duke on Saturday at 4 p.m.
Follow Jonathan Czupryn on Twitter @jczupryn.
Ziva Recek (9) spikes the ball over the net against Florida Gulf Coast University, Aug. 25, 2012, at the O'Connell Center. Recek took a team-high 40 swings Friday night against LIU-Brooklyn.
