After a pair of losses, the Gators found their silver lining.
The Southeastern Conference named Florida freshman outside hitter Živa Recek the Freshman of the Week, the first weekly award won by the Gators in 2012.
With coach Mary Wise’s previous starting outside hitter, Noami Santos-Lamb, out for the season with a torn ACL, Florida’s coach has leaned on the 6-foot Slovenian freshman to fill the void.
“The freshmen are going to play,” Wise said during media day on Aug. 16. “They’re going to have to play and what we hope they understand is that they work hard and be patient until their time comes.
“When your time comes, take advantage of it.”
The SEC named Recek the Freshman of the Week just one day after she faced off against the Slovenian Junior National Team, which she played for in 2009.
Ana Pehnec, a member of the Slovenian Junior National Team, played with Recek as a 12-year-old. She said she was proud to see how far her former teammate has come as a player and person.
“She is extraordinary on the court and outside of the court,” Pehnec said. “She wanted to help me. She talked with me a lot. She taught me, really like, a lot of things. She plays here in a really great college, she told me she really enjoys people here. She’s happy here.”
“I chose the Florida Gators because I think it’s a great destination. It’s a nice campus, and they have a great volleyball team,” Recek said on the team’s media day. “The school is perfect.”
Recek tallied 10 kills in the Gators’ three-set sweep against the Slovenian squad on Monday.
But Florida’s matchup against the Slovenian Junior National Team was only an exhibition.
Instead, it was Recek’s weekend against No. 4 Texas and No. 8 Stanford that earned recognition from the SEC.
In the Nike Big Four Classic, she averaged team-leading marks of 5.64 points and 5.29 kills per set, statistics fueled mostly by her record-breaking performance against the Longhorns on Friday.
Recek recorded 22 kills, which is now the highest kill output for a freshman during a three-set match in school history.
Her performance was also good enough to land her the third spot on the list of UF’s all-time kills totals in a three-set match.
“Živa was nothing short of sensational,” Wise said after Friday’s match. “For her to set a record, and we’ve had some pretty phenomenal freshmen in the past, but for her to set that mark, I think it shows her skills.”
In the second game of the tournament, Recek added 15 more kills against Stanford to earn a spot on the Nike Big Four Classic All-Tournament team.
She was the only freshman represented on the squad.
Recek’s 66 kills, 4.12 kills per set, 133 attacks, .398 hitting percentage and 69.5 points on the season all rank second on the team.
The only players to outperform her in any of those areas are junior Chloe Mann and senior Tangerine Wiggs. Mann leads UF with 71 kills, 4.44 kills per set and 79 points, while Wiggs is top on the team with a .535 hitting percentage.
Last year, Taylor Unroe was the only Gator to win the award.
Unroe and Recek are now the only two active Florida volleyball players to have been named SEC Freshman of the Week.
Ziva Recek (9) spikes the ball over the net against Florida Gulf Coast University, Aug. 25, 2012, at the O'Connell Center. Recek took a team-high 40 swings Friday night against LIU-Brooklyn.
