The No. 6 Florida volleyball team defeated Mississippi State in a clean sweep on Sunday to capture its 12th Southeastern Conference win of the season.
And with the win, the Gators (22-2, 12-1 SEC) pulled into a tie with the Missouri Tigers (21-4, 12-1 SEC) for the lead in the conference standings.
With five regular season matches remaining, finishing strong has become as important as ever for a Florida team that hasn’t won a conference regular season championship since 2014.
This week, the Gators return home to square off against South Carolina and Alabama on Friday night and Sunday afternoon, respectively. Florida swept both teams earlier in the year.
However, even with the daunting task of finally taking control of the SEC, one thing remains clear.
The Gators are taking this one game at a time.
“I think right now we’re just trying to focus on the teams that we have to beat,” UF hitter Shainah Joseph said. “We’re just trying to take every opportunity that we have right now to get better.”
Currently, the Gators are in the midst of a 10-game win streak, eight of which have been sweeps, and they are on pace for their best conference record since they went undefeated in 2014.
And UF’s play can be chalked up to the balanced effort it shows offensively and defensively.
As a team, the Gators lead the SEC in nearly every statistic, including kills per set, assists per set, hitting percentage, opponent hitting percentage and blocks per set.
Individually, 6-foot-8 middle Rachael Kramer leads the nation with a .529 hitting percentage, setter Allie Monserez leads the nation with 12.29 assists per set and 6-foot-4 middle Rhamat Alhassan leads the conference with 1.52 blocks per set. Hitters Alex Holston and Carli Snyder are top 10 in the conference in kills per set at 3.67 and 3.61, respectively.
Holston said the team is focused solely on taking the steps necessary to improve.
“Working on the small things,” she said. “Having better connections in the back row, working on small things defensively, challenging our passers… and increasing the speed of our serves.
“Stuff like that.”
UF coach Mary Wise said improving over the course of the season has been the main goal for her team.
“The signs of the great teams are their ability to get better over the course of a season,” she said. “It’s about how do we get better.”
Contact Ray Boone at rboone@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @rboone1994.
Rachael Kramer (right) attempts a block during Florida's 3-0 win over Jacksonville on Sept. 16, 2016, in the Lemerand Center.
