The No. 1 University of Florida volleyball team, fresh off a sweep of No. 21 Tennessee on Wednesday evening, will entertain Southeastern Conference Eastern Division foe Kentucky on Sunday. Opening serve in the Stephen C. O’Connell Center is slated for 1:30 p.m. ET and the match will be carried live on 103.7 FM The Gator with Tom Collett and Missy Whittemore.
The Gators (17-1, 10-0 SEC) have won 12 consecutive matches and are coming off their ninth win against a top-25 opponent so far this season, as Florida is 9-1 against ranked foes in the 2010 campaign. In UF’s 3-0 win against Tennessee, the Gators hit .318 on the match, marking the eighth time this season that they have hit better than .300. Junior outside hitter Kristy Jaeckel (Littleton, Colo.) led the way with a team-high 12 kills on .346 hitting.
With half of the SEC’s double-round robin season complete, Florida currently is in first place with a 10-0 league record. LSU and Ole Miss both are in second place in the league standings with 9-2 conference records, while Auburn and Tennessee are tied for fourth with 7-4 SEC marks.
The Gators lead the SEC (all matches combined) in both blocks per set (2.65) and service aces per set (1.72). Florida is the only team in the SEC to have three players rank among the league’s top-10 individually in service aces per set.
Florida is led offensively by junior right-side/setter Kelly Murphy (Wilmington, Ill.), who leads the nation with five triple-doubles this season. Murphy averages a squad-best 3.17 kills per set on a .370 hitting percentage, which ranks fifth in the SEC. Murphy is second in the SEC with 0.35 service aces per set and leads the conference with 0.44 aces per set in league matches only. She also adds a team-high 5.51 assists per set (as part of a 6-2 offensive scheme), 2.23 digs per set and 0.69 blocks per set.
Jaeckel and senior outside hitter Callie Rivers (Winter Park, Fla.) follow with 2.57 and 2.20 kills per set, respectively. Rivers, who is second on the team with 2.41 digs per set, is fifth in the SEC with 0.31 service aces per set.
Senior libero Erin Fleming (Orlando, Fla.) heads Florida’s back-row effort with 3.65 digs per set, which ranks eighth in the SEC, and is seventh in the SEC with 0.29 aces per set, while freshman setter Chanel Brown (Tempe, Ariz.) dishes out 5.46 assists per set.
Junior middle blocker Cassandra Anderson (Bakersfield, Calif.) leads a trio of Gators who average better than 0.85 blocks per set. Anderson is fourth in the SEC with 1.14 blocks per set, while senior middle blocker Lauren Bledsoe (Long Beach, Calif.) is eighth in the league with 1.02 blocks per set. Bledsoe also is first on the team and fourth in the SEC with a .371 hitting efficiency. Sophomore right-side Tangerine Wiggs (Seattle, Wash.) adds 0.89 blocks per set.
The Gators and Wildcats meet for the 52nd time in the history of the two programs, marking the second-longest rivalry in UF annals as the Gators have met only Georgia (59 times) more times in program history. UF holds a 42-9 advantage in the all-time series, including a 40-2 mark under Wise. The Gators are 20-4 all-time when the match is contested in Gainesville. The two teams split the season series last year, before Florida posted a 3-1 win in Lexington on Sept. 17, 2010.
Kentucky is coming off a 3-0 loss at South Carolina on Friday night. Prior to that defeat, the Wildcats had won three consecutive matches. Kentucky, the 2009 SEC Eastern Division Champion, enters Sunday’s contest with an 11-10 overall record and a 5-6 mark in league play, putting it in third place in the SEC Eastern Division standings. The Wildcats are just 2-7 away from home this season.
The Wildcats are led offensively by redshirt freshman Whitney Billings, who averages a squad-best 2.79 kills per set. Senior middle blocker Lauren Rapp and senior outside hitter Blaire Hiler follow with 2.61 and 2.59 kills per set, respectively. Sophomore setter Christine Hartmann ranks fourth in the SEC (all matches combined) with 9.35 assists per set, while sophomore Stephanie Klefot heads the team’s back-row effort, ranking fifth in the SEC with 4.20 digs per set. Rapp is the team’s top blocker with 0.99 blocks per set, while redshirt freshman middle blocker Alexandra Morgan chips in 0.97 blocks per set.
Craig Skinner is in his sixth season as Kentucky’s head coach, having directed the Wildcats to five consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances. He has a career record of 124-55 (.693) during his tenure in Lexington, having joined the Wildcats after five seasons as an assistant coach at Nebraska.
QUICK NOTES
· The Gators are ranked No. 1 in the nation for the second consecutive week and for just the seventh time in program history. Florida was ranked No. 1 for five consecutive polls during the 1996 season and UF holds a record of 15-1 all-time when playing as the nation’s top-ranked team.
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Florida head coach Mary Wise, in her 24th season as a collegiate head coach and her 20th directing the Gators, became just the 16th NCAA Division I women’s volleyball coach ever to pick up her 700th career victory. Wise is 701-131 (.842) in her 24th season as a Division I head coach, with her first four seasons coming at Iowa State from 1981-84, where she tallied a record of 81-63 (.563). Wise is the 16th winningest NCAA Division I volleyball head coach all-time and the eighth-winningest active coach.
· Florida’s 620 wins since the start of the 1991 campaign are the most of any team in the nation during that time period.
· The 2010 campaign marks the 27th season of Florida volleyball (beginning 1984). The Gators are 776-168 (.821) all-time in program history.
· The Gators lead the SEC (all matches combined) in both blocks per set (2.65) and service aces per set (1.72). Florida is the only team in the SEC to have three players rank in the league’s top-10 individually in service aces.
· Junior right-side/setter Kelly Murphy is the reigning SEC Offensive Player of the Week, earning that honor for the fifth time in her career and third time this season. On Oct. 15 vs. Auburn, Murphy became just the 29th player in program history to eclipse the 1,000-point plateau. She currently has 1,033.0 points through 80 career matches.
· In conference matches only, Murphy leads the league in service aces per set with 0.44 and is third in hitting percentage with a .402 clip against league opponents.
· Murphy leads the nation with five triple-doubles so far this season and has a school-record 20 triple-dips in her Florida career.
· Murphy currently ranks ninth on Florida’s all-time career assists list with 1,728 career dishes. Accomplishing that in just 80 career matches is an impressive feat, considering she has spent all but six matches of her collegiate career setting in just three rotations as part of a 6-2 offensive scheme.
· Junior outside hitter Kristy Jaeckel is just the 20th player in school history to reach 2,000 career attacks and now has 2,148 career attacks through 79 career matches, which ranks 18th all-time in UF school history.
FRIDAY NIGHT’S SEC SCORES
· Auburn 3, Arkansas 0
· No. 17 LSU 3, Georgia 2
· South Carolina 3, Kentucky 0
· Ole Miss 3, Mississippi State 1
