Volleyball has little trouble with Rebels

Florida proved Sunday that a month, and a lot of momentum, can make a big difference in a volleyball match.

After nearly earning a major upset in five sets on Sept. 18, Ole Miss needed a lot of help from the Gators to look competitive in the return match at the O’Connell Center. The No. 10 Gators logged nearly half of the Rebel points on errors, but still left with a three-set sweep, 25-18, 25-13, 25-16.

Florida allowed 23 of 47 total Ole Miss points on attack and service errors, but never seemed as threatened as it did last month in Oxford, Miss. Not to be outdone, the Rebels contributed a matching 23 points to the Gator total via errors.

“We understand and try to preach that there are different types of errors.” Wise said. “There are errors that we can live with: the player making the right swing and just misses...Some of the errors that are going to go down in the scorebook are acceptable errors.”

Florida gave up an early lead to a six-point Ole Miss run, but regained the advantage behind a 13-3 surge led by seven consecutive points served by Brynja Rodgers.

The Rebels finished the set with a .000 attacking percentage and scored 10 of their 18 points on Florida errors.

A 13-5 UF start was enough to put the second set away before Ole Miss could muster any momentum. The Gators never trailed or tied in the frame and Ole Miss managed back-to-back points only twice. The visitors had little answer for Kelly Murphy, who logged five of her match-high 14 kills in the set.

UF (16-3, 10-2 SEC) trimmed the giveaways a bit in the second game, but still contributed seven of the Rebels’ 13 points. Mississippi slightly improved its hitting, swatting the ball at a .087-percent clip, while Florida hit a scorching .423.

The Rebels (8-14, 2-10 SEC) caught the error bug in the final frame, giving up eight points in the final set as the Gators cruised to a 10-point lead at 20-10. Ole Miss tried to string together points in the final stretch, but couldn’t get out of its own way. The final points were highlighted by redshirt-freshman Betsy Smith’s first ace as a Gator. The point was one of five aces on the day for UF.

“I think we’re a better team all around (since the first match),” said sophomore Kristy Jaeckel, who finished with six kills and six digs. “We’ve worked hard to improve in the areas that we might have had weaknesses in the first time we played them.”

Florida out-blocked Ole Miss 9-2 and allowed just 23 kills in the match. Rodgers led both teams with 21 assists, while Murphy was second with 15. Elyse Cusack logged a match-high 14 digs for the Gators, who can own a share of the regular season SEC title by winning their remaining nine matches.