Florida used its powerful offense to make it to the Sweet 16 last season.
Associate coach Dave Boos said Florida’s back-row defense has made up for the front row’s mistakes this season. But on Sunday against Ole Miss, the Gators finally delivered at the net.
After a week of practice geared toward revamping the defense in time for Southeastern Conference play, coach Mary Wise said the payoff against Mississippi State on Friday was disappointing.
On Wednesday afternoon in the Lemerand Center gym, Dave Boos was invested in just one person: Nikki O’Rourke.
Alex Holston’s career at Florida is off to an impressive start.
During the past 13 years, the Gators have gone to the NCAA tournament every season and have won the Southeastern Conference 11 times.
The stat line reads the same for almost every game — Taylor Brauneis leads Florida in assists while Chloe Mann and Ziva Recek take turns leading in kills.
For the second straight weekend, coach Mary Wise found an opportunity to get Noami Santos-Lamb back on the court as she continues to rehab from a torn ACL in her left knee that she suffered Aug. 18, 2012.
After sweeping rival Florida State on Tuesday, it took the No. 4 Gators (10-1) volleyball team all it had to overcome Marquette (5-4) in three sets 25-21, 25-21, 25-13.
With a lack of options on offense, coach Mary Wise was forced to ride the arm of Ziva Recek throughout the 2012 season.
No. 4 Florida (9-1) trailed 9-8 in the second set against No. 17 Florida State (6-4) on Tuesday, and it appeared another long point might not fall in the Gators’ favor.
Last season, Florida dropped the first two sets to Florida State and lost any chance at a comeback by digging itself a 4-0 hole to begin the third set.
When Florida played its annual match against Florida State last season, the Gators suffered one of only three sweeps of the season. The other two came against reigning national champion Texas.
Under coach Mary Wise, the Gators are no strangers to high-powered offenses.
After surviving a scare from Western Michigan on Saturday, No. 5 Florida (8-1) has adjustments to make prior to facing No. 16 Florida State (6-3) on Tuesday.
The No. 5 Gators walked out of the O’Connell Center on Saturday as the Active Ankle Challenge champions but not without taking some major blows on defense.
On Thursday, Redshirt senior middle blocker Chloe Mann had her number retired by her alma mater, Eastside High.
She never minded wearing a mask. She did it for four years.
Although it may seem as if Florida was run out of the gym by then-No. 1 Penn State on Sunday, there were enough positives to leave the Gators optimistic moving forward.
In the finale of the Campus USA Invite last week, Florida rebounded to defeat Duke after showing some signs of weakness against LIU-Brooklyn the previous night.
Solutions by The State News
