No. 1 Gators Close Five-Match Homestand Wednesday
Tuesday, October 26, 2010 | Volleyball
The No. 1 Florida volleyball team wraps up its five-match homestand on Wednesday when it plays host to South Carolina in the Stephen C. O'Connell Center. Opening serve is slated for 7 p.m. ET and the match will be carried live on ESPNU with Chris McGee and Kelli Tennant and on WRUF Sports Radio 850 with Tom Collett and Missy Whittemore.
Fans can visit local Chick-Fil-A restaurants in the Gainesville area and receive a 2-for-1 admission coupon. Redeem the coupon at the ticket office of the Stephen C. O'Connell Center on the night of the match. It's also Halloween with the Gators Night and kids are encouraged to wear their Halloween costume to the match and receive free Halloween candy at the door.
The Gators (18-1, 11-0 Southeastern Conference) are riding a 13-match winning streak and enter the contest with a No. 1 national ranking for the third consecutive week. Florida, which leads the SEC with a two-match lead over LSU and Ole Miss, is 16-1 all-time when competing as the nation's top-ranked squad.
“Wednesday night, we play a South Carolina team that was young to begin with and they've had a number of injuries, so they've used a lot of different lineups,” Florida head coach Mary Wise said. “Even though the personnel has changed, what hasn't changed is that South Carolina plays really hard. They've always been a very good defensive team. They may not lead the league in blocks, but they're going to dig a lot of balls and create effort stats.”
Florida leads the SEC and ranks among the nation's top-25 teams in both blocks and service aces. The Gators are 21st nationally in service aces per set (1.72) and 25th in the nation in blocks per set (2.62). Florida's hitting percentage of .279 ranks second in the SEC and 16th in the NCAA.
The Gators are the only team in the SEC to place four players among the league's top-10 individually in service aces. Junior right-side/setter Kelly Murphy (Wilmington, Ill.) is second in the SEC with 0.35 aces per set (all matches) and leads the league in conference matches only with 0.43 aces per set. Senior outside hitter Callie Rivers (Winter Park, Fla.) is fifth in the SEC with 0.31 aces per set, senior libero Erin Fleming (Orlando, Fla.) is seventh with 0.28 aces per set and freshman setter Chanel Brown (Tempe, Ariz.) ranks 10th in the SEC with 0.25 service aces per set.
Murphy leads the Gators offensively, averaging a squad-best 3.21 kills per set, which ranks 10th in the SEC. Murphy is hitting a team-high .396, which ranks third in the SEC, and is second in the league with 0.35 service aces per set. She is the only player in the conference to rank among the league's top-10 individually in hitting efficiency, kills per set and service aces per set simultaneously. Murphy also averages a team-high 5.50 assists per set, 2.18 digs per set and 0.69 blocks per set.
Junior outside hitter Kristy Jaeckel (Littleton, Colo.) and Rivers follow with 2.53 and 2.22 kills per set, respectively. Rivers is second on the team in both digs per set (2.39) and service aces per set (0.31).
Both Jaeckel and Murphy are nearing the 1,000-kill plateaus for their Florida careers, something that just 16 players in program history have accomplished. Murphy has 890 career kills, which ranks 22nd in school history, while Jaeckel has 819 kills, which ranks 25th in school history.
Fleming heads Florida's back-row effort with 3.66 digs per set, which ranks eighth in the SEC, while Brown adds 5.49 assists per set.
The Gators feature three players who average 0.90 blocks per set or better, led by junior middle blocker Cassandra Anderson (Bakersfield, Calif.), who ranks sixth in the SEC with 1.12 blocks per set. Senior middle blocker Lauren Bledsoe (Long Beach, Calif.) is ninth in the SEC with 1.01 blocks per set, while sophomore right-side Tangerine Wiggs (Seattle, Wash.) adds 0.90 blocks per set.
The Gators and Gamecocks meet for the 50th time in the history of the two programs. Florida leads the all-time series 42-7, including a 37-2 mark under Wise's direction. Thirty-one of UF's 42 victories in the all-time series have come in the form of 3-0 sweeps. The Gators are 21-1 against South Carolina when the match is played in Gainesville.
South Carolina enters Wednesday's match in last place in the SEC Eastern Division with a 5-16 overall record and a 2-9 league mark. The Gamecocks have lost four of their last five matches, splitting a pair of weekend matches by sweeping Kentucky 3-0 before falling to No. 21 Tennessee, 3-0.
Freshman outside hitter Juliette Thevenin, the reigning SEC Freshman of the Week, leads the Gamecocks offensively, ranking fifth in the SEC with 3.59 kills per set. Senior Megan Laughlin and freshman Cara Howley follow with 2.66 and 2.36 kills per set, respectively. Sophomore setter Taylor Bruns leads the Gamecocks and ranks sixth in the SEC with 7.53 assists per set, while senior libero Hannah Lawing leads the SEC with 4.95 digs per set.
Complete results and a recap of Wednesday's match will be available at www.GatorZone.com.
For all of the latest information on Florida volleyball, please log on to www.GatorZone.com/volleyball. Follow Florida Volleyball on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GatorZoneVB and Coach Mary Wise on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GatorMary.
QUICK NOTES
· The Gators are ranked No. 1 in the nation for the third consecutive week and for just the eighth time in program history. Florida was ranked No. 1 for five consecutive polls during the 1996 season and UF holds a record of 16-1 all-time when playing as the nation's top-ranked team.
· Florida is ranked among the AVCA's top-25 poll for the 300th consecutive week, marking the nation's fifth-longest active streak of consecutive polls ranked. The Gators have been ranked in every poll since Sept. 17, 1991.
· Head coach Mary Wise, in her 24th season as a collegiate head coach and her 20th directing the Gators, became just the 16th NCAA Division I women's volleyball coach ever to pick up her 700th career victory. Wise is 702-131 (.843) in her 24th season as a Division I head coach, with her first four seasons coming at Iowa State from 1981-84, where she tallied a record of 81-63 (.563). Wise is the 16th-winningest NCAA Division I volleyball head coach all-time and the eighth-winningest active coach.
· The 2010 campaign marks the 27th season of Florida (beginning 1984). The Gators are 777-168 (.821) all-time in program history.
· The Gators lead the SEC (all matches combined) in both blocks per set (2.62) and service aces per set (1.72). Florida is the only team in the SEC to have four players rank in the league's top-10 individually in service aces.
· Two Florida players are nearing the 1,000-kill plateau for their Florida careers, something that just 16 players in program history have accomplished. Junior right-side/setter Kelly Murphy has 890 career kills, which ranks 22nd in school history, while junior outside hitter Kristy Jaeckel has 819 career kills, which ranks 25th in school history.
· Murphy leads the nation with five triple-doubles so far this season and has a school-record 20 triple-dips in her Florida career.
· Murphy ranks ninth on Florida's all-time career assists list with 1,744 career dishes. Accomplishing that in just 81 career matches is an impressive feat, considering she has spent all but six matches of her collegiate career setting in just three rotations as part of a 6-2 offensive scheme.
· Murphy is the only player to rank in the conference's top-10 individually (all matches combined) in service aces per set (2nd), hitting percentage (3rd) and kills per set (10th) simultaneously.
· Jaeckel is just the 20th player in school history to reach 2,000 career attacks and now has 2,164 career attacks through 80 career matches, which ranks 17th all-time in UF school history.
