No. 10/11 Volleyball Looks To Capture Season Series with Ole Miss Sunday
Saturday, October 24, 2009 | Volleyball
The No. 10/11 Florida volleyball team looks to claim the season series with Ole Miss when the two teams square off on Sunday in the Stephen C. O'Connell Center. Opening serve is slated for 1:30 p.m. ET and the match will be carried live on GatorVision Online and ROCK 104 FM with Tom Collett and Missy Whittemore.
The Gators (15-3, 9-2 Southeastern Conference) are coming off a 3-0 sweep of Arkansas on Friday night in the O'Connell Center. Sophomore outside hitter Kristy Jaeckel (Littleton, Colo.) recorded her sixth double-double of the season with 10 kills on 20 swings with no errors for a .500 hitting efficiency, while senior libero Elyse Cusack (Melrose, Fla.) became just the third player in SEC history to eclipse the 1,900-dig plateau for her career.
Florida will face off with Ole Miss (8-13, 2-9 SEC) for the second time this season after playing the Rebels to five sets on Sept. 18 in Oxford, Miss., in the conference opener for both teams.
As a team, the Gators lead the SEC in hitting percentage with a .290 clip, while ranking second in kills per set (14.34) and assists per set (13.20).
On the season, Florida is led by sophomore outside hitter Colleen Ward (Naperville, Ill.), who ranks eighth in the SEC in kills per set with 3.26. Jaeckel follows with 3.12 kills per set, which ranks 10th in the league. In SEC matches only, Jaeckel is seventh in the conference with 3.32 put-downs per set.
Sophomore right-side/setter Kelly Murphy (Wilmington, Ill.), the reigning SEC Offensive Player of the Week, is the only player to currently rank in the league's top 10 in both hitting efficiency and assists. She is fourth in hitting percentage with a .356 clip, while ranking eighth in assists with 6.14. In league matches only, she leads the conference in hitting efficiency with a .427 clip.
Cusack ranks fourth in the SEC with a 4.18 digs per set average. She currently has 1,906 career scoops and needs 131 digs to tie former Kentucky player Jenni Casper for second-place all-time in league history.
Sophomore middle blocker Cassandra Anderson (Bakersfield, Calif.) ranks second in the SEC in blocks per set with 1.28. She has tallied four or more blocks on 12 occasions this year.
UF and Ole Miss meet for the 39th time in the history of the two programs with the Gators holding a 35-3 lead in the all-time series. UF is 29-0 vs. the Rebels under the direction of head coach Mary Wise, as Ole Miss is one of four SEC teams she has never lost to during her tenure at Florida.
The Rebels are in fifth place in the SEC West following a 3-0 loss at South Carolina on Friday night. Ole Miss has lost two consecutive matches and has dropped 11 of its last 13 contests. The Rebels rank 11th in the SEC in hitting percentage with a .169 season clip.
Sophomore outside hitter Katie Norris leads the Rebels and ranks third in the SEC in kills per set with an average of 3.74. Whitney Craven and Caitlin Weiss follow with 2.54 and 2.08 kills per set, respectively. Junior setter Emily Kvitle is sixth in the league in assists per set with 8.35, while Craven is fourth in the SEC in service aces with 0.33 per set.
Complete results and a recap of Sunday's match will be available at www.GatorZone.com/volleyball.
For all of the latest information on Florida Volleyball, please log on to www.GatorZone.com/volleyball. Follow the Gators on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GatorZoneVB and Coach Mary Wise on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GatorMary.
The University of Florida is home to the 2009 NCAA Volleyball Regional. For ticket information, log on to www.GatorZone.com/tickets.
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