Match Point: Posts from August 30, 2009
Sunday, August 30, 2009 | Volleyball
KJ: An “honor to play middle at Florida” – Aug. 30, 2009 3:34 p.m.
Senior middle blocker Kristina Johnson will be profiled in tomorrow night's match program, but here's a sneak peak at what Johnson had to say in her Q&A session with GatorZone.com.
Johnson, one of two seniors on the 2009 squad, is the veteran leader of the team's middle-blocker position that features a number of young players. Johnson, asked what she has told the younger players about playing middle at Florida, said that because of so many great middle blockers in the school's history, playing that position is “an honor.”
“It's a really exciting position,” Johnson said. “There have been a lot of great middles who have come through Florida, so it's really an honor to be a middle here. Also, I told them to just enjoy the experience and learn as much as you can while you're here because it goes by really fast.”
The complete Q&A will be featured in the Florida State match program and will be posted on GatorZone.com on Tuesday.
The Q&A with senior libero Elyse Cusack from this past weekend is now available on the Features section of the volleyball page and also by clicking here.
Ward's Summer Commitment Spelling Success – Aug. 30, 2009 1:47 p.m.
Much has been made of the Florida volleyball team's commitment to stay in Gainesville during the off-season to focus on its conditioning activities.
Perhaps one of the most telling indicators of just how much that commitment helped the Gators was in sophomore outside hitter Colleen Ward's stat line last night.
Ward charted her first career double-double with 12 kills on .455 hitting with a career-high 11 digs. But, even more impressively, was than eight of those 12 kills came in the final set of the match. In that final frame, Ward had eight kills on 10 swings with no errors for a .800 hitting efficiency.
“Colleen really stepped it up,” sophomore outside hitter Kelly Murphy said. “She was our 'go-to' in that set. She really turned it on tonight and had a lot of success hitting.”
Senior libero Elyse Cusack, who tied Ward with a match-high 11 digs, called her teammate's performance “amazing” and lauded her commitment to conditioning this past summer.
Florida head coach Mary Wise agreed, saying Ward made impressive strides during the summer that resulted in Saturday's late-match offensive explosion.
“If you talk to [strength and conditioning coordinator] Matt DeLancey, he would probably say she had the most productive summer of all of them in terms of how much she improved and what she was able to accomplish,” Wise said. “We benefit from how hard she worked because of how physical she is right now.”
Daily Wake-Up Call – Aug. 30, 2009 11:02 a.m.
The Florida volleyball team is now 2-0 this weekend after sweeping through the Campus USA Credit Union Invitational. The Gators looked impressive in 3-0 wins against UNLV and Colorado, but as head coach Mary Wise said, it's a primary goal for Florida to be a great team come December.
There was some great coverage from this weekend's matches in print and across the Internet. Below are some links to media coverage from this weekend.
UNLV Match
- Gainesville Sun (8/29): Volleyball Blanks UNLV in Season Opener
- Gator Country (8/28): Gators Take Down UNLV
- Gator Country (8/28): Tim Casey Photo Gallery
Colorado Match
- GatorVision Online (8/29): Post-Match Player Interviews (VIDEO)
- UF Communications (8/29): Jim Burgess Photo Gallery
- Gainesville Sun (8/30): UF Volleyball Wins Again
- Gator Country (8/29): Another Sweep for the Gators
- Gator Country (8/29): Tim Casey Photo Gallery
END OF REPORT
