For the second straight weekend, coach Mary Wise found an opportunity to get Noami Santos-Lamb back on the court as she continues to rehab from a torn ACL in her left knee that she suffered Aug. 18, 2012.
In No. 4 Florida’s (11-1) sweep over Wisconsin-Milwaukee (4-7) on Saturday (25-10, 25-15, 25-10) in Milwaukee, Wisc., Santos-Lamb had the most attacks on the Gators with 24 and the second most kills with 10 despite playing just two of the three sets.
Santos-Lamb was just two kills behind leader Gabby Mallette, who appeared in all three sets for Florida.
Wise said the sophomore outside hitter out of Puerto Rico has had a change in her style of play because of the injury that hinders her ability to jump high over the net.
“She’s still in the coming back stage and she had to reconfigure her game,” she said. “She would love to just be jumping where she was before the injury and taking full rips.”
Instead, Santos-Lamb, who now plays in a knee brace whenever she is on the court, continues to get limited playing time this season because her knee is not at 100 percent more than 13 months after tearing her ACL in last year’s Orange and Blue scrimmage.
Her .250 hitting clip on Saturday against the Panthers was a significant improvement over her last appearance against Iona on Sept. 14 when she hit .074 in three sets.
She also cut down from seven errors to four.
Despite playing in a position where jumping is critical to land kills and get points, Santos-Lamb said earlier this week that she is no longer afraid of getting hurt or landing wrong, like she did over one year ago.
Wise said it will take time for Santos-Lamb to become an everyday player for the Gators because of the severity of the injury, but she added that she is happy with the hitter’s progress.
“I’m so proud of her,” Wise said. “She had a good week in practice, she was really good in (Saturday) morning’s practice and we’re looking forward to giving her a chance to take full advantage of it.”
Follow Jonathan Czupryn on Twitter @jczupryn.
Sophomore Noami Santos-Lamb gets in position during Florida’s 3-0 victory against New Orleans on Aug. 30 in the O’Connell Center.
