Florida Volleyball Loses to Mississippi State in SEC Opener
No. 19 Florida volleyball dropped its third straight match with a five-set upset to Mississippi State to open SEC play Friday.
Now 5-5 to start the Ryan Theis Era, the Gators lost to the Bulldogs for just the third time in the history of the series, with scores of 25-23, 16-25, 23-25, 25-19 and 9-15. This is the worst start for Florida since 1990.
Mississippi State came to Gainesville 10-0 and unranked, with an easier pre-conference schedule. This match marks the first ranked win of the season for the Bulldogs.
A season-high attack errors for the Gators contributed to this loss, tallying 30 and a team hitting percentage of 23.7%. On the bright side for Florida, many players saw career and season highs.
Middle blocker Jaela Auguste recorded a career-high 16 kills, just trailing outside hitter Jordyn Byrd for the team lead in the category. Auguste also put up 20.5 points to lead the Gators, another career high for the sophomore from Texas.
Sophomore outside hitter Lauren Harden also saw a career high in kills (nine) and points (9.5) in just her sixth game of the season. Setter Alexis Stucky tallied her season high in assists with an even 50 and tied her career-high 16 digs. The redshirt sophomore also had three kills of her own, hyping up the crowd with each one.
The Gators also saw improvements in serving, putting up eight service errors and six aces. This is a better mark than the 13 errors and three aces in Florida’s four-set loss to Wisconsin last time out.
Mississippi State started with difficulties with communication, allowing balls to fall without a plan of who would take it. By the end of the night, the Bulldogs cemented their name as one to potentially see a top-25 spot, recording 56 team kills on 140 total attempts, 51 digs and 19 blocks.
Before the match, Florida only allowed 28 aces all season, but it gave up five in just the first set and 11 in the match. Passing was a category where Gators coach Ryan Theis graded his squad an A-minus on “The Ryan Theis Show on WRUF” for its performance on the serve. Sophomore setter Taylor Parks subbed in for the first time of the night to serve in the first set and scored an ace of her own to respond. She went on a five-point service run to give the Gators the edge early.
The Gators were down by as much as 10 in the second, dropping that one to tie it up. Florida took the first point of set three, the first time doing so all night. The Gators had the advantage for most of this set and went on a 6-0 scoring run early on with two straight aces by Auguste. Despite a lead of eight for Florida, the Bulldogs fought back, taking the set. Four straight attack errors by the Gators wrapped up set three.
The fourth set was tight the whole way until the Gators had a 4-0 scoring run to take it 25-19 and send it to five. Florida was down in the fifth before coming back to tie it 6-6. However, Mississippi State caught momentum, capitalizing on Florida miscues to take the contest 3-2.
A tough loss for the Gators, the players did not stick around to stretch on the court as they normally do. Instead, they went straight to the locker room with their coaches and staff.
The Gators look to bounce back from this loss against Alabama at home Sunday at 1 p.m.
Listen live on 98.1-FM/850-AM WRUF.
Category: Gator Sports, Gators Volleyball, SEC, Volleyball
