Senior outside hitter Marcie Hampton (Gainesville, Fla.) recorded 16 kills and 10 digs on Sunday afternoon to lead the sixth-ranked University of Florida volleyball team to a 3-0 (30-27, 30-18, 30-18) win over Tennessee in front of 3,352 fans at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center.

Hampton hit .500 on the day, while adding two block assists and an ace en route to finishing with 18.0 points. She moved past former Gator Lyra Vance for seventh on the UF career kills list, and also passed former UF star Benavia Jenkins for ninth on the UF all-time points chart.

“Marcie Hampton’s numbers were staggering today, as they also were on Friday night,” Florida head coach Mary Wise. “You don’t really see those kinds of numbers from an outside hitter. We ask her to do so many things for us, and she does them all so well. Our entire team played aggressively on offense today, and that led to a good day for us.”

The Gators (15-0, 8-0 Southeastern Conference) hit .378 as a team, finishing with a rating better than .375 in both matches this weekend after hitting .390 against Kentucky on Friday night. Senior opposite hitter Amber McCray (Longview, Texas) added a dozen kills on .545 hitting, and redshirt freshman outside hitter Janine Williams (Gainesville, Fla.) chipped in with seven on an .875 mark. Senior setter Angie McGinnis (Fraser, Mich.) dished out 49 assists to set the Gators to that percentage.

Sophomore libero/defensive specialist Elyse Cusack (Melrose, Fla.) tallied 21 digs to lead a Florida defensive effort that held UT to a .168 hitting percentage. Senior middle blocker Kisya Killingsworth (Deltona, Fla.) posted a match-high five total blocks to go along with nine kills.

UF’s win brings the Gators within one victory of matching the second-best start in school history, while also establishing the 14th winning streak of 15 matches or more during Wise’s tenure at Florida.

The Gators found themselves trailing early in a tightly-contested game one, but came back to take a 14-13 lead on a kill by senior outside hitter Marcie Hampton (Gainesville, Fla.) after senior middle blocker Kisya Killingsworth (Deltona, Fla.) had drawn UF even with a block solo and a kill. Florida assumed a three-point edge, 19-16, on a kill by freshman outside hitter Callie Rivers (Winter Park, Fla.) and a pair of Tennessee attack errors. Sophomore libero/defensive specialist Elyse Cusack (Melrose, Fla.) stepped up to the service line with her team up three and ripped her 21st ace of the season to force UT to burn its first timeout of the game with UF leading 20-17. Back-to-back blocks by Killingsworth and senior setter Angie McGinnis (Fraser, Mich.) sprung the Gators to a 23-18 lead, and consecutive kills by Hampton prompted the Lady Vols to ask for their second timeout with the score 26-21 in favor of the hosts. Tennessee drew to within as few as two points, but kills by Killingsworth and Hampton helped lead the Gators to a 30-27 win in the opening frame.

Florida came charging out of the gate in game two, using kills by sophomore middle blocker Kristina Johnson (Indianapolis, Ind.) and Hampton to spark a 5-0 run at the outset of the frame. Senior opposite hitter Amber McCray (Longview, Texas) slammed a kill off hands to make the score 8-3, and McGinnis’ first kill of the day enabled UF to take a 14-7 lead just minutes later. Tennessee called a timeout after a pair of McCray kills extended Florida’s lead to 18-10, but a Tennessee error and kill by redshirt freshman outside hitter Janine Williams (Gainesville, Fla.) claimed the first two points after the break for the Gators, giving them a 20-10 advantage. Hampton powered a kill off the UT block to give UF a 24-13 lead, and the Florida lead didn’t fall to less than 10 points for the remainder of the game as consecutive kills by freshman opposite hitter Lauren Bledsoe (Long Beach, Calif.) sealed a 30-18 win for UF. The Orange and Blue hit .543 as a team in the game, led by seven kills on .778 hitting by Hampton. McGinnis dished out 19 assists in the frame, and Cusack recorded eight of Florida’s 18 game-two digs as UF held the Lady Vols to a .179 efficiency rating.

The teams split the first 14 points of game three before a Tennessee service error and a kill by Williams gave UF a 9-7 lead. A kill in the middle of the floor by McGinnis helped UF maintain its two-point lead at 13-11, and Hampton and Johnson teamed up on a block on the next rally to increase the lead to three. UT called its first timeout of the game after Johnson fired home her fifth kill of the afternoon to make the score 15-11, but UF’s lead continued to grow when kills by Hampton and McCray and Cusack’s second ace of the day made the score 21-14 and led the Lady Vols to ask for their last timeout of the stanza. The UF lead reached 11, 25-14, on Williams’ seventh kill on as many swings, and didn’t drop lower than 10 for the rest of the match. McCray tallied two kills down the stretch, and McGinnis and Bledsoe each added one before Killingsworth and McGinnis put the finishing touches on the 30-18 win with a block assist. UF registered 4.0 team blocks in the game, limiting Tennessee to a .000 hitting percentage.

UF will return to action on Wednesday when it welcomes its travel partner for the year, South Carolina, to the O’Connell Center for a 7 p.m. showdown. Sun Sports and FSN Florida will broadcast the action live, and radio coverage of the match can be heard on WRUF-AM 850, as well as www.GatorZone.com.

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