When Florida volleyball player Caroline Knop went to serve during the third set of Sunday’s matchup against Georgia, she was trying to put the match away for the Gators.
After gaining her focus, the junior libero flicked the ball into the air and delivered a strike over the net.
Straight out of bounds.
Frustrated, Knop raised her hands and yelled, infuriated by her mistake.
Florida only had a 17-point lead to protect.
Luckily, they recovered.
Playing in front of a packed home crowd, the No. 10 Gators (18-2, 8-1 Southeastern Conference) swept the Bulldogs (13-9, 1-8 SEC) for their sixth-straight win.
The match hadn’t always been easy, though.
Due to several mistimed jumps by middle blockers Rachael Kramer and Rhamat Alhassan in the front row and several miscues in the back row by defensive specialist Allie Gregory, the first two sets were close contests.
Alhassan was quiet during the first two frames. The 6-foot-4 junior tallied only five kills — the team captain’s only kills of the match.
However, despite the early struggles, the Gators won both sets 25-19.
Wise said her team had a difficult time handling the Bulldogs’ aggressive serving, and that affected what her team could do offensively.
“They went back there and served BBs,” she added.
However, in the third set, it was all Florida.
Behind the hard hitting of Carli Snyder and Alex Holston and excellent passing from setter Allie Monserez, the Gators blitzed the Bulldogs, gunning to a 13-1 lead in what would be the final set. Florida held Georgia to a lowly eight points in the final frame.
“We all just wanted to pick it up a notch,” Holston said of the third set. “We knew that we had another level in us. … We had another gear, so we should just take it there.”
Holston and Snyder led the team with 15 kills each. Holston also tallied eight digs and a solo block.
“You could put Alex’s performance on any team in the country, and they’d be an NCAA-worthy team,” Wise said. “She was that special.”
For the match, the Gators were balanced.
On the offensive end, they slammed down 45 kills to the tune of a .438 hitting percentage and totaled 43 assists.
And behind the length of the frontcourt and the quick reflexes of Knop — who had a game-high 13 digs — in the backcourt, the Gators dominated defensively, registering 47 digs, stuffing 7.5 shots and holding Georgia’s attack to a .173 hitting percentage.
Meanwhile, the Bulldogs couldn’t get out of their own way, recording 14 attack errors, seven service errors and three block errors.
The win gave the Gators their 12th sweep of the season and fifth in SEC play.
“All around as a team, we’ve just been focusing on smaller things to make each other better,” Holston said. “That really showed today.”
Contact Ray Boone at rboone@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @rboone1994.
Caroline Knop serves during Florida's 3-0 win over Jacksonville at the Lemerand Athletic Center on Sept. 16, 2016.
