No. 13 Gators Hit the Road for First Full SEC Weekend
Wednesday, September 28, 2011 | Volleyball
The No. 13 Florida volleyball team hits the road for the Gators' first full weekend of Southeastern Conference play away from the friendly confines of the Stephen C. O'Connell Center. Florida has won 12 straight SEC matches on the road and this year's senior class owns a 27-4 SEC record on the road.
The Gators' matchup with the Tigers will be the first-ever volleyball match played in the newly-opened Auburn Arena. Opening serve is set for 8 p.m. on Friday evening. Gator fans can tune into Sportsradio 850 with Cory Stephens on the call. Florida then travels to Athens to face the Georgia Bulldogs, the Gators' longest-standing rivalry, as the teams have met 60 times since the Gator program's inception in 1984. Opening serve between the Gators and the Bulldogs is set for 1:30 p.m. Fans can listen live on Country 103.7 The Gator with Stephens once again calling the action. The Gators have only dropped one match combined to Auburn and Georgia under head coach Mary Wise (UF leads AU all-time: 36-1; UF leads UGA all-time: 51-9).
The Gators are coming off a split weekend, pulling out a 3-1 victory over Kentucky on Friday before falling in five sets to Tennessee on Sunday. Senior outside hitter Kristy Jaeckel (Littleton, Colo.) led the Gators on the weekend with 31 kills, averaging 3.44/set. Senior right-side/setter Kelly Murphy (Wilmington, Ill.) had her 26th triple-double against the Lady Volunteers and combined for 19 kills, 40 assists and 19 digs on the weekend. Junior middle blocker Betsy Smith (Atlanta, Ga.) led Florida in both hitting percentage and blocks, hitting at a .542 clip and averaging 1.00 blocks/set. Redshirt freshman libero Taylor Unroe (Muncie, Ind.) was first on the Gators in digs with 3.22/set. Murphy and Unroe each contributed four service aces on the weekend.
The Gators lead the SEC in hitting percentage (.292), good for sixth in the country, and are second in service aces (1.67/set), which ranks 25th in the NCAA. Lowe's Senior CLASS Award candidate Murphy is second in the SEC and 22nd in the NCAA in service aces, averaging .49/set this fall, while posting a .343 hitting percentage, good for fifth in the SEC. Junior right-side Tangerine Wiggs (Seattle, Wash.) is fourth in the conference in hitting percentage with a .347 hitting clip, while Jaeckel is eighth in the SEC in kills with 3.25/set and ranks seventh in points with 3.84/set. Unroe is seventh in the SEC in digs with 3.69/set and eighth in service aces with .31/set. Smith is sixth in the SEC with 1.02 blocks/set.
The Auburn Tigers (8-6, 2-2 SEC) remained perfect at home so far this season with a pair of 3-0 victories over archrival Alabama on Friday night and SEC West nemesis Ole Miss on Sunday. Friday's win over Alabama (25-22, 25-13, 25-23) was the Tigers' fourth straight in the series and came before a crowd of 1,037 fans at the Student Activities Center, the third-largest home crowd in Auburn volleyball history.
Senior outside hitter Kelly Fidero was the offensive key for Auburn over the weekend, amassing 29 kills (4.83/set), including an Auburn season-high 15 against the Rebels. She also hit at a .490 clip for the week with just five errors on 49 attack attempts. Sophomore setter Chelsea Wintzinger had one of her best weekends as a Tiger, compiling 64 assists (10.67/set) while also scoring a career-high six kills in both matches during the week. Wintzinger is ninth in the SEC in assists, averaging 6.21/set. Junior Sarah Bullock earned her second double-double of the season on Friday with 10 kills and 13 digs against Alabama; she fell one dig shy of another against Ole Miss with nine digs to go along with 10 kills.
The Tigers' Camila Jersonsky is third in the SEC and 45th in the country in hitting percentage (.363) and Chloe Rowand ranks fourth in the SEC in blocks with 1.03/set. Cersonsky's .632 hitting performance against Austin Peay in early September ranks in the top-5 in the SEC this season.
The Georgia Bulldogs moved to 5-9 on the year after going 1-1 this past week. Georgia's two matches last weekend opened a season-long, five-match home stand that started with a 3-1 win over Ole Miss. Georgia then dropped a 3-1 meeting with Alabama to conclude the weekend.
In the match against the Rebels, senior setter Kathleen Gates became just the sixth player in school history to eclipse 4,000 career assists, and against the Crimson Tide she raised that total to 4,061, moving her up to fifth all-time in assists at UGA. Gates currently ranks fourth in the SEC in assists with 10.86/set.
Sophomore Brittany Northcutt is ninth in the SEC in kills with 3.11/set, sophomore Kathleen Luft is fifth in the SEC in service aces with .37/set, senior Ann Dylla is tied with Florida's Smith for eighth in the SEC in blocks with 1.02/set and sophomore Allison Summers is fifth in the conference in digs with 3.80/set.
