After Florida swept Auburn on Friday in its first Southeastern Conference game of the season, UF was able to do it again on Sunday against Ole Miss.
Florida (8-3, 2-0 SEC) closed out the weekend on a solid note with a 3-0 win over Ole Miss (14-2, 0-2 SEC) in the O’Connell Center.
Florida is 43-3 all-time against Ole Miss. But under Wise’s direction, the Gators are 37-0 against the Rebels.
Before Friday night’s match against Auburn, coach Mary Wise said Florida was looking at conference play as a clean slate, a separate season from Florida’s nonconference schedule.
So far, the mentality is working.
"In terms of early on it was difficult finding kills, and credit our defense," Wise said. "Later in the match, (Ole Miss) made some adjustments, we didn’t adjust as quickly as we would have liked to, but that’s part of volleyball. Team makes an adjustment, you adjust back. So we’ll look at it as we look at every match and say, ‘Are we better from the match going forward?’"
Florida’s performance against Ole Miss was one of the most consistent matches the Gators have played this season.
Freshman middle blocker Rhamat Alhassan and sophomore outside hitter Alex Holston both saw strong performances.
Alhassan finished the day with six kills on 13 attempts, one service ace and two block assists, while Holston had 12 kills on 22 attempts and four digs.
"Everybody’s kind of embraced the depth of this team," senior libero Holly Pole. "I feel like everybody is ready to go in whenever their name is called on, realizing it can be at anytime. Just trying to make the most of your opportunity when you’re on the court, regardless of whether we’re up, we’re down, whatever the score is just trying to get better every day."
But it was the leadership of junior middle blocker Simone Antwi that helped Florida sweep Ole Miss.
The Fairfax Station, Va., native had a career day with 11 kills on 13 attempts, giving her a .769 hitting percentage — topping her previous career-best mark of .706 set against Stanford on Sept. 7, 2013 — and one block assist.
Antwi was noticeably absent from Florida’s lineup just one week earlier in its 3-2 loss to Marquette on Sept. 19.
Wise said an undisclosed injury kept Antwi from competing, but Wise was happy to see that Antwi’s two weeks out of the game hadn’t affected her play.
"Last week I had a lot of time off because I couldn’t play, so there was a lot of mental just sitting in practice and watching things," Antwi said. "When I got back it was kind of just getting back into the rhythm of thing so that was fine."
Against Auburn, Antwi had five kills on 15 attempts, finishing the night with a .333 hitting clip in addition to three total blocks. Antwi’s progression from Friday to Sunday after sitting out with an injury before SEC play is positive for Florida’s middle blockers, which was forced to rotate more players in attempt to replace Antwi’s presence.
"Simone, now in her fourth year in the program, we ask a lot of her," Wise said. "(She is) by far the most experienced of the middles. It’s not just the numbers, but the presence she give us and making good decisions on the court.
"She really stabilizes us, she is the captain of the line defense, is the best way to describe her role. When we don’t have her we really miss that, as much physically, but really in a lot of ways just in terms of scheming and her presence on the court."
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Simone Antwi (16) hits the ball over the net for a kill attempt during Florida's 3-0 win against Ole Miss on Sunday in the O'Connell Center.
