The loss still lingers in their heads every day. Whether it’s on the court or in the weight room, there is no shortage of reminders.
“It was a big letdown in a way,” senior defensive specialist Elissa Hausmann said. “Coming off that loss, we’re really fired up right now.”
In December, on a Friday night in Austin, Texas, the nation’s No. 1-seeded Florida volleyball team fell to 16th-seeded Purdue in straight sets. The NCAA Regional Semifinal loss ended what could have easily been the most successful season in school history.
Florida carried a 29-1 record and a 24-match winning streak into the loss to the Boilermakers.
“I thought about it a lot,” senior setter/right-side hitter Kelly Murphy said. “It’s just hard to explain one thing that happened. It seemed like things started piling up on top of the other and it was just everything that could have gone wrong went wrong.”
More than eight months later, all the Gators can do is use the disappointing finish as a turning point as they move forward. Coach Mary Wise wasted little time forcing the match on her team, setting up a January meeting in which the team could re-watch its loss and reflect on it.
“We knew we had some weaknesses, and we were trying to get better,” she said. “We just didn’t have enough time. The personnel wasn’t such to where we could hide it all. We could have played the match of our lives, and Purdue still could have won it and we still would have been disappointed.”
Hausmann said she was constantly reminded of the loss by strength and conditioning coaches over the summer as a means of motivation.
“They’re always wanting to make sure that doesn’t happen again,” she said.
The Gators feel they have addressed the weaknesses that hurt them in 2010. Wise said the presence of redshirt freshman Taylor Unroe, who came into last season with a broken bone in her ankle, will help tighten up a libero position that was occupied by the more offensive-oriented Erin Fleming last season.
“It stings a little bit, but it’s one of those things where you learn just as much from your failures as you do from your successes,” junior setter Sundai Weston said. “I think this team is better for having that loss.”
