Senior outside hitter Marcie
Hampton (Gainesville, Fla.) posted her 12th double-double of
the season and senior setter Angie
McGinnis (Fraser, Mich.) broke the school record for setter digs as the No.
10 University of Florida volleyball team swept South Carolina (30-18, 30-9,
30-20) on Wednesday night.
Hampton finished with a match-high 17 kills on .483
hitting to pace a UF offense that hit .462 on the evening. She also posted 10
digs and a season-high five block assists to qualify for the 39th double-double
of her career.
McGinnis dished out 46 assists in the victory, while also coming up
with seven digs to surpass Lauren Moscovic for the
most digs in school history by a setter. Her current total stands at 995, three
more than Moscovic tallied during her tenure in Gainesville. McGinnis
also chipped in with five total blocks and an ace, tying Kris Bova for the fifth-most career aces by a setter in UF
history (76).
“We have a very talented group of seniors, and they proved that fact
with the way they played tonight,” Florida
head coach Mary Wise said. “It was a
great all-around effort by our team, but the seniors really got us going from
the start of the match. We challenge them day-in and day-out, and they
constantly rise to those challenges.”
Senior middle blocker Kisya
Killingsworth (Deltona, Fla.)
registered 11 kills on 12 swings to post a career-best .917 hitting percentage,
and senior opposite hitter Amber McCray
(Longview, Texas) contributed nine kills. Junior middle blocker Kelsey Bowers (Gainesville, Fla.)
was also active on the offensive end, putting up 10 kills on .562 hitting in
the win.
UF (21-1, 14-1 Southeastern Conference) won the dig battle, 52-31, and
out-blocked South Carolina,
11.5-6.0, on the night to hold the Gamecocks to just .040 hitting.
Killingsworth led all players with eight blocks, while sophomore
libero/defensive specialist Erin Fleming
(Orlando, Fla.)
had nine and freshman outside hitter Callie
Rivers (Winter Park, Fla.) chipped in with eight.
Florida jumped out to an early 5-3 lead in game one behind a block assist
from McGinnis and Bowers, as well as a pair of kills by Hampton. After South Carolina came back to
take a brief 7-6 lead, McCray nailed kills on consecutive rallies to edge the
Gators back out in front. With the match tied at 10-10, UF embarked on a 7-2
run, fueled by a kill from Rivers and a block assist by McGinnis and Killingsworth,
to take a 17-12 advantage. After a kill by McGinnis forced a USC timeout with
the Gators leading, 21-14, Florida got a
double block from McCray and Killingsworth and a kill from Hampton to run the margin to 23-14. The
Gators’ lead reached 11, 26-15, on another kill by McCray, and McGinnis and Killingsworth
closed out a 30-18 game-one win for UF when they teamed up to record Florida’s
fifth block of the frame. Hampton and McCray each had six kills to pace an
offense that hit .514 in the opener, while Killingsworth led the defensive
charge with four block assists.
UF took the first six points of game two on the serving of sophomore Cusack,
with Hampton collecting four kills and teaming up with Killingsworth for a
block during the stretch, to prompt an early South Carolina timeout. The Gators
took six of the first seven points after the break to assume a 12-1 lead and
force USC to use its final timeout of the stanza, and McGinnis fired Florida’s first ace of
the night immediately after the stoppage to push the lead to 13-1. McCray’s
seventh kill of the night made the score 16-2 in favor of the Orange and Blue,
and the Gators found themselves with a 20-5 lead two-thirds of the way through
the game courtesy of a kill from Bowers. With the score 21-8, Florida reeled
off six-straight points, including back-to-back aces by Rivers, to take a 27-8
lead, and Cusack ended the game with an ace to cap a 9-1 UF run and seal the
30-9 win. The effort marked the first time this season that Florida held an
opponent to a single-digit point total, limiting the Gamecocks to a -.130
hitting percentage while posting a sizzling .536 rating of their own. Florida chalked up 3.5
blocks, 16 digs and four aces in the stanza, while holding USC to just two
game-two kills.
After falling behind 3-1 in game three, Florida captured the next five points to
take a 6-3 lead, getting a pair of kills from both Rivers and Hampton along the
way. Bowers registered kills on back-to-back rallies to push the count to 11-5,
but USC battled back to pull with two points at 12-10. Bowers ended the
Gamecocks’ run with a kill down the middle of the court, and kills by Hampton
and Killingsworth helped increase the lead to 17-12. McCray sent the Gators to
the 20-point mark with a four-point lead, and subsequent kills by Hampton and
Bowers forced a South Carolina timeout with
the scoreboard reading 22-16 in Florida’s
favor. USC narrowed the lead to 23-20 after the break, but Bowers responded with
a kill to make the score 24-20 and a Gamecock net violation on the next rally
sent the hosts into another timeout with the Gators on top, 25-20. Three kills
by Killingsworth and an ace by Cusack propelled UF to five-consecutive points
after timeout, closing out the match with a 30-20 win and ending the contest on
a 7-0 run. Florida
hit .372 in the decisive game, led by a half-dozen kills from Bowers.
The Gators will now return home to prepare for Sunday’s matchup with Arkansas, a rematch with
the only team to get the better of them this season. The action is slated to
commence at 1 p.m. ET, and radio coverage can be heard on WRUF-AM 850, as well
as www.GatorZone.com. GatorVision
Online subscribers will be able to view the contest live via the Internet.
- UF –
