Since the first match of the season on Aug. 28, Florida has tried to consistently improve until the end of fall, when the NCAA Tournament begins.
It is now December, which means the top-seeded Gators have little room for mistakes.
No. 1 UF (27-1, 20-0 Southeastern Conference) will begin tournament play tonight, taking on South Carolina State (17-22) in the O’Connell Center at 7:30.
“Our team understands that we are 0-0 because that is what everybody is in the NCAA Tournament,” coach Mary Wise said. “We’re happy that we have a chance once again to play in the O’Connell Center, and we hope that we will have great crowds all weekend. This is one more chance for our fans to see this team at home.”
Although Florida is expected to easily win the match against the Bulldogs, Wise and her players know that it is the postseason — one loss and the season is over.
“This team loves to compete, and I think they will do that come Friday night,” Wise said. “Our goal is to play well and advance, and we’re not going to look beyond that.”
South Carolina State, winner of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, lost to South Carolina in straight sets 3-0 (25-14, 25-12, 25-8) on Sept. 10. The Gators beat the Gamecocks twice this year.
Florida won 3-0 (25-20, 25-17, 25-13) on Oct. 27 and 3-0 (25-14, 25-16, 25-12) on Nov. 26 — their last match of the regular season.
“We’ll gameplan for South Carolina State just like we do all opponents, and that’s a big piece of our defense,” Wise said. “When we looked at them initially we said, ‘They don’t have the size that we have.’ How you take advantage of that in volleyball is control the first contact.
“If we are in system then we can take advantage of our size and that will certainly be a big part of the game plan come Friday.”
South Carolina State is making its first NCAA Tournament appearance in school history. It will have the task of containing UF junior setter Kelly Murphy, who was recently named the 2010 SEC Player of the Year.
“We’re exactly where we want to be at this point in the season,” Murphy said. “We know we have a tough road, but as long as we keep working hard we should be able to achieve our goals.”
With a first-round victory against the Bulldogs, the Gators will take on the winner of tonight’s 5 p.m. matchup between Georgia Southern (27-8) and Florida State (21-10). The two teams that advance from the first round will play Saturday in the O’Connell Center at 7:30 p.m.
“There’s a whole group of teams in this field this year who can make an argument that they can really make a long run,” Wise said. “Our goal at the beginning of the season was to be playing our best volleyball at the end, to keep improving along the way and we’ve done that. We have been fortunate enough that we have stayed relatively healthy and that’s a big piece of it.”
