Although Gainesville is home to a regional in this year’s NCAA volleyball tournament, it’s going to take Florida two wins on the road if it wants to play in the O’Connell Center again this season.
On Sunday the No. 17 Gators were selected as an unseeded team in this year’s draw and will head to Cedar Falls, Iowa, to play Missouri in the tourney’s first round at 5 p.m. Friday.
“This is crunch time, and any time could be our last match, so you kind of start to feel the pressure a little,” senior Kelly Murphy said, “but I was excited when I saw the brackets go up, and all teams are going to be working hard, so we just have to work harder than everybody else.”
Florida is just one of three Southeastern Conference teams represented in this year’s 64-team field. Tennessee, the 14th seed and this year’s SEC champion, and Kentucky, both of whom took at least one win from Florida this season, are also tournament bound.
But for now, all of the Gators’ focus is shifted on Missouri.
“There are no guarantees when we get to the tournament,” coach Mary Wise said. “Last year we had a pretty good seed and it certainly didn’t give us any wins, so we look at it this year (that) we’ll have to fight and claw and we’ll be in a huge battle just to get out of the first round.”
The winner between Florida (24-5, 17-3 SEC) and Mizzou (21-12) will stay for a second-round matchup against the winner of Niagara (25-8) and Northern Iowa (32-1), the tournament’s No. 6 seed and the host of the first two rounds.
“It’s maybe an advantage,” senior Kristy Jaeckel said. “Maybe you can get a little comfortable when you’re at home. Going on the road, you have to have that warrior mentality, and you really have to go out there and fight for every point, so I think that in a way it could make us more focused and more prepared for the game going into this weekend.”
