Taking down the Longhorns was just too tall of an order.
No. 18 Florida was swept by its biggest and toughest opponent, No. 2 Texas, in its first matchup of the Nike Big Four Classic in University Park, Pa., on Friday.
The Gators (3-1), who had not dropped a set coming into Friday’s match, were dwarfed by the Longhorns (5-0), whose average height was over two inches taller than coach Mary Wise’s squad.
“I guarantee you that, besides the Gators and the people that are here, no one gave us a chance,” Wise said. “The score was exactly as anybody who knows volleyball would have predicted based on Texas and their talent and where we are in our progression. But those were three sets, I thought, the team played their heart out.”
In the first set, the Longhorns led the Gators 16-10 after going on an 11-4 run. But freshman Ziva Recek recorded the next four kills for Florida and the Gators managed to crawl back to tie the set at 25 points apiece.
Texas was finally able to put Florida away after six set points and a final score of 29-27, despite Recek’s 10 kills in the set.
As in the first set, the Gators challenged the Longhorns offensively in the second and third sets but their serving and defense fell short in the clutch on their way to being swept (25-22, 26-24).
“People see 3-0 score, but I look it at it as our team competed,” Wise said. “I think all of our fans . . . will always have this (thought), ‘What would it have looked like if Noami (Santos-Lamb) was on the court?’ That’s the hand we were dealt and we’re just going to keep working hard.”
Recek has done her best to fill the void that Santos-Lamb left after getting injured, racking up 29 kills and an average of 3.22 kills per set. But Friday night, Recek raised her game breaking the freshman three-set kill record with 22 on the night.
“Ziva was nothing short of sensational,” Wise said. “And we’ve had some pretty good freshmen in the past.”
Junior Chloe Mann, who captured MVP honors in the Campus USA Credit Union Invite last weekend, maintained her dominant presence on the front line recording 16 kills and a .394 hitting percentage.
But the Gators could not take advantage on the service line, committing 10 errors and just three aces. The Longhorns, on the other side, had seven aces and just six errors.
“The weaknesses where we didn’t execute, where we couldn’t make the plays today, we’re not making in practice either,” Wise said. “So, meaning, we don’t have the personnel to make some of those plays – today. But we’re only in weekend number two and we have so much opportunity to get better. And what we’ll try to do is over the course of the next three months, we’ll try to close the gap between us and Texas right now.”
Živa Recek
