No. 6 Gators Ready for Senior Day, Final Home Weekend

Friday, November 11

Gainesville, FL

7 PM

Florida Gators

South Carolina

Alex Holston ranks sixth on Florida's all-time career kills list (1,390) entering this weekend.

No. 6 Gators Ready for Senior Day, Final Home Weekend

Thursday, November 10, 2016 | Volleyball

Florida will honor its lone senior, Alex Holston, prior to Sunday's match against Alabama

By: Zach Dirlam

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The No. 6 Gators, who also climbed one spot to No. 6 in the latest NCAA RPI Rankings, will play consecutive home games for the final time this regular season, as they face South Carolina on Friday (Nov. 11) and Alabama on Sunday (Nov. 13).

Friday night's match will begin at 7 p.m. and will be streamed live on SEC Network +. Sunday's match is slated to start at 2 p.m., and will be televised live on SEC Network, with Sam Gore and Jenny Hazelwood on the call.

Gator fans can also catch UF's matchup with the Crimson Tide via the radio airwaves of ESPN Gainesville 95.3 FM / 850 AM.

The Gators will celebrate senior day prior to Sunday's match against the Crimson Tide. Three-time All-American right side and 2014 SEC Player of the Year Alex Holston is the team's lone senior this season.

In its first meeting with South Carolina earlier this year, Florida tallied 11 total blocks and held the Gamecocks to a .030 hitting percentage in Columbia, S.C. Junior All-American middle blocker Rhamat Alhassan led UF with 15 points, accumulating six blocks and 10 kills. Holston logged a match-high 11 kills, while freshman middle blocker Rachael Kramer tallied 11 points and hit .636.

The Gators' first time around against Alabama, Holston amassed a team-high 14 kills and five digs. Alhassan totaled 11 kills and hit .625. All in all, UF notched 48 kills and hit .375, helping redshirt sophomore setter Allie Monserez post 43 assists, the fourth-highest assist total by an SEC player in any three-set match this season.

PROMOTIONS: First 250 fans in attendance for Friday's match will receive a FREE Florida volleyball fan wig. First 250 fans in attendance for Sunday's match will receive a FREE Florida volleyball foam finger.

????GIVEAWAY ALERT????

Haters gonna say it's photoshopped... #MannequinChallenge pic.twitter.com/JXL3zBIlPQ
— Gators Volleyball (@GatorsVB) November 10, 2016

Friday's match is also a Rowdy Reptile check-in. Sunday's match is also a Dance Marathon check in.

FLORIDA NATIONALLY ENTERING THIS WEEKEND

Florida is one of four teams in the nation (Wisconsin, Nebraska, Utah) with at least four road wins against teams inside the top 30 of the NCAA RPI Rankings
- UF's wins came at No. 20 Oregon, No. 15 Michigan State, No. 26 Florida State, and No. 23 Texas A&M
Florida leads the nation in hitting efficiency (.342) for a seventh straight week, and its average climbed .008 after clips of .354 at Georgia and .554 at Mississippi State
- The next-closest hitting percentage to Florida is Western Kentucky's .311 clip
UF's current clip of .342 would tie the fourth-highest hitting percentage by a Division I team since 2008, when the current 25-point scoring system was adopted
Freshman middle blocker Rachael Kramer is once again leading the nation in hitting percentage (.529)
- Per the NCAA statistics database, UF's Chloe Mann (2013) is the only player since 2010 to finish a season with higher than a .470 hitting percentage. Mann hit .506 in 2013
Not far behind Kramer are junior All-American middle blocker Rhamat Alhassan, whose .417 clip ranks eighth nationally, and senior three-time All-American right side Alex Holston, who has climbed to 45th (.366) after four errorless matches in UF's last five outings
- Florida is the only team in the nation this year with three qualifying players ranked in the top 100 in hitting percentage
- Florida's 2013 team, Western Kentucky (2013), and BYU (2012) are the only other teams since 2010 with three qualifying players in the top 45 of the national hitting percentage rankings
Florida's opponent hitting percentage sits at .158, which ranks 18th nationally. Back on Oct. 3, the Gators were ranked 60th nationally
- Only one team since 2010 finished the year with a clip higher than .320 and an opponent clip below .170: the 2014 Penn State Nittany Lions, who won the national title
Redshirt sophomore setter Allie Monserez leads the nation in assists per set (12.29) for a seventh straight week, and no other player in the country is averaging better than 11.95 assists per set
- The last Gator to finish a season with more than 11.65 assists per set was Angie McGinnis, who averaged 13.88 assists per set in 2007
Florida is up to fourth nationally in assists per set (13.66), a category it has not ranked higher than 13th in since at least 2010.
- The Gators have not averaged more than 13.55 assists per set under the current 25-point scoring format adopted in 2008
Defensively, UF checks in at No. 11 nationally with 2.87 blocks per set, up two spots from last week

BROADCAST INFORMATION
Friday, Nov. 11, vs. South Carolina | 7 p.m.
Stream: SEC Network + (Tom Collett, Josh Crow) | Audio Stream (Tom Collett, Josh Crow) | Live Stats

Sunday, Nov. 13, vs. Alabama | 2 p.m.
TV: Live on SEC Network (Sam Gore, Jenny Hazelwood) | Stream: WatchESPN | Radio Stream (Tom Collett, Josh Crow) + live on ESPN Gainesville (95.3 FM / AM 850) | Live Stats

SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
South Carolina | 17-7 overall, 5-7 SEC

Florida leads: 53-7 (47-2 under Mary Wise)
3-set: 40-2 | 4-set: 10-4 | 5-set: 3-1
Home: 26-1 | Away: 25-5 | Neutral: 2-1
Last Time Out: Oct. 9, 2016 at Columbia --> W, 3-0 (25-14, 25-19, 25-19)
Notable: Florida has won 18 straight meetings and has not lost a set in any of the last four matchups

Alabama | 17-10 overall, 6-8 SEC