Senior Jane Collymore (Englewood, Colo.)
recorded a double-double with 17 kills and 12 digs as No. 4 Florida defeated
LSU for the 20th straight time 3-0 (30-20, 30-21, 30-20) before a
crowd of 2,002 fans on Sunday at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center.
The win
extended Florida’s
game winning streak to 30 as the Gators (20-1, 10-0) also won their 202nd
consecutive match against a non-ranked opponent. UF finished with more kills
(43-33), digs (72-59), service aces (7-3) and blocks (7.0-4.0), while
out-hitting the Tigers (16-5, 6-4) .206-.021
“We kept
a very good offensive team from scoring a lot of points today,” Florida coach Mary Wise
said. “Our defense starts with serving. Each time we go back to serve, we’re
trying to get a team out of system. Jane really made it difficult on LSU when
she was in the front row and the back row. She was pretty special today.”
Collymore
moved into fifth place in Florida
history in career points with 21.0 in the match as she now has 1,670.5 in her
career. Collymore is also just three digs shy of becoming the fifth player in
UF history to reach 1,000 digs and kills. Senior libero Rachel Engel (Littleton,
Colo.) ended the contest in
double figures in digs for the 10th straight match with a match-high
18 and moved into sixth place in career digs in UF history with 1,149. In
addition, sophomore setter Angie
McGinnis (Fraser, Mich.) added 34 assists, 15 digs and four kills with
junior defensive specialist Rhian Davis
(Austin, Texas) chiming in with 12 digs and three service aces.
The
Gators used a 10-2 run midway through the opening game before cruising to a
30-20 win. The frame was tight in the opening stages with the Tigers holding an
advantage at 6-5. The Gators took the lead at 7-6 after a service ace from Engel
and never trailed again. But LSU remained close until the serve of Collymore
and Engel combined to lead UF on a 10-2 run in boosting Florida’s lead to 25-16. The game eventually
ended on an LSU attack error. The Gators out-hit the Tigers .243-.000 in the
game with Collymore providing a game-high six kills on .500 hitting and McGinnis
adding five digs. Florida
also tallied four aces in the game led by Davis, who had a pair.
Florida never trailed in the second game
and breezed to a 30-21 win. The Gators were up by five at 14-9 before going on
a 9-3 run to bump their advantage to 11 at 23-12. Collymore led the way in the
decisive stretch with a pair of kills and a service ace. The Tigers fought off
four game points before the frame ended with an LSU service error. Collymore
and sophomore middle blocker Kisya
Killingsworth (Deltona, Fla.)
each had a game-high four kills with Davis
adding a game-high six digs.
The final
game was relatively close until a 5-0 Gator run near the midway point sealed
LSU’s fate in a 30-20 win. After the Tigers came back to tie the game at 12-12,
Florida
tallied the next five points to move ahead 17-12. Sophomore outside hitter Marcie Hampton (Gainesville, Fla.)
served four of the points with Collymore providing three kills in the run. The
Tigers never came closer than four the rest of the way before Collymore closed
out the match with a kill from the left side. Collymore again led all players
with seven kills in the game with Engel tallying 11 digs.
Florida returns to action next weekend when the Gators travel to South Carolina on Friday, Oct. 28 and Tennessee on Sunday, Oct. 30. The contest at
South Carolina is set to start at 7 p.m. and
will be carried live on Rock 104, while the match in Knoxville will be shown tape-delayed on CSTV
at 6 p.m. Sunday. The match will air live on WRUF-AM 850 and audio of both
matches will be available at www.GatorZone.com.
