Positioned on the right side of the floor, Shainah Joseph jumped up and sent a kill to the back left corner of Auburn’s half of the court.
The spike from Joseph helped Florida clinch its third set of the match against the Tigers in its 16th win of the season on Sunday afternoon.
After the Gators (16-1, 8-1 SEC) won the first set, the Tigers evened things up by winning the second set with a .321 hitting percentage. UF, however, was able to hold Auburn to a .115 mark in the game, defeating the Tigers, 3-1 (25-16, 17-25, 25-19, 25-15).
Florida had one of its best offensive days of the season. UF had 52 kills on 116 attempts and committed only 13 attack errors. Five Gators had eight or more kills and four of them hit over .250 in the match.
Coach Mary Wise said her offense’s ability to minimize mistakes played a big role in the victory.
“We limited our errors, made some defensive adjustments,” Wise said. “I can’t say enough good things in tonight’s performance by Allie Monserez and Shainah Joseph.”
Joseph led all players with 13 kills and eclipsed a hitting percentage over .500 for the third time this season.
“She’s a very physical player,” Wise said. “One of the things that was happening is she wasn’t getting into a really good rhythm. And what we need her to do is just go and explode to the ball.”
Sophomore Rachael Kramer also continued her recent stretch of solid play. In Florida’s two games against Alabama and Auburn this weekend, Kramer had 25 kills and a hitting percentage of .535.
Monserez, the redshirt junior setter for Florida, rebounded from a rough game against Alabama and more than doubled her assist total from Friday with 41 against Auburn.
Senior Carli Snyder continued her dominance behind the back line as well, gathering three aces and nine kills on Sunday.
For the Tigers (11-8, 4-6 SEC), only one player — junior Brenna McIlroy — had double-digit kills (10). They also had 24 attack errors and committed six service aces.
The Gators will now travel home and prepare for their match against South Carolina on Friday night at the O’Connell Center. Florida will then hit the road once again with trips to Mississippi State and Kentucky the following week.
You can follow Justin Ahlum on Twitter @justinn_case1, and contact him at jahlum@alligator.org.
UF outside hitter Shainah Joseph led all players with 13 kills on Sunday in the Gators 3-1 win against Auburn at the O'Connell Center.
