The No. 1 Gators (23-1, 16-0 Southeastern Conference) took care of business Thursday night in their first home match after a three-match road trip, defeating Mississippi State (11-16, 3-13) 3-1 (25-7, 25-23, 28-30, 25-20) in the O’Connell Center.
In the first set, the Gators hit .545 with 14 kills as 12 players saw action on the court, while the Bulldogs hit just -.083 with only three kills.
The seven points allowed in the first set was the lowest amount given up by Florida in a single set since the switch to 25-point sets before the start of the 2008 season.
“It was great while it lasted with that first set, but then that leaves us to be unfocused for the other sets,” middle blocker Lauren Bledsoe said. “We need to know that teams are going to come out playing harder.”
The rest of the match was a different story. The Gators fell behind 4-1 to open the second set before regaining the lead. Florida had to use a timeout when leading 21-19 and then burned another one when the Bulldogs tied it up at 23 apiece.
“We didn’t execute at the level of which we would like to see, but it’s going to happen,” coach Mary Wise said. “Not every night are you going to shoot lights out and not every night are you going to be perfect.”
Florida out-hit the Bulldogs in the third set .220 to .132. However, Mississippi State was able to win just its fourth set ever against the Gators and the first in Gainesville since 1984.
“I thought Mississippi State, after the first set, just really got after it — very low error and played some really aggressive defense,” Wise said. “We were a little impatient but I think you got to give more credit in the scores to Mississippi State.”
Bledsoe, setter Kelly Murphy and outside hitter Kristy Jaeckel each finished in double-digit kills, recording 10, 10 and 12 respectively. The Gators hit .281 on the match and held Mississippi State to just .137.
This was the second time Florida beat Mississippi State this season. The Gators defeated the Bulldogs 3-0 (25-14, 25-20, 25-16) on Oct. 10 in Starkville, Miss. The Gators are now 38-0 in the all-time series against Mississippi State.
“It’s a good win,” Wise said. “Sometimes you just got to grind them out and take it.”
