Chanel Brown looked around and saw a quiet locker room.
“Our team hates to lose,” she said. “We definitely grew from that.”
The moment took place more than one month ago in the O’Connell Center, the last time Florida’s volleyball team lost a game.
Tonight, Knoxville, Tenn., will play host to a rematch against Tennessee (18-3, 11-1 Southeastern Conference), an opportunity for Florida (17-3, 10-1 SEC) to avenge its only conference loss of the year.
“Each day we kind of use that game to propel us forward,” junior Tangerine Wiggs said. “We’re really excited to go out Friday and see how a lot of the things we’ve worked on have improved.”
But what exactly it is the No. 13 Gators have improved upon since a five-set loss to the No. 20 Vols is cause for discussion.
Wiggs credits the turnaround that has resulted in a 24-set winning streak to a renewed focus throughout matches. UF coach Mary Wise hopes her team has a better understanding that it has to be mistake-free to beat Tennessee.
“It was a major disappointment, but they understood Tennessee outplayed us,” Wise said. “When you play against a very talented team, the margin of error is very small.”
The difference between this match and the previous eight could also simply be a gap in competition.
During its streak, Florida has only played two games against teams with winning records in the SEC. The other six opponents have sported a combined record of 20-51 in conference play.
Florida’s two weekend opponents are a combined 19-1 at home this season.
“Some mistakes that we could get away with against a lesser quality opponent, we could do it,” Wise said. “But against the likes of either Tennessee or Kentucky, there’s just no room for error, especially at the end of close sets.”
After losing a fifth set that saw Florida commit four attack errors, questions were raised about the team that had been perfect in the SEC just a year before.
“We just kind of sat down and talked about ‘What are our goals for the season?’ and ‘What do we really want to accomplish?’” Brown said. “That’s in the past now, and we’ve kind of just rolled on from there.”
However, that roll will hit its steepest challenge this weekend.
“What we’re trying to do is see how much we’ve improved since the first time we played these teams and hope that that improvement will be good enough,” Wise said.
Sophomore setter Chanel Brown said Florida grew as a team after a loss to Tennessee earlier this year. UF has won eight straight since.
