Back home in familiar surroundings, it didn't take the 17th-ranked Florida volleyball team long to get back in the swing of things.
The Gators (18-5, 11-3) came out on fire offensively, recording hitting percentages of .409 and .517 in the first two sets, respectively, en route to a 3-0 sweep of Alabama (11-15, 4-11) before an O'Connell Center crowd of 1,895 Friday.
The win was a welcome one for UF, which was coming off a pair of tough road losses to No. 20 Tennessee and No. 24 Kentucky last weekend.
“I definitely thought we came out with a lot of confidence, even after a rough weekend last weekend,” said middle blocker Chloe Mann. “We came out strong from the beginning and worked together as a team, so it was good.”
After winning the first two sets by scores of 25-16 and 25-12, the Gators did cool off in the third set, hitting a match-low .139 to drop their overall hitting mark to .333. But while the offense cooled, the defense didn't, coming up with five blocks in the final set to help the Gators stave off the Tide's best effort of the match and win, 25-21.
“I think what happened was we just got a little impatient,” said UF head coach Mary Wise. “The first two sets is what we're looking at, especially set two where we held them to .125 and we hit .500. You don't beat teams 25-12 very often.
“I thought in set three, Alabama did a few smart things, but we just got impatient offensively. Alabama had zero blocks going into the third set and finished with five, so give them credit. They made the blocks, but we were a little impatient.”
Mann, a redshirt sophomore and former Eastside High standout who was coming off a career-best performance in Sunday's loss to Kentucky, earned her fourth start of the season and came through with six kills and a solid .417 hitting mark while adding a solo block and two block assists. She finished with 8.5 points, third-best behind junior right-side hitter Tangerine Wiggs (11.5) and senior All-America Kelly Murphy (10.5), the latter of whom had six kills, a match-high three service aces and a team-high 21 assists.
Wise was looking for more kills and blocks from UF's middles, and Mann and junior Betsy Smith, who added five kills, a solo block and two block assists, delivered.
“She (Mann) has learned how to dominate at the net, and that is huge for us,” Wise said. “We also scored points off Betsy's serve. We had two middles who were very productive today.”
UF also had a pair of hot hitters in Wiggs, who had a match-high 10 kills and hit .500, and true freshman Noami Santos-Lamb.
Santos-Lamb came off the bench late in the second set and wowed the crowd with four kills in four swings to take UF from a 19-12 edge to a 23-12 lead.
"Talk about lighting it up," said Wise. "Not just the four out of four swings, but she passed two perfect balls. That bodes well for the future, too."
Ole Miss comes calling at the O-Dome at 2 p.m. Sunday. The Rebels' record (8-14, 4-10) may not be impressive, but they had won three in a row heading into Friday's match at South Carolina.
“They just had some injuries and started off slow, but they've gotten it turned around now,” Wise noted. “The team that we play Sunday will be the team everybody expected in terms of being very athletic and having a high volleyball IQ. They're a very good team.”
