One long streak in the second set was all Florida needed to snap out of its recent slump and put Auburn away.
With the score tied at 5, the Gators outscored the Tigers 20-11 to go into intermission with a 2-0 lead and a renewed sense of confidence.
“It was fun playing in front of the home crowd again,” sophomore outside hitter Ziva Recek said. “Last week we lost, so we really wanted to focus on the next game and forget about last weekend.”
The streak helped the No. 5 Gators (19-2, 8-1 SEC) beat Auburn in three sets (25-21, 25-16, 25-12) and get back on track after last week’s loss 3-1 loss to No. 11 Missouri.
Florida struggled in the first set, allowing the score to get as close as 22-21, but it turned up the pressure on defense to stifle any kind of Auburn attack.
The Tigers hit just .042 on the match, with the most efficient attacker being freshman middle blocker Stephanie Campbell at .333. Auburn also committed 10 service errors, allowing Florida to break the game open.
“We put pressure on them with our serving,” Recek said. “That’s what we were really working on the whole week – to put them out of system and make it easy for our defense.”
The defense was what saved the day, as the offense again struggled to put up strong numbers. The team hit just .260 with freshman right-side hitter Alex Holston having one of her worst performances with a -.143 hitting clip.
With the match in-hand in the third set, coach Mary Wise allowed senior setter Taylor Brauneis to rest and gave playing time to sophomore setter Mackenzie Dagostino, who had 10 assists.
“[Dagostino] had a great week of practice,” Wise said. “She got a lot of time with the returning players, and her strengths, with her foot speed she made a couple of athletic plays.”
Florida will have the day off Saturday in preparation for its home match Sunday at 1:30 p.m. against Tennessee.
Follow RJ Schaffer on Twitter @rjschaffer.
Redshirt senior middle blocker Chloe Mann spikes the ball over the net in Florida’s 3-0 win against Auburn on Oct. 25 in the O’Connell Center.
