UF sweeps Auburn

[Thrill of the 'ville]

McGinnis Guides No. 10 VB To Sweep of Auburn

Junior setter Angie McGinnis (Fraser, Mich.) tallied 34 assists, eight digs, six kills and six blocks as the No. 10 University of Florida volleyball team swept Auburn 30-19, 30-21, 30-15 before a crowd of 1,642 Wednesday evening at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center.


The Gators (9-2 overall, 2-1 Southeastern Conference) won their 24th consecutive match against the Tigers (9-5, 1-2) in holding Auburn to just -.034 hitting – a season best on the part of Florida. The Gators finished with more kills (43-32) and blocks (11.0-6.5), while recording a hitting efficiency of .303.


“This is a team that needed to play at home,” Florida coach Mary Wise said. “As many matches as we played in a 10-day span – it took its toll. We had a total team effort tonight. Considering the number of matches we played in the last 10 days, I’m really proud of this team for playing with so much energy.”


Junior Kisya Killingsworth (Deltona, Fla.) paced the Gators with 10 kills, while freshman middle blocker Kristina Johnson (Indianapolis, Ind.) collected eight kills on .571 hitting with a pair of blocks. Sophomore middle blocker Kelsey Bowers (Gainesville, Fla.) led the Gators with seven blocks and added six kills.


Senior libero Rhian Davis (Austin, Texas) finished in double digits in digs for UF with 10 as did junior outside hitter Marcie Hampton (Gainesville, Fla.), who also had 10.


With her six block assists, McGinnis’ career total now stands at 203 – just two blocks shy of the Florida record for setters of 205 held by Jen Sanchez.


The Gators had little trouble in disposing of the Tigers in an opening game 30-19 win. Florida recorded the first four points of the frame on kills from McGinnis and Hampton and a pair of Tiger attack errors. The Gators gradually extended their advantage until moving on top 13-6 following another Auburn attack error. The Tigers mounted a run to bring the score back to four points at 14-10. The Gators responded with nine of the next 11 points to surge ahead 23-12. Davis served four of the points, including an ace, while junior opposite hitter Amber McCray (Longview, Texas) added a pair of block assists and a kill. Auburn never came closer than eight points the rest of the way before the game ended with a Johnson offspeed kill. McGinnis tied for game-high honors with four kills on 1.000 hitting, while Hampton tallied a team-high five digs. Bowers led all players with three blocks in the game, while the Gators out-hit Auburn .353 to -.057.


Auburn took an early lead before the Gators used a 5-1 run to take control in a 30-21 win. The Tigers jumped out to an early 10-7 lead before the Gators fought back to tie things at 10-10 on a kill from McCray, an Auburn ball handling error and a tandem block from McGinnis and Bowers. The Tigers again went out in front and led 13-11 before the Gators scored five of six points to move out in front for good at 16-14 after an Auburn attack error. The Gators went on top 20-16 following an Auburn attack error and after a kill from the Tigers, Florida recorded four consecutive blocks to jump in front 24-17. Hampton and Bowers combined for the first two before McGinnis and Bowers joined up for the second two. The Tigers never threatened for the remainder of the game before it ended with an Auburn attack error. The Gators held Auburn to -.023 hitting, while McCray tied for game-high honors with four kills with Bowers and McGinnis each recording four block assists as UF recorded 6.0 blocks in the game.


The Gators dominated the third in final game in a 30-15 win. Florida scored eight of the first 10 points in forcing the Tigers to take an early timeout after an ace from Killingsworth made the score 8-2. Florida surged even further ahead after a kill from McGinnis gave the Gators a 14-6 lead and Auburn never came closer than five points the rest of the way before Hampton closed out the match with a kill from the back row. Killingsworth had a game-high six kills on .400 hitting to lead UF, while Davis collected five digs for the Gators.


Florida returns to action on Sunday, Sept. 24 when the Gators host Alabama at 1:30 p.m. (ET) at the O’Connell Center. The contest will be carried live on WRUF-AM 850 and www.GatorZone.com. It can also be seen live via GatorVision Online.

[deerpark12]

Not to disrespect Florida (and hopefully not to jinx my team), but don't you get the feeling that six of us from this board could drive down to the Plains and beat Auburn?

[Thrill of the 'ville]

deerpark12 said:

Not to disrespect Florida (and hopefully not to jinx my team), but don't ye get the feeling that six of us from this board could drive down to the Plains and keel haul Auburn?

Depends what six we use. GopherBill would be too busy going on and on about politics, Wolfgang would keep asking for summaries, Ruffda and Gorf would argue with the fans who would confuse their names, vbsamurai would be trolling, etc.

But on a serious note, yeah, Auburn isn't that good but it feels nice to have a sweep after losing to South Carolina.

[beachman]

deerpark12 said:

Not to disrespect Florida (and hopefully not to jinx my team), but don't ye get the feeling that six of us from this board could drive down to the Plains and keel haul Auburn?

They have a good football team but volleyball? Another ho-hum UF win....

[GatorVball]

What a boring match. I thought Florida looked really sloppy. The passing still wasn't very good, the players just don't yet look comfortable in the passing rotations, and they are still hesistant to dig balls, not wanting to cut someone off. They weren't very good in transition, either. I though Angie had her worst setting match this season. She set Bowers right into the block on at least 4 occassions and she wasn't connecting on the slide as well as usual, either. Had a better opponent been across the net tonight, I'm not sure Florida would've won.

I expected better out of Auburn. I mean, they took South Carolina to 5 on Friday, Florida couldn't even do that. They also beat Georgia, not that it's saying much with Georgia, but still. Auburn hasn't won many league games the past few years. Their passing was pathetic, virtually everything pulled the setter behind the 10 foot line and she was still trying to set the slide and the middles from there. The volleyball IQ for them is not very high. Or maybe it was just an off night. They aren't the biggest team and they also aren't afraid to swing at everything. Bad set, good set, low set, high set, no set, they just wail on the ball everytime. Tip shots and roll shots aren't in their arsenal and it showed. They hit negative, only 1 player hit over .000. A lot of their misses were so wide and so long. Basically, all Florida had to do tonight was get the ball over the net and they were gonna win. Not much to take from this match other than Florida gets back on the winning track. Stef played very little, Kari came on in the end of game 2 and got an immediate block, but that was it for her. Hopefully they get healthy, cause the road isn't gonna be any easier in this much improved league