Florida’s volleyball players usually say they take things one match at a time because their only focus is the next opponent.
In UF’s second contest in three days, Florida controlled its match and took home its 18th win of the season on the road against the unranked Mississippi State Bulldogs (9-17, 0-11 SEC), 25-18, 25-10, 25-15.
Rhamat Alhassan launched herself straight up in front the net, as if she was on a pogo stick, and did what she does better than all but two players in the country.
Shock is all Steve Rogers felt when he heard the news, as he was lying in his hospital bed, recovering from surgery on his ruptured pancreas.
The Gators are beginning to bounce back from their biggest disappointment of the season.
Positioned on the right side of the floor, Shainah Joseph jumped up and sent a kill to the back left corner of Auburn’s half of the court.
Carli Snyder approached the left side of the net. With a set from Cheyenne Huskey, the senior outside hitter smacked a shot across the court and into the deck at the beginning of the match to jumpstart Florida’s sweep of Alabama 25-17, 25-18, 25-17.
The No. 4 Gators are looking to rebound from a 3-1 home loss at the hands of then-No. 8 Kentucky on Sunday.
After losing to No. 5 Kentucky, the Gators knew the Wildcats earned the win. Rachael Kramer, Rhamat Alhassan and Mary Wise all shared similar thoughts following the match.
Kentucky’s Kaz Brown went up for the ball on the right side of the net. With two Gators in front and Allie Monserez crashing to aid them, Brown sent the shot toward the left side of Florida’s defense and found open space, doubling UK’s lead in the third set.
As Florida’s libero, it’s not Caroline Knop’s job to score, but her perfectly-placed service ace split two Ole Miss defenders, sealing the deal on the road against Ole Miss on Friday.
Last season in the Gale Lemerand Athletic Center, Alex Holston cocked back her left arm and fired a kill into the middle of the Ole Miss defense. Her kill set the tone in the third set for Florida and boosted its offense for the rest of the match.
Seven weeks into the season the 13-0, top-ranked Gators have won their first five SEC matches and face Ole Miss and No. 8 Kentucky this weekend.
Down 24-19 in the third set, Florida — on the brink of losing just its eighth set in 13 matches this season — turned to sophomore Chanelle Hargreaves, who served three consecutive times, each ending in a Florida point.
In the middle of the second set, Carli Snyder took a shot to the face after an attempted dig from libero Caroline Knop. The deflected ball didn’t stop her though, as she rebounded to carry her team to another SEC victory against the Texas A&M Aggies (4-7, 1-3 SEC), 26-24, 25-23, 25-27, 25-10.
Last year, Florida lost its first match of the season to a No. 1 team. This year, the Gators knocked off two top-five teams in the first weekend and have jumped out to a perfect start as the lone undefeated team in the nation.
It took Rhamat Alhassan three tries before she made the final point count.
Carli Snyder — who leads the SEC in service aces — went almost three full sets without one.
In its first two games of the 2017 season, Florida showed a slight regress in its offensive abilities following a nearly nine-month hiatus from collegiate play. But now, a solid nine games into the season, the Gators are stepping up and proving why their offense in 2016 wasn’t a fluke.
The Gators volleyball team has only been pushed to a fifth and final set twice this season.
Solutions by The State News
