With an 8-all score in the fourth set, Florida’s volleyball coach Mary Wise sat on the team bench looking tense. She clutched her clipboard with both hands and held it close to her face just over her mouth, watching the long rally finish out from the sidelines.
Finally, junior middle blocker Rachael Kramer finished the rally off with a kill, securing a 9-8 lead for the Gators.
The point for No. 4 Florida (3-2) was the momentum it needed to defeat UCF (3-3) Sunday evening at the O’Connell Center in four sets (26-24, 17-25, 25-23, 25-17).
The Gators went into the match knowing they would face a tough UCF team after the Knights defeated No. 10 Southern California in four sets Saturday night, the same team Florida lost its first match to at home Friday night.
The team managed to complete the task by doing three simple things:
“We talked a lot about it during scouting,” sophomore outside hitter Paige Hammons said. “Our setters did a great job of pushing us out so that we could hit line.”
Hammons was responsible for four of UF’s 60 kills on afternoon. A couple of those came from well-placed shots down the line around subpar defending.
Wise added that the team knew UCF was not going to allow many cross-court shots during the match, so these tight hits were one of the few options available for Florida’s outside hitters.
The Knights heavily defended the perimeter, blocking most of the cross-court shots. It left only deep line and the belly of the court wide open for the Gators’ offense from the left-side pin.
Kramer looked visually frustrated at a call from the referees in a tie game during the fourth set.
The 6-foot-8 blocker was defending the right-side pin with sophomore Holly Carlton as UCF attacked from the outside. After the block, Kramer came into the huddle excited from the rally, having seen the ball landed inside the court.
The officials ruled otherwise.
She immediately crouched in desperation with tense hands as the referees signaled the point for Central Florida, saying the ball landed outside of the court.
Wise immediately approached the officiating table, holding a neon challenge card in her hand.
The challenge system, introduced just before the 2016 season, allows a team to request the officials use a video system on a specific play and potentially overturn the initial ruling.
After taking a moment to review the play from multiple angles, the officials overturned their ruling and gave the point to Florida.
This was one of two pivotal moments that secured a point for Florida.
There was something different about the Gators as they came onto the court for the fourth set. It probably had to do with Lauren Dooley, a 6-foot-6 freshman middle blocker who made her Florida volleyball debut in the matchup against the Knights.
Dooley made her presence known the last five points of the set, helping secure a match win for Florida. She tallied three blocks (one solo) and one kill, which ended the match.
“She does that in practice all the time,” Kramer said. “All she does is block us in practice, so as soon as she went in we knew she was going to get some blocks. For Allie to set her on the final point, that was icing on the cake.”
Dooley’s debut in Sunday’s match was a small preview of what is to come for Florida’s middle blocker offense as the season continues.
Sophomore outside hitter Paige Hammons recorded four kills and 16 digs in Florida's four-set win over UCF on Sunday.
