Gators Stunned by Florida State in NCAA Tournament Second Round

Saturday, December 3

Gainesville, FL

7:30 PM

Florida Gators

27-4, 16-2SEC

Florida State

26-5, 17-3ACC

Florida State

Florida

Alex Holston finishes her career ranked in UF's career top 10 in a handful of categories.

Gators Stunned by Florida State in NCAA Tournament Second Round

Sunday, December 4, 2016 | Volleyball

Box Score

Florida finished the season with a school-record .338 hitting percentage and won 25 games for a 26th consecutive season

By: Zach Dirlam

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The 11th-seeded Gators (27-4, 16-2 SEC) won the first two sets before dropping a five-set thriller to Florida State in the NCAA Tournament Second Round on Saturday (Dec. 3) night, culminating in the program's earliest postseason exit since 2013.

Prior to Saturday, the Gators carried an all-time record of 23-3 in the NCAA Tournament Second Round, with their only losses coming in 1987, 2004, and 2013.

Three-time All-American Alex Holston, UF's lone senior, turned in yet another tremendous effort, logging 23 kills and 14 digs while hitting .354. It was Holston's third double-double of the year.

Holston, the 2014 SEC Player of the Year and four-time All-SEC Selection, left her mark all over UF's career record book. The Olney, Md. native caps her career ranked fifth in kills (1,506) and points (1,712), eighth in attacks (3,225), and ninth in kills per set (3.40).

The Gators also saw standout performances from two-time All-American middle blocker Rhamat Alhassan (12 kills, .370 clip, three blocks), junior All-SEC outside hitter Carli Snyder (18 kills, .317 clip, 17 digs), and Rachael Kramer (11 kills, .550 clip, five blocks).

Redshirt sophomore setter Allie Monserez's 66 assists tied the sixth-highest total ever recorded by a Gator in an NCAA Tournament match.

Florida took the first two sets with relative ease, winning 25-13 and 25-16. The Gators held a 23-21 lead in the third set before dropping the final four points. Florida State built a 10-2 lead in the fourth, a hole UF never found its way out of. UF took an 11-9 lead in the final set before dropping six of the final seven points in the match's closing stretch.

NOTABLES AND TRENDS

Florida's all-time record against Florida State falls to 39-20, and to 32-6 under head coach Mary Wise.
Florida's .338 hitting percentage this season broke the school record previously held by the 2003 Gators (.332) and ties the fifth-highest single-season clip in the NCAA Record Book.
Only seven teams in Division I history hit higher than .335 in a season, and the Gators are only the second to not reach the NCAA Semifinals.
Carli Snyder had seven double-doubles in her first two years as a Gator—she had 11 this season.
Allie Monserez joined Angie McGinnis (66 assists, Nov. 19, 2005; 75 assists, Nov. 24, 2007) and Taylor Brauneis (67 assists, Nov. 4, 2012) as the only other Gators since 2003 with 66-plus assists in a match.
Monserez's 12.36 assists per set this season mark the highest average by a Gator since Angie McGinnis averaged 13.88 in 2007, the final season of the 30-point scoring format.
Caroline Knop's 4.37 digs per set this season was the seventh-highest single-season average in school history.
Rhamat Alhassan's hitting percentage of .416 and 1.45 blocks per set this year were both the seventh-highest single-season averages in school history.

FLORIDA NCAA TOURNAMENT NOTABLES

Tonight's loss was Florida's earliest in the NCAA Tournament since 2013, when it also fell to Florida State in the second round.
The Gators' all-time NCAA Tournament record falls to 66-27 (.710).
Mary Wise's career NCAA Tournament record drops to 65-26 (.714), with all of her 26 postseason appearances coming as head coach of the Gators.
Florida is now 51-8 (.864) when hosting NCAA Tournament matches in Gainesville.
The Gators' all-time record against Florida State in the NCAA Tournament falls to 3-2.