Florida’s
oldest non-conference rivalry will be renewed on Wednesday evening as the No.
11 Florida volleyball team travels to Tallahassee to take on the No. 12 Florida
State Seminoles in Tully Gymnasium. First serve is set for 6 p.m. ET on ESPN3
with Tom Block and former Florida State head coach Cecile Reynaud. Gator fans
can tune into Country 103.7 The Gator to hear longtime play-by-play announcer
Tom Collett and Cory Stephens call the action.
This
is the 52nd meeting between the two teams and Florida has not lost to Florida
State since 1994, taking 21 straight matches. The Gators are 35-16 all-time
against the Seminoles, including 28-2 under Florida head coach Mary Wise.
This is the fourth time in the history of the series where both teams have been
ranked (2012: UF-11, FSU-12; 2011: UF-9, FSU-25; 2010: UF-3, FSU-13; 1998:
UF-9, FSU-21). Both teams are placed well in the latest NCAA RPI, with the
Gators at No. 10 and the Seminoles at No. 13.
The
No. 11 Gators (17-2, 11-0 SEC) remained undefeated in conference action over
the weekend, sweeping Alabama in Tuscaloosa before winning their second 3-2
comeback thriller in two weeks, this time at Texas A&M. Junior middle
blocker Chloe Mann (Gainesville, Fla.), the SEC Offensive Player of the Week,
led the way for Florida in both matches, registering a .750 hitting percentage
with 13 kills on 16 swings against the Crimson Tide on Friday night.
On
Sunday, the Gainesville native tallied 19 kills and six blocks against the
Aggies, erring only once the entire match. The junior did not commit an error,
blocking or hitting, after the second set. Mann averaged 4.00 kills per set
against the Tide and the Aggies, hitting .566 on the weekend for 35.5 points.
Sophomore
libero Taylor Unroe (Muncie, Ind.) had one of her best matches of the
year Friday night, scooping 18 digs in the Gators’ three-set sweep of the
Crimson Tide. Unroe is now second in the SEC in service aces (.34/set) and
fifth in digs (4.34/set).
On
Sunday, senior middle blocker Betsy Smith (Atlanta, Ga.) set a new
career high with 15 kills against A&M and stuffed seven blocks on the
weekend. Against the two SEC West foes, senior right-side hitter Tangerine
Wiggs (Seattle, Wash.) turned in a team-high eight blocks, averaging 1.00
blocks per set.
Junior
setter Taylor Brauneis (Crystal Lake, Ill.) continues to lead the SEC in
assists (11.44/set), while Mann leads the conference and is fifth in the NCAA
in hitting percentage (.439), and is also fifth in blocks (1.08/set). Wiggs is
second in the SEC (.383) in hitting percentage and Smith is fourth (.363),
making three Gators in the top five. Florida leads the league in hitting
percentage (.312) and service aces (1.51/set), while ranking third in kills/set
(14.24).
The Seminoles are 18-2 on the season and 10-1
in ACC play. Their only losses came at the hands of Miami (1-3) and then-No. 18
Pepperdine (0-3), and Florida State has been on a 12-match winning streak since
the sweep by the Waves. FSU comes into Wednesday with a 20-match win streak at
Tully Gymnasium, the longest home win streak in school history, dating back to
Aug. 26, 2011. Similar to the Gators, the Seminoles also had an 0-2 comeback
victory last weekend, dropping the first two sets at Georgia Tech before
charging out of intermission to take the final three and the victory, 3-2. FSU
returns five starters from a year ago, which saw the Seminoles take the ACC
crown and earn a berth in the Final Four. Florida State junior middle blocker Ashley
Neff is the only player in the nation to rank in the Top 10 nationally in
blocks per set (fifth at 1.66) and hitting percentage (third at .448).
While the last two regular season meetings
between the Gators and the Seminoles were both 3-0 sweeps in Florida’s favor,
this rivalry has seen some close calls as of late. In 2010, Florida hosted
Florida State in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. A five-set thriller,
the top-seeded Gators were down 12-7 in the fifth
set before taking the decisive frame, 16-14. The Seminoles had match point twice
and the Gators rallied, using a kill off high hands by Kristy Jaeckel to
take the match, 3-2. In 2009, the Seminoles had match point at 14-13 in the fifth
set in Gainesville before the Gators came back to win the set and the match,
17-15.
