No. 1 Gators Face Western Division Champ LSU
Sunday, November 21, 2010 | Volleyball
The No. 1-ranked and 2010 Southeastern Conference Champion Florida volleyball team will square off with SEC Western Division Champion and 16th-ranked LSU on Sunday. Opening serve in Pete Maravich Assembly Center is slated for 2 p.m. ET and the match will be carried live on Cox Sports Television and on WRUF Sports Radio 850 with Tom Collett.
The Gators (25-1, 18-0 SEC) secured the SEC Championship outright on Friday evening with a 3-1 win against Arkansas in Fayetteville. Florida, which earned the program's 19th league title, also extended the nation's longest streak of consecutive 25-win seasons to 20 on Friday evening.
Florida used an incredibly balanced lineup in Friday's victory as six players tallied eight or more kills. Senior outside hitter Callie Rivers (Winter Park, Fla.) registered her third double-double of the season with 11 kills and 10 digs for a team-high 14.0 points, while junior outside hitter Kristy Jaeckel (Littleton, Colo.) also added 11 kills. Junior right-side/setter Kelly Murphy (Wilmington, Ill.) just missed her seventh triple-double of the year with nine kills on .333 hitting with 21 assists and 11 digs to complement four blocks.
The Gators rank among the nation's top-15 in three different statistical categories. Florida is 13th nationally in hitting percentage (.290), 14th nationally in service aces per set (1.68) and 14th nationally in blocks per set (2.75).
Murphy leads the Gators offensively, averaging a squad-best 3.12 kills per set on .371 hitting with 5.49 assists per set. She leads the SEC with 0.38 service aces per set and also chips in 2.15 digs per set and 0.69 blocks per set. Murphy is the only player to rank in the SEC's top-10 in three different statistical categories (all matches combined).
Rivers and Jaeckel follow with 2.45 and 2.44 kills per set, while Rivers is second on the team with 2.29 digs per set. Both are among the league's top-10 in service aces, with Rivers averaging 0.32 aces per set and Jaeckel adding 0.28 aces per set.
Freshman setter Chanel Brown (Tempe, Ariz.) dishes out a squad-best 5.63 assists per set, while senior libero Erin Fleming (Orlando, Fla.) heads the squad's back-row effort with 3.54 digs per set.
Three Gators average better than 0.95 blocks per set as junior middle blocker Cassandra Anderson (Bakersfield, Calif.) is averaging a squad-best 1.17 blocks per set. Senior middle blocker Lauren Bledsoe (Long Beach, Calif.) and sophomore right-side follow with 1.08 and 0.96 blocks per set, respectively.
As a team, Florida averages 2.75 blocks per set, which leads the SEC, and has charted double-figure blocks on 13 occasions, including four times in the last five matches.
The Gators and Tigers meet for the 45th time in the history of the two programs with Florida holding a 31-13 advantage in the all-time series. LSU won both meetings between the two squads last season, but prior to that, Florida had claimed 26 consecutive meetings in the all-time series. The Gators won a 3-1 decision on Oct. 1 in Gainesville. Under Wise's direction, Florida is 28-5 all-time vs. LSU.
LSU, which has won 12 consecutive matches home matches, boasts a 24-3 overall record and a 15-3 mark in the SEC. The Tigers wrapped up the outright SEC Western Division title on Friday night with a 3-0 victory against South Carolina in Baton Rouge, coupled with Kentucky's 3-1 win at Ole Miss. The Tigers suffered a 3-2 defeat in Lexington on Nov. 14, which snapped a six-match winning streak.
The Tigers are led by senior outside hitter Angela Bensend, who averages a squad-best 3.82 assists per set. Junior middle blocker Michele Williams and sophomore outside hitter Madie Jones follow with 3.12 and 2.69 kills per set, respectively. Senior setter Brittney Johnson leads the SEC (all matches combined) with a squad-best 10.72 assists per set, while junior libero Lauren Waclawczyk heads the team's back-row effort with 4.14 digs per set. Freshman Desiree Elliott, the reigning SEC Freshman of the Week, is the squad's leading blocker with 1.06 rejections per set, while Tania Schatow follows with 0.89 blocks per set.
Head coach Fran Flory is in her 13th season at the helm of the LSU program with a record of 247-142 (.634). In her 20th season as a collegiate head coach, Florida is 357-256 (.582), having also served as head coach at Kentucky.
Complete results and a recap of Sunday's match will be available at 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
· Florida secured the 2010 Southeastern Conference Championship outright on Friday evening, marking the 19th league championship in program history.
· The Gators extended the nation's longest streak of consecutive 25-win seasons to 20 with Friday's victory.
· Florida is ranked No. 1 in the American Volleyball Coaches Association Poll for a school-record sixth consecutive week and for the 12th time in program history. The Gators are 23-1 all-time when playing as the nation's top-ranked squad.
· Florida's 628 victories since the start of the 1991 campaign lead the nation during that span.
· Head Coach Mary Wise is an impressive 304-12 (.962) vs. SEC regular-season opponents during her 20-year tenure with the Gators.
· The Gators rank among the nation's top-15 in three different statistical categories. Florida is 13th nationally in hitting percentage (.290), 14th nationally in service aces per set (1.68) and 14th nationally in blocks per set (2.75).
· Florida is one of only two teams in the league (Georgia being the other) to have three players rank among the SEC's top-10 individually in service aces per set (all matches combined). Junior right-side/setter Kelly Murphy leads the SEC in service aces per set with 0.38. In conference matches only, Murphy averages a league-best 0.44 aces per set.
· Murphy is looking to become the 17th player in program history to reach the 1,000-kill plateau for her career. Murphy has 962 career kills and needs 38 more to reach 1,000. She currently ranks 19th all-time in school history in career kills.
· Senior libero Erin Fleming eclipsed the 600-dig plateau for her career on Nov. 11 vs. Mississippi State and now has 631 career scoops.
