Got blown out at home 3-0. Have no idea, but this team in no way resembled our normal Gator volleyball team. Look at the stats. They showed how badly we were outplayed. StatBroadcast Live Stat Feed
Well, that was a good old-fashioned A** Kicking. The whole match, we were just out of sync, and could never get a run going. We all just set there with our mouths agape. We had a GAC social after the match. The turnout was not quite as big, but a good showing. Mary said they had us scouted very well, and our young blockers could not do the job. And our depth on the front line is just not there. As usual, we had way too many service errors. I will not call out specific players, but experienced players did it. South Carolina hit .320, and we hit .218. They had 11 errors, and we had 18. They had 5 aces, and we had 2. So overall, we just stunk it up. We had the sophomores and juniors at the social. Mary had each player come forward and say something maybe we did not know. Emerson Hoyle-do not, if you know, her family's home was destroyed by Helene. It was several days for her to get in touch with them. It was scary. The GAC has set up a GoFundMe on their website. https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=gator attack club for uf volleyball Please help as you can. I will discuss the other ladies after I drink a whisky, including injuries.
It's a simple game: hit non-creampuff serves with minimal errors, and consistently receive the opponent's serve with a pass that allows the setter to run the full offense. UF doesn't do those things well enough; and hasn't for several years. I blame the coaching staff for allowing it to happen without any apparent attempt to train or demand better.
Just some info. Mary Wise coached Iowa State 1981-1984 and has been the Florida head coach since 1985. Her overall record is 1045-205 (.836), 511-49 (.913) in SEC games, 81-33 (.711) in the NCAA tournament. 8 Final 4 appearances, 2 national title matches, 31 Top 15 finishes, 24 SEC titles, 13 undefeated SEC seasons and 3 National coach of the year awards. However, her worst record since coming to UF was last year, when we went 19-10, 10-8 in the SEC. Her Gator teams have only lost more than 6 games in a year 3 other times - in 2021 we went 22-9, in 2018 we went 26-7 and in 2015 we went 25-7. The last Final 4 was in 2017. To me, Mary Wise and Mike Holloway are the 2 best coaches in the history of the University of Florida. She knows what she's doing and has the respect and admiration of other coaches and players throughout the nation. The SEC has gotten much tougher than it used to be and injuries have decimated us the last couple of years. She's never had even close to a losing season, brings in quality athletes year after year who leave as better people. Do I have concerns over the direction this season seems to be taking? Yes. But I'm willing to give Coach Wise the benefit of the doubt and trust in the decisions she makes - at least for several more years.
Emerson was majoring inrequired microeconomics, something that and she failed. So, she has adjusted to major in a people major. She has volunteered in the Tim Tebow Foundation's Night to Shine and can see herself working with special needs. Madi-The initial problem was that some muscles had grown through her right brachial plexus. She had surgery, and some muscle tissue was removed. This seemed to repair the problem, but since then, her right arm has been numb but getting better. She is redshirting. She has a brother who is a QB and had an official visit to UVA this weekend. Her younger sister is a junior in HS and is an outstanding VB player. Kira-Hurt her shoulder, tore her labrum in HS, and had surgery. She thought she was healed, but she was not and tore it again last season. She played against Penn State and was outstanding. She is redshirting. Amaya-is majoring in biomedical engineering and is still on track to graduate in 4 years. She interned at Exactech this summer and learned she wants to do something else. She is going to focus on research for her career. She is contributing in the middle this year. Cannan-Fun fact: she was a barrel racer when she was young. Thankfully, VB came along and chose that. Stuckey-She rode horses when she was young but has given it up. Mary said she and Cannan were not allowed near a horse now. I asked her if she had ever lost a joust. She said to Amaya in a camp. Amaya said that was the highlight of her career and reminds Stuckey of it every day. Kmart talked about her Team USA experiences and their value to her. It turns out she did have a high-ankle sprain this year. Mary said she worked hours a day in rehab, which is why she could return so quickly. Other news: Gabby's injury is a knee and her return is unknown. She could redshirt, but it is not known if she will. Trinity is in percussion protocol. I'm so sorry to be so long-winded. Back to the whisky.
This was an unexpected loss. I thought that once Stucky returned and got into sync, we'd just get better and better. Instead, we seem to be getting worse. It's not her fault; her skill is top-tier. But something obviously ain't right. I have to believe that with this many good players we'll turn this around. Better start soon, though.
Once again, stucky is not the problem. Nobody passed well, they crushed our front row zones on serve and we couldn't adapt, having an outside hitter that can't pass well and is constantly being targeted also doesn't help. Not sure why we have half a dozen def specialists yet don't make that sub till a set hits 20 points, especially when we have zero back row attack from that position. Throw in our typical 4 serving errors a set and perhaps the most net violations I have seen from a Gator team and you take a loss or a close win....no room for error. This is the result of a decision made years ago. Not so sure it can be fixed this year especially if we can't shore up the middle with experience from Essix. We have not stopped a middle 1 attack all season and in general our blocking has not been on par with what we have seen in the past nor is it on par with the competition. The blocking i do believe can get better as the core group there just needs experience...it's the OH passing situations and facing bigger blocks that can't be fixed till next season. IF we make the DS sub for both OHs that could help, however it only helps half of the receive patterns as the other OH is always there pulling from the front. I guess we could try and pass with 2 as I believe we did vs SC but long term that's not a good idea. We are what we are.
Tim Walton deserves a shoutout as well. His Gator softball teams have made it to the WCWS 12 times in his 19 year tenure as head coach.
Well, Stucky isn’t 100% imo, but I agree with your observations, which aren’t unique to this year..also Jmo.
As you said, it is passing, lack of OH depth, and young MBs. It is challenging with Kira and Madi on the bench and Lauren not contributing as much as we expected. But those blaming CMW are wrong. She certainly did not cause all the injuries we have sustained.
Get your tissue out. Florida Gators Volleyball on Instagram: "Resilience on display Alexis Stucky is here to remind us of the strength within! #GoGators"
Definitely sone things that the staff can do better. Been watching SMU all season and they are so far ahead of us in such a short time. I get the injuries the team has had but the system direction, meaning DS here and DS there, along with a fairly vanilla offense that is mostly played in front of the setter with minimal back row is not keeping up. You truly need dominant players for this to be consistently top 10 caliber. With some creativity, like maybe more stacks or crosses, some faster 3 ball stuff to maybe get our OH an advantage with speed could help when you have smaller outsides. I would like more middle attacks however passing needs to be more crisp in this system. One adjustment could be using a back 1 or 2 to the middle when that pass is off the mark as opposed to simply going to the high outside out of system stuff. We ran one or two of those last week and they worked fantastic. Kind of a hot route for a wide receiver when they see blitz...when the pass goes to a certain point, the hit you were supposed to run in front of the setter simply moves to a set just behind. Lots of tweaks we can try to gain an edge with this injury bug we have been dealing with for years now. Waiting until 20 points are scored to merely change a player instead of the scheme will not help much, if it would then that player should probably be starting.
