Take a Minute to Meet ... Gators volleyball player Nikki O'Rourke
Monday, August 25, 2014 | Women's Swimming & Diving, Volleyball, Scott Carter
VIDEO: Gators coach Mary Wise discusses her team's depth on Monday as Gators prepare for opener.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Nikki O'Rourke is more than a junior defensive specialist for the Gators volleyball team.
O'Rourke is a Florida girl through and through. If she wasn't playing basketball or volleyball growing up in Clearwater, you usually could find O'Rourke at the beach.
Sometimes in far away places.
O'Rourke is a veteran on a Gators team that features five freshmen on this year's roster. Florida opens the season Friday afternoon at the O'Connell Center against Georgia Southern.
GatorZone.com recently caught up with O'Rourke for a quick Q&A:
Q: Have you had time to get used to some of the new players?
A: We do have a lot of people, 17 total on the team. It's definitely some new faces on the court and some new personalities to get used to. It's fun. There are a lot of new characters out there, but it's a fun playing environment. We have a lot of information to get used to and playing at this high level is definitely harder than playing at lower levels such as high school and club ball.
Q: What do you expect your role to be?
A: Junior season, playing DS. All spots are open right now. It's great competition in the gym having 17 people just going out and playing hard every day and really competing. It's definitely a competitive gym. Everyone wants to play. I'm just going out every day and pushing to be the best I can.
Q: So, you like to surf?
A: We go to the east coast [of Florida] quite a bit, over to Cocoa Beach. We have a place over there and we take a lot of family vacations to islands to go surfing and that kind of stuff.
Q: Where are some of the places you have been to surf?
A: We've gone to Jamaica, we've gone to Eleuthera, which is the only Bohemian island with surf. Been to Costa Rica. We travel quite a bit. It's awesome.
Q: Is your whole family into surfing?
A: Yeah, my dad and brother. My mom just supports us. She does the watching. As a family we have always been rather beachy people.
Q: They must be athletic like you?
A: My whole family played basketball. I was the only one to pick up volleyball. I played basketball until I was about 12 and then just focused on volleyball.
