After storming through an early nonconference schedule that included lightweights Alabama-Birmingham, Pacific and Jacksonville, the Gators finally climbed into the ring with someone that was willing to hit back.
No. 23 Long Beach State, UF's first nationally ranked opponent of the season, came to the O'Connell Center Saturday night looking for a fight.
Unfortunately for the 49ers, so did UF.
The No.8 Gators (4-0) knocked out the 49ers (5-1) to win the Campus USA Credit Union Invitational on Saturday in a five-set slugfest that went the distance.
"Last year we lost to them in a dog fight out in Long Beach, so it was awesome to beat them in our house," senior middle blocker Kelsey Bowers said.
After dropping the first two sets of the match and struggling to find an offensive rhythm, it looked as though UF might be up against the ropes.
They finished the second set with a zero hitting percentage and seemingly had no answer for the Long Beach combination of setter Nicole Vargas and middle blocker Naomi Washington.
But the Gators, and hard-hitting redshirt freshman Kristy Jaeckel, came out swinging in the third set.
Mary Wise's team rallied behind Jaeckel's match-high 23 kills to win the last three sets and capture the come-from-behind victory.
"In the locker room after the second set Mary told us that we couldn't just play not to lose. We had to play to win," Jaeckel said. "The whole mood changed after that."
Jaeckel was named the tournament's most valuable player - this, coming a week after she took home the same award at the Aquafina Invitational.
Senior Christina Diaz provided a spark off the bench for the Gators smashing three service aces in the final two sets.
The win, which came nearly a year after losing to the 49ers on the road in a five-set heartbreaker, is the Gators first over the 49ers since 1997.
"We learned a little lesson about how we have to come out hard every time we step on the court," Jaeckel said.
They won't have much time to savor the win however.
The Gators make the trip north to Tallahassee tonight to take on another heavyweight, in-state rival Florida State - a rivalry that many of the team's young players are still learning about.
"There's going to be a lot of fans yelling at us. I don't know if they have ever experienced anything like that coming from high school," junior libero Elyse Cusack said.
The match is the first of a week-long road trip that will see the Gators traveling west to Colorado and playing three times in only five days.
"These last four matches have all been at home. Things are about to get a whole lot tougher," Wise said.
