Volleyball Closes 2008 Regular Season at UNLV Saturday
Saturday, November 29, 2008 | Volleyball
The 2008 Southeastern Conference Champion Florida volleyball team concludes its regular season on Saturday evening when it faces Mountain West Conference member UNLV. Opening serve in Cox Pavilion is slated for 8:30 p.m. EST and the match will be carried live on WGGG/WMOP-AM with Tom Collett.
The Gators (24-3, 18-2 SEC) clinched at least a share of their 18th consecutive league title on Wednesday with a thrilling five-set victory against South Carolina in Columbia, S.C. Florida, which has won at least a share of the SEC title in every year of head coach Mary Wise's tenure (1991-present), will have to await the outcome of Friday night's Kentucky-Tennessee match. If the Lady Vols were able to capture a victory against the Wildcats, Florida would win the title outright. A Kentucky win would mean both the Gators and Wildcats would be co-champions of the league.
Florida is led by freshman right-side/setter Kelly Murphy (Wilmington, Ill.), who ranks eighth in the SEC in kills per set with 3.26 and is second in the league in hitting percentage with a .361 clip. She also averages 5.58 assists per set. Redshirt freshman outside hitter Kristy Jaeckel (Littleton, Colo.) is 10th in the SEC with 3.05 kills per set, while freshman outside hitter Colleen Ward (Naperville, Ill.) adds 2.35 kills per set.
Junior libero Elyse Cusack (Melrose, Fla.), the school's all-time career digs leader, is second in the league with 4.67 digs per set and also is fourth in the SEC in service aces per set with 0.38, making her the only player to rank in the conference's top five in both digs and service aces. Freshman middle blocker Cassandra Anderson (Bakersfield, Calif.) averages a squad-best 0.96 blocks per set and, in conference matches only, is fifth in the SEC with a 1.06 blocks per set average.
The Gators and Rebels meet for the second time in school history with Florida having won the only previous match-up between the two teams. UF faced the Rebels on Sept. 1, 2000 in the first match of the SunTrust Invitational in Gainesville, winning a 3-0 (15-2, 15-8, 15-5) decision in the Stephen C. O'Connell Center.
UNLV enters Saturday's match with a 16-13 overall record and the Rebels finished tied for fourth in the Mountain West with a 9-7 league mark. UNLV is 1-5 this season against nationally ranked opponents. The Rebels had three players named to the All-MWC Team this past Tuesday. Senior setter Melody Nua and senior defensive specialist Camille Cunningham each were named to the team, while freshman middle blocker Cursty Jackson was named the league's Freshman of the Year.
Junior outside hitter Jessica Walters leads the way for the Rebels, averaging 3.02 kills per set, while junior middle blocker Erin Greenwood follows with 2.67 kills per set and a squad-leading 334.0 total points on the season. Nua dishes out 9.61 assists per set, while Cunningham averages a team-high 4.93 digs per set.
Complete results and a recap of Saturday's match will be available at www.GatorZone.com.
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