No. 13 Gators Return to O'Dome to Face SEC West Foes
Thursday, October 6, 2011 | Volleyball
The No. 13 Florida volleyball team (11-3, 4-1 SEC) returns to the friendly confines of the Stephen C. O'Connell Center to host SEC West opponents Arkansas and LSU. The weekend is a brief respite from travel, as the Gators embarked on a stretch of seven matches out of the next 10 on the road beginning with last weekend's match against Auburn.
The Gators face the Razorbacks at 7 p.m. on Friday evening, the broadcast of which Gator fans can listen to on Sportsradio 850 with Tom Collett and Missy Whittemore and airs live on Cox Channel 946. Then Florida takes on the LSU Tigers at 1:30 p.m. on Sun Sports (DirecTV Channel 653, Cox Channels 48 and 1048) with Larry Vettel and Whittemore commentating. Florida fans can also tune in to Country 103.7 The Gator to listen to the radio broadcast, featuring longtime play-by-play announcer Collett.
Florida is coming off a weekend sweep of Auburn and Georgia on the road. The Gators dominated on the road trip, sweeping both opponents, 3-0. The Orange and Blue defeated Auburn, 3-0 (26-24, 25-20, 25-23), on Friday night behind a combined 29 kills from AVCA National Player of the Week and SEC Offensive Player of the Week Kristy Jaeckel (Littleton, Colo.) and Stephanie Ferrell (Los Angeles, Calif.). They then downed the Bulldogs, 3-0 (26-24, 25-15, 25-23), on Sunday afternoon with the help of 14 kills and a season-high six blocks from Jaeckel, registering a season-high .520 hitting percentage. The senior outside hitter had a stellar weekend, notching 29 kills, 11 blocks and two aces. She averaged 6.08 points/set, 4.83 kills/set and 1.83 blocks/set on the weekend. Junior middle blocker Betsy Smith (Atlanta, Ga.) continued her strong play at the net, stuffing 10 blocks and registering 11 kills. Senior right-side/setter Kelly Murphy (Wilmington, Ill.) had her 68th career double-double with 13 kills on .480 hitting and 20 assists. She narrowly missed a triple-dip with nine digs.
The Gators lead the SEC in hitting percentage (.301), good for third in the country, blocks (2.49/set) and service aces (1.67/set). The Gators are second in the conference in opponent hitting percentage (.163), settling in behind LSU's .150 allowed hitting clip. Junior middle blocker Smith ranks third in the SEC with 1.13 blocks/set, contributing to the Gators' stellar blocking totals. Florida has two players ranking in the top 10 in hitting percentage, with Lowe's Senior CLASS Award candidate Murphy registering a .341 hitting clip, good for fifth, and junior right-side Tangerine Wiggs (Seattle, Wash.) posting a .331 hitting percentage, good for sixth. Murphy is third in the SEC in service aces with .43/set. Jaeckel is sixth in the SEC in kills and points with 3.44/set and 4.11/set, respectively. Redshirt freshman libero Taylor Unroe (Muncie, Ind.) is eighth in the SEC in digs with 3.55/set and seventh in service aces with .31/set.
The Razorbacks (10-6, 2-3 SEC) lost a pair of home matches this weekend to SEC Eastern Division rivals Kentucky and No. 23 Tennessee. In Friday's four-set loss to the Wildcats, Kelli Stipanovich and Janeliss Torres-Lopez paced the team's offense with 16 and 10 kills, respectively. Raymariely Santos turned in her fourth double-double of the season with 38 assists and 13 digs. Defensively at the net, Roslandy Acosta led the way with six total blocks against Kentucky. In the weekend finale, a three-set loss to Tennessee, Stipanovich once again led the team offensively with seven kills and Santos tallied a team-high nine digs.
LSU (10-5, 3-2 SEC) dropped a pair of decisions to No. 23 Tennessee and Kentucky. It marked the first time since the 2004 season that the Tigers were handed consecutive home setbacks. LSU heads into the fourth week of conference play still atop the SEC's Western Division. The Tigers were limited to a .164 team hitting percentage for the weekend, while their opponents countered with a .305 clip. LSU's top three hitters of Desiree Elliott, Madie Jones and Michele Williams all hit below their season averages. Elliott was the only player to reach double figure kills during both matches and extended to run to 11 straight matches with 10 or more spikes. Williams came away with 1.29 blocks per set highlighted by an eight-stuff performance against Tennessee. Defensively, Meghan Mannari posted 25 digs at 3.57 per set ratio. Lauren Waclawczyk sprawled out for a season-high 18 digs versus Tennessee.
