After 21 years at Florida and 25 years of coaching college volleyball, Mary Wise doesn’t come across many firsts.
But after watching Chloe Mann, a sophomore middle blocker just a couple weeks removed from being a small role player, lead the Gators to two weekend victories, Wise was impressed.
“I can’t remember in our tenure here somebody [emerging] that way,” Wise said.
Against LSU and Arkansas, Mann, 6-foot-1, put on two of the better individual performances in Florida history. First, she used a size advantage against the Tigers’ middle blockers on Friday night en route to the second-highest single-game hitting efficiency in NCAA history by a player with 20 or more attempts. Mann had 18 kills on 20 swings for a .900 hitting percentage.
In Sunday’s game, Mann broke the UF record for points and kills by a middle blocker since 25-point rally scoring began, both marks she previously set on Friday. During the five-set match, Mann had 19 kills and five blocks.
Friday’s game was the best overall hitting performance by a Gator since 2002, when All-America middle blocker Benavia Jenkins had 12 kills on 13 attempts against UCF.
Mann’s recent playing time has come at the expense of senior middle blocker Cassandra Anderson, who carried a starting role since midway through her freshman year. Before Florida’s Oct. 30 game against Kentucky, Mann had taken just 14 swings in seven Southeastern Conference appearances .
In her new starting job, Mann has been given a larger offensive role than either of her middle blocker teammates. During the weekend, Mann averaged 6.2 swings per set. In comparison, Betsy Smith and Anderson have averaged 2.95 and 3.14 this year, respectively.
“Her contact point is very different from Betsy and Cassandra’s,” Wise said. “It’s way up there. It’s easier to set, but it’s different.”
On Sunday, Anderson saw her first game action since the Kentucky match but played a support role in comparison to Mann, who became the first middle blocker to be named SEC Offensive Player of the Week since 2007.
“Cassandra has been Chloe’s greatest ally,” Wise said. “I’ve never been more proud of Cassandra than how she’s handled the past couple weeks and especially how she came in and played [Sunday].”
