Carli Snyder approached the left side of the net. With a set from Cheyenne Huskey, the senior outside hitter smacked a shot across the court and into the deck at the beginning of the match to jumpstart Florida’s sweep of Alabama 25-17, 25-18, 25-17.
The Gators’ (15-1, 7-1 SEC) win Friday in Tuscaloosa comes five days after Florida suffered its first loss of the season to Kentucky.
UF sophomore Rachael Kramer said in an interview with SEC Network that it was nice to get a win against the Crimson Tide after Florida dropped its last match to the Wildcats.
“That was our whole plan of preparing this week,” Kramer said. “It was all about getting the Gators better so we could bounce back this weekend and look better than we did last weekend.”
For Florida, Snyder carried the load with a double-double for the sixth time this season, notching 15 kills and 11 digs while adding two blocks.
Snyder also reached 1,000 kills in her career at UF during the match, becoming the second Gator player to achieve that this season (Alhassan).
In the frontcourt, Kramer was able to take advantage of the smaller middle blockers of Alabama, gathering 13 kills with no errors and hitting .591 on the night.
“Rachael affected the match in all sorts of ways,” coach Mary Wise said in a postgame interview. “Both offensively and defensively, she was a huge presence.”
The Gators were able to take advantage of a 5-0 run early in the first set to go up 10-3. After that, the team never stuttered and left Tuscaloosa with their seventh conference win of the season.
“Their backcourt defense was stellar tonight,” Wise said. “It required us to stay patient offensively.”
In addition to a successful offense, the defense stifled the Tide, holding their struggling offense to a .058 hitting percentage and forcing 25 attack errors.
With the win, Florida moved to 44-0 all-time against the Crimson Tide (14-8, 2-6 SEC). It was also Alabama’s first home game in their last five matches after travelling across the south from Lexington to Baton Rouge.
Sophomore Ginger Perinar put up 12 kills and an ace in the loss. Unfortunately, her efforts weren’t enough for Alabama as the team dropped its fourth match in six games.
A quick turnaround will follow for the Gators, as they will have to travel nearly three hours east of Tuscaloosa to face the Auburn Tigers (11-7, 4-5 SEC) on Sunday.
You can follow Justin Ahlum on Twitter @justinn_case1, and contact him at jahlum@alligator.org.
Carli Snyder gets ready to spike the ball over the net during UF's 3-1 win against Florida A&M on Friday at the O'Connell Center.
