Volleyball Hosts Ole Miss on Halloween
Thursday, October 30, 2008 | Volleyball
Florida head volleyball coach Mary Wise looks to record her 650th career victory on Friday when the No. 11/9 Gators play host to Ole Miss. Opening serve in the Stephen C. O'Connell Center is slated for 7 p.m. EDT and the match will be carried live on GatorVision Online and WRUF-AM 850 with Tom Collett and Missy Whittemore.
The Gators (17-2, 11-1 Southeastern Conference) are seeking to bounce back from a 3-2 loss suffered at Georgia last Sunday afternoon in Athens, Ga. Florida played a pair of five-set matches last week, defeating LSU in a five-set thriller on Friday evening in Baton Rouge, La.
“I think all teams learn more after a loss than a win because it has to do with how the winning team was able to be successful,” Wise said. “We've put together two very good practices together back-to-back and I think we are a better team than we were last Sunday.”
Junior libero Elyse Cusack (Melrose, Fla.) will be looking to achieve a significant milestone on Friday as she is just six digs away from breaking the school's all-time career digs record. Entering the match, Cusack has 1,439 career digs and looks to break the record of 1,444 digs set by Lyra Vance in 1987.
Cusack, the reigning Southeastern Conference Defensive Player of the Week, ranks first on the team and second in the SEC in digs per set with 4.53 and is averaging 4.84 digs per set in conference matches only. She also is fourth in the league in service aces per set with 0.37 and is one of only two players in the conference to rank in the top 10 in both digs and service aces.
Freshman right-side/setter Kelly Murphy (Wilmington, Ill.), who has charted 11 consecutive double-doubles, leads the Gators offensively, averaging 3.29 kills per set, which ranks sixth in the SEC. She also is second in the league in hitting percentage with a .382 clip and is one of only two players in the conference to rank in the top 10 in kills and hitting percentage. She averages a squad-best 5.64 assists per set and is third on the team in digs with 1.63 per set.
The Gators and Rebels meet for the 37th time in school history with Florida holding a 33-3 lead in the all-time series. UF is 27-0 vs. Ole Miss under head coach Mary Wise, as the Rebels are one of five SEC teams that Wise has never lost to during her Florida coaching career.
Ole Miss currently is in second place in the SEC Western Division and enters Friday's match with a 10-10 overall mark, including a 6-5 tally in league play. The Rebels have won two consecutive matches after dropping the previous three consecutive. One of Ole Miss' primary strengths is its back-row defense, as the Rebels rank third in the conference in digs per set with 14.78. In league matches, Ole Miss has been quite effective in its serving, averaging 1.40 digs per set in conference contests only.
Senior Allison Weber leads the team's defensive effort, ranking fifth in the SEC in digs per set with 4.05. Senior setter Rachel Kieckhaefer is one of the most experienced setters in the league and ranks fourth in the SEC in assists per set with 9.10. Senior middle blocker Emily Jones is within five blocks of taking over Ole Miss' career blocks record in the rally-scoring era, as she currently has 266 career rejections. Freshman Regina Thomas is fifth in the league in hitting percentage with a .344 attack efficiency.
The Gators are 34-2 (.944) in Wise's tenure in regular-season matches following a loss and Florida has not dropped back-to-back matches since falling to Colorado State and Penn State in consecutive nights during the 2000 National Association for Collegiate Women's Athletics Administrator's Tournament.
Complete results and a recap of Friday's match will be available at www.GatorZone.com.
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