The No. 1 Florida volleyball team added some new ink to the program's record books Thursday, but not every new entry was one to remember.
The Gators recorded their most dominating set in the 25-point era to kick off action at home against Mississippi State, then went flat and watched the Bulldogs claim just their fifth won set in the long-standing series. In the end, UF pulled it together in time to claim a 3-1 (25-7, 25-23, 28-30, 25-20) victory.
UF dominated virtually every statistical category, but allowed MSU (11-16, 3-13 SEC) to stay in the game with a combined 16 attack errors and eight serving errors in the second and third sets.
"In past years, if we'd have gotten a chance to play a team ranked as highly as we are, we would have thrown everything out and gotten after it and had no worries," Florida coach Mary Wise said. "That's just something that comes with the territory."
Wise was able to unload her bench in the first set after taking an early lead. Twelve different Gators saw action, and it seemed at times that Wise could have pulled a few of the 2,281 fans out of the stands and still kept the runs going.
Florida (23-1, 16-0 SEC) had more service aces (four) in the set than the Bulldogs had kills (three) as the home team used a scorching .545 hitting to piece together three 3-0 runs along with surges of 5-0 and 6-0. Defensively, the team allowed just seven points, the fewest in a set since the NCAA went to 25-point frames in 2008.
"I think that getting so far ahead in the first game misled us for the rest of the match," said Lauren Bledsoe, who finished with 10 kills on .500 hitting. "We weren't on the right track and not as focused as we should have been."
The Bulldogs jumped out to an early 4-1 lead in set two and didn't flinch when UF erased the deficit with a 13-3 run. MSU chipped away at the Florida momentum and managed to tie it at 23 before a service error and a Cassandra Anderson kill gave UF a 2-0 match lead.
Mississippi State didn't allow a late Florida run to overcome the third set. Down 18-15, MSU strung together a 7-2 surge to take a 20-19 lead. The teams traded points down the stretch until a pair of kills gave the Bulldogs their first won set in the O'Connell Center since the teams' first meeting in the building in 1984.
Florida's 4-2 run to open the fourth set was aided by four consecutive MSU errors. The visitors kept it close until the Gator's big-game experience won out with a 5-2 surge to close out the match.
The Gators were led by Kristy Jaeckel's 12 kills. Chanel Brown added 27 assists and Erin Fleming chipped in 16 digs. Florida out-killed (62-41), out-dug (57-43), out-assisted (57-38) and out-blocked (13-6) the Bulldogs while posting a .281 hitting percentage to MSU's .137.
