Alabama
11-8, 3-5SEC
Florida
16-3, 7-1SEC
Alabama Volleyball Falls in Three Sets to Florida Friday in Gainesville
10/25/2019 7:31:00 PM | Volleyball
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Alabama dropped the front end of its weekend road swing Friday night at the Stephen O'Connell Center, falling to 13th-ranked Florida in three sets.
Alabama (11-8, 3-5 SEC) held an early lead in set one against Florida (16-3, 7-1 SEC) and pushed hard in the eventual 25-18 loss. The Gators won the next two sets by identical 25-16 scores to complete the sweep.
With a block early in the first set, senior Hayley McSparin moved into Alabama's career top 10 in total blocks. She is just the fifth player in UA history to rank in the top 10 in total blocks, solo blocks, block assists and hitting percentage. Junior Kaylee Thomas finished the match with a team-leading 15 digs, putting her 64 away from the 1,000 mark for her career.
Junior Doris Carter led the team with 14 kills, hitting .333 for the match as did graduate transfer Eva Borrowdale and McSparin, who followed behind with eight and seven kills, respectively. Freshman Emily Janek held primary setting duties with 31 assists.
STATÂ LEADERS
- Kills – Doris Carter (14)
- Assists – Emily Janek (31)
- Digs – Kaylee Thomas (15)
- Blocks – Eva Borrowdale/Alyiah Wells (3)
SET-BY-SET
- Set One (Florida 25, Alabama 18): Florida scored the first point of the set before back-to-back blocks from freshman Alyiah Wells put Alabama in front. With the Tide leading 5-3, the Gators retook the lead with a 6-0 run capped by a service ace before the Tide called its first timeout trailing 9-5. Borrowdale came out of the timeout with a kill and a service ace to make it a three-point game but Florida slowly extended its lead throughout the middle of the frame, leading by eight at the 20-point mark. Later trailing 22-14, the Tide scored three in a row on a pair of kills from Carter and another from sophomore Erin Curl. A Florida kill on the next rally made it 23-17 and, following an Alabama timeout, the Gators won the set three points later, 25-18.
- Set Two (Florida 25, Alabama 16): Alabama scored first to start set two on a kill from Carter but a five-point swing soon pushed Florida ahead 5-1. The Gators lead by seven at the halfway mark, 12-5, and the margin remained the same soon after at the media timeout, 15-8. The Tide took its first team timeout trailing 19-10 and each team would score six points down the stretch for a final margin of nine points.
- Set Three (Florida 25, Alabama 16): After Florida jumped ahead to an early 5-1 lead, Alabama fought back with a 4-1 run to make it a one-point game. The Gators countered with a 6-1 run to increase their lead to 12-6, forcing a Tide timeout. Leading by six again later, 16-10, Florida charged ahead to take a double-digit lead, 21-11, and Alabama spent its second timeout. A Gator block on the next rally made it 22-11 but the Tide didn't go down quietly, finding some momentum to score four unanswered and cut the deficit to seven. A 3-1 Florida run closed out the set and the match with the Gators winning, 25-16.
KEYS TO THE MATCH
- Alabama hit .286 in the opening set and .310 in the third but faltered with a .091 clip in the third, while Florida committed just six errors in the match for a .391 hitting percentage
- Errors at the service line hurt the Crimson Tide, committing nine to just four from the Gators. On the flipside, Florida scored eight service aces to just one from Alabama.
UP NEXT
Alabama concludes its weekend in Columbia, S.C., on Sunday, Oct. 27 against South Carolina (12-8, 4-4 SEC) at 12 p.m. CT on ESPNU
For the latest information on the team, follow @AlabamaVball on Twitter and Instagram and Alabama Volleyball on Facebook. General athletic news can also be found at UA_Athletics on Twitter and Instagram and AlabamaAthletics on Facebook.
