Redshirt senior middle blocker Chloe Mann did exactly what she had been doing all night on Friday — she notched a kill in the fourth and final set. Except this kill didn’t just earn Florida a set win.
It earned UF a hard-fought victory on the road against LSU.
No. 5 Florida kicked off its last road weekend of the 2013 regular season in Baton Rouge, La., with a four-set win against LSU (25-19, 25-20, 23-25, 25-16). The Gators, now 21-2 this season, took an early lead and kept it to extend a two-match wining streak.
Mann opened with a kill to secure UF the first point of the match. Later on, after an LSU timeout, the Tigers came back with a two-point rally. Florida claimed the first set at 25-19 thanks to another kill from Mann.
“Our middles were elites tonight,” coach Mary Wise said in a postgame radio interview.
Mann led the team with 14 kills and a .522 hitting percentage. Close behind were freshman right side hitter Alex Holston and sophomore outside hitter Ziva Recek. Combined, the trio contributed 40 of Florida’s 61 kills.
“Our left side struggled offensively but our defense was stellar,” Wise said. “We out-dug LSU, who’s known for its defense.”
Sophomore Nikki O’Rourke contributed a career-high 19 of Florida’s 82 digs – 14 more than LSU’s 68 digs.
The Tigers answered and led the second match until the 11-11 mark, when Florida rallied with two service aces.
A kill from Recek earned UF’s its first lead in the second set. Recek went on to make 13 kills, but she also recorded 9 errors — half of Florida’s 18 total attack errors — against LSU. While Wise conceded that Recek struggled offensively Friday, the sophomore’s five blocks were a career high.
LSU rallied in the third set. The Tigers began leading the Gators at 6-5 — hanging onto that lead to eventually win the set 25-23.
“The irony is in the third set we hit our highest hitting efficiency,” Wise said. “It’s just that LSU played so well.”
After its 10th Southeastern Conference win of the season, Florida travels to College Station, Texas, to play Texas A&M on Sunday at 2 p.m.
Follow Erica A. Hernandez on Twitter @EricaAlyssa.
Chloe Mann jumps to spike the ball during Florida’s four-set victory against Western Michigan in the O’Connell Center on Sept. 14
