On Wednesday afternoon in the Lemerand Center gym, Dave Boos was invested in just one person: Nikki O’Rourke.
“Where’s your angle?” UF’s associate head coach asked before serving another ball across the net.
“To the right,” the sophomore defensive specialist yelled back, moving her intertwined hands and locked arms a few inches up, ready to practice her serve receive.
In preparation for No. 3 Florida’s (11-1) matchup with Mississippi State (9-5) tonight at 8 and Sunday’s game against Ole Miss (10-3) at 2:30 p.m., Boos, the Gators’ defensive coach, has been working one-on-one with more players to solidify the mechanics that make up an efficient defense.
“The defense that we run is a very advanced tactical system, but it can’t be done at a high level until the players have the technical skills,” coach Mary Wise said.
“And so the one-on-one that Dave does ... gives them that training to really advance their skill set.”
Wise added that her four defensive specialists, who are responsible for passing the ball to setter Taylor Brauneis and digging any attacks that land their way, have improved their performances each time Boos picked apart their game in practice.
Taylor Unroe, who anchors the backcourt as a third-year libero, said the attention to detail by Boos — especially in the passing game — is the difference between a team trying to just survive and a team driving to win.
“It’s not like algebra,” she joked.
“You learn algebra once and then you never use it again. These skills are something that we actually do every single day. A foot here or an arm here or an angle here is actually something that will determine if you get a good pass or a bad pass.”
The ability to deliver a consistent pass from Unroe to Brauneis has been stressed after nearly every match by Wise, who said the Gators cannot make any progress on the court without an effective first contact by the back row.
With Florida’s match against an MSU squad that returns just five players from last year, Brauneis said communication, along with Boos’ hands-on coaching, will help the passing game adjust against the new-look Bulldogs.
“Me and Taylor talk after every point,” Brauneis said. “We talk about her pass and if it’s good, if it needs to be higher (or) if it needs to be lower. With (Unroe’s) pass, I’m more confident running balls to the middle, which is what we need to do.”
Unroe said MSU provides the perfect challenge for Florida’s passing strategy because the Bulldogs can keep a ball alive long enough to break the Gators out of their system.
“Sometimes, even if you’re passing well, if someone just keeps the ball in play over and over and over again, sometimes it gets a little bit more difficult to keep going on those passing runs,” she said.
But Boos said he has confidence in his defensive specialists to limit MSU’s scoring attack and, in turn, provide Brauneis opportunities to set up the offense for potential attacks.
“That whole defensive crew that we have, any of them back there can be the highlight of the night,” Boos said.
“Any of them can have the big night.”
Follow Jonathan Czupryn on Twitter @jczupryn.
Taylor Brauneis reacts to a play during Florida’s three-set victory against Florida State on Sept. 17 in the O’Connell Center.
