Gator Volleyball Dominates the Gator Invitational

The third-ranked Florida volleyball team wins all three games it plays in while hosting the Gator Invitational Tournament on Friday and Saturday.

Friday

Florida notched a pair of sweeps, for its third and fourth consecutive straight-set victories, over Florida A&M and Northern Kentucky.

Match 1

The Gators kicked off the weekend tournament with Florida A&M; the team came out strong and swept the match in three games. The Gators led both the first and third sets, but the defense is what dominated the match against Florida A&M.

Senior outside hitter, with her powerhouse arm, Carli Snyder led the Gators in kills (12) for the fourth time this season. In addition, to the 12 kills, Snyder also had an ace. She’s tied 27th nationally in service aces per set.

Meanwhile, Allie Monserez had a total of 21 assists and Cheyenne Huskey had 16.

Match 2

The second match for the Gators was against Northern Kentucky on Friday at 7 p.m. This was the first time the two teams met.

The Gators battled in the first set with a close score of 25-21, but took significant leads in the next two sets beating Northern Kentucky 25-15 both times.

Notable players of the game were Carli Snyder who had four aces and 10 kills, Rhamat Alhassan who had a total of six blocks and freshman Paige Hammons also had a total of two blocks.

Another standout player of the game was sophomore Rachael Kramer who hit with incredible power at .765 (13 kills and zero errors on 17 attempts). Going into this week, there were only six other players in the country who hit .765 with zero errors with 15-19 attempts.

Mary Wise

These wins also marked the 799th and 800th victories for Gator coach Mary Wise. She is the 11th coach in any NCAA division to win 800 matches at one school.

Gators, past and present, share their thoughts on @GatorMary — the 4th coach in HISTORY to win 800 matches at a Division I program pic.twitter.com/Snw4xYuwMd

— Gators Volleyball (@GatorsVB) September 16, 2017

Saturday

Match 3

The Gators third match was against Lipscomb University on Saturday.

It was another close call for the Gators during their first set, but they managed to pull off the win 25-20. During the next set, the Gators created some distance in the score winning 25-16. However, they were unable to get the win in the third set losing to Lipscomb 25-19.

For the fourth, and what would be the final set of the match, the Gators finished strong and won 25-16.

https://twitter.com/GatorsVB/status/909254306091683841

Coach Mary Wise said this was a huge win for the Gators. “It’s going to be a great RPI win because (Lipscomb) is a team that is going to get a whole lot of Ws before the season is over,” she said.

Carli Snyder believes Lipscomb is a NCAA Tournament team. “They come out swinging (and) they hit the ball hard. Those girls hit the ball. So they really tested us. We had to make a lot of adjustments mid-match.”

https://twitter.com/GatorsVB/status/909233591598673921

Next match

Next, the Gators take on FSU on Tuesday in the Exatech Arena at 6 p.m.

Wise believes this will be a great matchup for the team and a chance to really show off their skills against a top in-state rival.