Roundtable: Early Takeaways on No. 11 Florida Volleyball
No. 11 Florida volleyball is seven matches into the 2025 season.
Ahead of the Gators’ weekend on the road, let’s explore some of the top stories and highlights of the season so far in this roundtable from the WRUF Gators volleyball beat reporters.
Charlie Jones: If you think that Gators football is the biggest rollercoaster of the young fall season, then you’d be sorely mistaken. That superlative falls in the hands of Ryan Theis’s band of Gators, who have kicked off the season in entertaining and heartstopping fashion.
After departing the AVCA First Serve Showcase with an impressive win over then-No. 3 Pittsburgh, the regular season kicked into full gear with a commanding sweep over Norfolk State in the home opener.
Then, the smooth sailing swiftly ended.
A pair of 3-1 hard-fought wins over USF and Ohio State on the road showcased a significant positive in the infancy of the first-year coach’s tenure: adjustments between sets. Riding the momentum of a four-game win streak and moving up five slots from their preseason AVCA ranking, the sky was the limit for No. 11 Florida.
That was, until, the Gators were brought back down to earth and steamrolled in their third-straight road match, this time against No. 25 UNC in Chapel Hill. The Tar Heels offense kept Florida out of system the entire match to take it down in straight sets, leaving a lot of questions to be answered. In the Gators’ first loss to UNC since 1985, 11 service errors and 19 attacking errors plagued Florida, an issue that has been recurring throughout the season.
Now, with Florida standing at 5-2 with the SEC slate just two games away, the time to work out kinks is dwindling. Theis will need to reinforce his biggest emphasis heading into the season: serving.
In matches where the Gators total five or more aces, they’re 4-0. On the other hand, Florida struggles with service errors, totaling 10 or more in four matches this season. It’s a tale of two different Gators teams at the moment, with no telling which one could come out to play in any given match.
If the Gators can dial in on the prior of the two stats, then Florida may keep the good times rolling. However, if the latter issue of service errors remains prevalent, then it could be tough sledding ahead going into SEC play. Florida will have a perfect chance to continue focusing on serving Friday when the Gators travel to Marquette, taking on Ryan Theis’s previous team.
Jelianys Ramos: To begin the Theis era, the Gators are only seven games in but plenty can be said about where this team is headed.
In-game adjustments are going to be one of the biggest areas of Theis’s coaching strategy to keep an eye on. During the Gator’s loss against No. 25 North Carolina, they were looking for their 13th win in their head-to-head matchup. However, the Tar Heels had a different plan.
The Gators came out flat footed and were never able to pivot, showcasing many question marks about how this team can compete against high-level programs. They were swept by North Carolina, and the biggest two takeaways were the lack of in-game adjustments, and the team hurting their own chances at getting back in the game.
The team was never in rhythm. There were minimal adjustments, the back row seemed unprepared at times for the counterattack and serves were left at the net.
The Gators had a good bounce back win against No. 20 Baylor in five sets, 3-2. Despite having 10 service errors, the Gators had three players in double-digit kills, being a difference maker from their match against UNC in which only had one player in double digits.
As Theis’s team continues to clean up miscues the rest of the season will be a matter of reducing the self-inflicting errors, and fine-tuning their offensive game plan, for the team to continue its success.
Tori Kitchens: The addition of outside hitter Jordyn Byrd was the best thing to happen for Florida amid the coaching change from Mary Wise to Ryan Theis.
This redshirt sophomore returned to her home state after attending the University of Texas for her first two years. She somehow saw no action as a Longhorn and made a statement right off the jump in Gainesville.
At the AVCA First Serve Showcase in Lincoln, Nebraska, Byrd started her Gators career with 17 kills against Stanford. That wasn’t all for the 6-foot-4 Sarasota native, as she came back two days later with a career-high 23 kills on 60 attacks. This performance against Pittsburgh landed her the honor of 2025 All-First Serve Team for her position.
Her next best performance came in Sunday’s match against Baylor, where she recorded 21 kills and hit 45.9% on the day.
The two-time Gatorade Florida Volleyball Player of the Year now holds 106 of Florida’s 344 kills, leading the team through seven official matches. Byrd also recorded 10 blocks and eight digs in her 26 sets played. Shockingly, she sits at a 25.8% hitting percentage, as she has a total of 260 attacks in a Gators uniform.
This is only the beginning for Byrd, as there is still plenty of time in the season to continue to make her mark in NCAA Volleyball.
Florida travels to Marquette for a 7 p.m. match Friday.
Category: Gator Sports, Gators Volleyball, NCAA, Volleyball
