Career victory No. 700 for Florida volleyball coach Mary Wise may go down as one of those games she might rather forget.
A smaller and less experienced Georgia team went toe-to-toe with the top-ranked Gators on Sunday and took every punch the home team would deliver. Despite the sloppy play, UF managed to slip out of the O'Connell Center with a 19-25, 25-20, 25-19, 25-21 win and make a humble Wise the 16th coach to reach the 700-win milestone.
"If it gives us a chance to stop and thank all of the players and families for choosing Florida and coming here and playing and being a part of this program," Wise said, "and all of the staff; the assistant coaches and support staff. If it gives us a chance to take a timeout and thank them for all of their contributions, then it's worth coming up with a (win) number."
The Bulldogs (11-10, 3-7 SEC) gave Florida a rude awakening, taking the lead on the opening point and holding it throughout the first set. The Gators came out sloppy and Wise made several substitutions throughout the frame in hopes of finding the right combination of players. Her team managed to tie the score at 16 and 17 points, but a long Georgia surge allowed the team to pull away with the first-set win.
A Callie Rivers kill to open the second game gave Florida its first lead of the match. The Gators quickly gave it back for the first of six lead changes in the frame. The final of the 14 ties in the set came at 16-all amid an 8-2 UF surge that gave it just enough breathing room to tie the game at one set each.
Though a much smaller team up front, Georgia dominated the nets through two sets. A seven-block second frame gave the Dawgs a 10.5-6 block advantage heading into the intermission.
"I felt like we were a step behind defensively, really until the middle of the second set," Wise said. "That was evidenced by how few blocks we had in the first set and a half."
That edge melted away in the third set as Florida (16-1, 9-0 SEC) mounted a charge on the nets that resulted in five quick blocks. The Gators led most of the way, but saw their five-point lead whittled to two at 21-19.
Wise called a timeout to settle her team and saw the club respond with four straight points to end the set.
Seven consecutive fourth-set Florida points, served by Erin Fleming, helped Florida take the lead early. UF never gave the edge back and traded points with the Bulldogs until Lauren Bledsoe and Kristy Jaeckel scored back-to-back points to close out the match and leave the 2,031 fans slightly shocked fans cheering for Wise's milestone.
"They moved really fast, so we needed to pick up our pace and move a step faster," said Cassandra Anderson, who finished with seven kills on .417 hitting. "I felt like we started moving a little faster towards the end of the game."
Florida was led by Jaeckel's 12 kills. Kelly Murphy added 30 assists and Fleming chipped in 11 digs. As a team, the Gators logged a .284 hitting efficiency and held the Bulldogs to .244. The final surge on the nets gave UF a final 14-13.5 blocking advantage.
Wise will look for win No. 701 Wednesday when the Gators host No. 24 Tennessee at 8 p.m. in a nationally televised ESPNU game.
