Starting is proof that a player is one of the best at that position. It’s what players work toward the entire time they’re on a team.
But for Mackenzie Dagostino, it means learning the way her teammates play.
And so far, she’s doing all right.
While Florida is 5-2 on the season, it’s not indicative of the talent on the team or the role Dagostino plays when setting up her teammates.
It’s a testament of coach Mary Wise teaching her program how to work together against tough teams, specifically with their junior setter.
In just seven games, Dagostino has come into her own and led Florida in a solid start to the 2014 season.
So far she’s broken her career single-game assists record twice, has a total of 286 assists in seven games and is second in blocking with 16, behind 6-foot-4 freshman middle blocker Rhamat Alhassan.
While Florida has two setters on its team, Wise has played Dagostino in every match so she can develop her setting and chemistry with her teammates, most specifically, Alhassan.
With Alhassan’s height, Dagostino has had to learn to set the ball higher to help Alhassan hit the ball with her full power.
"It’s just practice. We’re doing so much better, if you look at the stats from this past weekend," Dagostino said. "Rhamat hit crazy numbers, so it’s all in practice and all making sure that you consistently work on something in order to get it. It’s like any player, any setter, any hitter, any passer making sure they get that perfect pass, it’s just the repetition and the consistency that gets you to the achieving goal."
With the development of Dagostino’s setting, UF saw success against No. 6 USC after two big losses to then-No. 7 Florida State on Sept. 4 and No. 2 Texas on Sept. 6.
And while two losses in the first seven games isn’t ideal for the Florida squad, Wise is happier with a 5-2 record than if the team boasted a 7-0 record so Florida can spot and correct errors – something that was important in its win over USC.
"The good thing about losing is you really get to see what your weaknesses are," Dagostino said. "And so she did a good job at like figuring those out to a tee and coming back here and working on exactly what we needed to work to make ourselves better from the loss. You can’t always think of a loss as a negative thing."
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Setter Mackenzie Dagostino sets the ball during Florida's 3-0 win against Georgia Southern on Friday in the O'Connell Center.
