Florida Gators
Texas
No. 3 Texas Volleyball Edges No. 11 Gators, 3-1
Sunday, September 7, 2014 | Volleyball
WATCH: Recap and Highlights of Florida/Texas | Box Score
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Freshman Carli Snyder and junior Noami Santos-Lamb both posted career-best performances against the Texas volleyball squad, but the No. 3 Longhorns edged the No. 11 Gators 3-1 (16-25, 28-26, 17-25, 16-25) Saturday in front of a Stephen C. O'Connell Center crowd of 4,845 in the first of two meetings between the two teams this season. Florida will wrap up its regular-season slate Nov. 29 in Austin with the second Gators/Longhorns tilt of the campaign.
Snyder registered a career-best 18 kills to lead Florida (3-2) and turned in a .324 hitting efficiency against the Horns (4-0), while Santos-Lamb made it three consecutive matches with double-digit kills, including a career-best 14 Saturday. Another freshman in middle blocker Rhamat Alhassan paced the Gators with a .417 clip (7-2-12) and had three roofs to lead UF for the fifth straight match in blocks. It was Texas' 16.0 blocks as a team, compared to Florida's 5.0 that had the Gators off balance.
In addition to Snyder (18.5) and Santos-Lamb (14.0), sophomore All-American right side Alex Holston (10.5) put up a double-digit point performance with nine kills, a service ace and a block assist.
BY THE NUMBERS
· 798: career win total for head coach Mary Wise (798-149, .843), just two victories away from the 800-win milestone. Wise will be the fifth Division I female head coach -- and the only active female head coach -- to reach 800 career victories
· 55: kills for the Orange and Blue Saturday, four more than Texas' 51. Florida also had more assists (51-46), more digs (53-52) and one more service ace (4-3) than Texas, with the difference in the match being errors (UF: 34, UT 12) and blocks (UF: 5.0, UT: 16.0)
· 18: kills for Carli Snyder, which led all players in the match. Texas had just one player with double-digit kills (11 -- Chiaka Ogbogu)
· 11: digs for senior defensive specialist Holly Pole, who was UF's starting libero for the second straight match. Pole scooped up double-digit digs for the second time in UF's last three matches
· 3: of Florida's last four points in the Gators' second, winning set were rattled off by a swinging Snyder as UF pushed to a 28-26 second-set win
· 4: service aces for the Gators against the Longhorns. Florida has had four or more service aces in all five matches so far this season
· 2: straight match-ups for the University of Florida volleyball team against top-10 teams. The Gators will continue their challenging non-conference schedule vs. No. 15 San Diego and No. 6 USC with a road swing next week to the Golden State
GETTING WISE
“The takeaway from the match is to play against an elite blocking team and learn what a game-changer that is; great experiences for our young players and they rose to the challenge -- Rhamat (Alhassan) and Carli (Snyder), especially. Our goal right now is just to narrow the gap that existed tonight when we play Texas again in November.”
UP NEXT
The Orange and Blue will head to the west coast for their first true road swing of the 2014 campaign at the USC Classic, as the Gators have a Sept. 11 date with No. 15 San Diego in Los Angeles before taking on the home squad No. 6 USC on Sept. 12 at the Galen Center.
UP FOR THE CHALLENGE
· Six of Florida's first eight matches have been, or are, against opponents ranked or receiving votes in the AVCA Preseason Top 25 (in order of schedule): Oklahoma (rv), No. 8 FSU, No. 3 Texas, No. 15 San Diego, No. 6 USC & Marquette (rv)
· Seven of Florida's first eight opponents made the 2013 NCAA Tournament: add Georgia Southern to the above list. The Eagles were in the Gainesville sub regional last December
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