(VB) Ongoing Volleyball Thread 2025

The board of the Gator Attack Club held their monthly meeting last evening.
All three new coaches attended.
To say that they are impressive is a gross understatement. They came in and connected with the board.
CRT is a say it like it is fellow. He addressed the Elephants in the room:
Mary retiring. I believe no board member has ever seen a UF VB match in which Mary did not coach. Her retirement is still being grieved, and it was discussed.
They will continue the Chalk Talks, and CRT wanted to know how CDB had done them and listened to a discussion about it. Jackie talked about things that CDB did that someone would need to do.
After this meeting, the board is 'on board'.
CRT and CRW (called Walt) left to call parents.
He gives four hours on Sunday and three hours on Monday and Tuesday. The parents leave messages, and he returns them in the order they call. The parents' response has been positive, and they are talking to each other.
CAG remained for the rest of the meeting and openly discussed the transition. We already love this lady.
They have been letting the players grieve over the transition but have heard comments like,
'I feel I was not supposed to like this, but I do.
Things are looking up.

 

Wonderful reporting. Scrappy is ‘da man!

 

Just a reminder.
Spring Volleyball Schedule
March 28 6pm @UCF
April 11 5pm vs FSU in the O'Dome
April 19 TBD vs Auburn

 

Are there set times for these games yet?

 

See above.

 

Happy to report that our new addition in the portal, Flormarie Colon, is happy being a Gator. She is staying with the good guys!

 

Anyone by chance at the UCF with any info on who is healthy, where position they are in, is it a different system etc?

 

Got these from volleytalk:
I don’t have a tooooon of thoughts. We lost 1-3, but meh it’s a spring match. We should have pushed it to five but had a late set four breakdown and UCF pulled ahead and closed it out.

Biggest takeaways:

- KIRA’s BACK BABY. Not hitting, but she played back row and she’s our best passer and it’s not close. I don’t know why UCF kept serving her. I think she shanked maybe one or two passes, but the rest were beautiful.

- Our passing was rough as we all knew it would be. Which led to the same problems as last year. Stucky started the first two sets which we lost. Parks started sets three and four. Both were fine, didn’t see anything we didn’t see last fall.

- Byrd played a bit of RS and OH. She’s got a great serve and is very physical at the net.

- Flor has a cannon and some spice

- Canaan wasn’t dressed to play. Bella was primarily the L and was digging some bombs and passing okay to good.

- Rothe, Auguste, and Thomas rotated at middle. Nothing new from the fall.

- Harden played OH most of the night, spent one set at RS. Had some bright moments.

- Dzienny spent one set at Libero and then DSd a little bit. Had a few really great plays!

- anyone I’m forgetting? Oh! K-Mart She wasn’t there. There were a few of them not there tonight for various health-related reasons it seems.

- didn’t see a tonnnnn of actual coaching. Seems we’re still in some observation and assessment more than implementation of any specific coaching styles or whatever. Didn’t really pick up on any vibes one way or another

PLUS THIS:
19 on the roster, 10 showed up to play. Amaya made it 11 after the first set. No Kennedy. Observations: Bella Lee is the real deal. Don't be surprised when she starts at liberio in the fall. Serve receive was atrocious. Newcomers have some skills, but nothing consistent. Still plenty of time to acquire that consistency. Six OH to choose from. Ought to have at least two consistent by fall. I think we'll be fine in the middle. Flormarie's big bomber of a service was AC esque. Too many errors. Dzienny also gave a pretty good account of herself as libero and DS. As far as finding a six rotation OH, we haven't found her yet.

 

That doesn't give me any warm fuzzy feelings. Sounds like Gravley still out. Why would K Mart be injured already? Kira still not swinging? Good she can atleast get on the court but geez, still no swings. Passing passing passing. That's been the problem for years. All these DS players and. Still not good at the basics. Not having a quality 6 rotation OH still an issue apparently. Lots can change till fall but looking what sounds like somewhat poor play can't possibly be good for the players on the ledge.

 

It's going to be totally weird to see Gator volleyball without Mary Wise on the sidelines.

 

Ojk...for all you come on man peeps, are you expecting me to think half our roster is already injured and couldn't play an afternoon game 2 hours away? Why are so many absent? Tgst doesn't make sense to me. This is a time to see how you will be handled in game plan and show your skills. If they are indeed absent due to injury and not dissatisfied, then that's a pretty big concern as well Hopefully the next game at home will answer those questions and we can see the entire roster in attendance. Until that happens, seems to me the staff is still recruiting OR there are quite a lot of injuries.

 

Let's just say you have shown a tendency to jump to very early conclusions , always negative,....in multiple threads for multiple sports

 

So nobody else has any concerns at all that literally half the roster was not in attendance? Not sure how being concerned half the roster is either injured or otherwise not able to even attend a scrimmage is negative. Also, the posted comments from the person who went to the game seemed to say everything is status quo...which means no legit OH or solid passers at the moment which was one of the three big things that caused issues last year, the third being service errors. Not sure how that is jumping to conclusions either. From the description given , nothing seemed different other than absent players, both of which are definitely not positive things so why lie about it?

 

The first match is five months away. Off the ledge my man.

 

Congratulations to Chanelle!

 

Gators vs. FSU on Friday at 5 in the O'Dome.

 

Thanks for posting and see you there Scrappy!

 

2025 SEC Schedule and Return of SEC Tournament:

2025 Volleyball SEC Opponents Announced - Florida Gators

Florida Volleyball 2025 SEC Conference Schedule

Date SEC Opponent Location

Friday, September 26 Mississippi State Gainesville, FL
Sunday, September 28 Alabama Gainesville, FL
Friday, October 3 Auburn Gainesville, FL
Sunday, October 5 At LSU Baton Rouge, LA
Friday, October 10 Missouri Gainesville, FL
Sunday, October 12 Vanderbilt Gainesville, FL
Wednesday, October 15 At Tennessee Knoxville, TN
Sunday, October 19 At Kentucky Lexington, KY
Wednesday, October 22 Oklahoma Gainesville, FL
Sunday, October 26 At Arkansas Fayetteville, AR
Friday, October 31 At Georgia Athens. GA
Sunday, November 2 At South Carolina Columbia, SC
Friday, November 7 Texas Gainesville, FL
Wednesday, November 12 Texas A&M Gainesville, FL
Friday, November 14 At Ole Miss Oxford, MS

November 21-25 – SEC Tournament Savannah, GA

 

Eysha Ambler will stay on as an assistant coach

Ambler Continues as Part of Volleyball Coaching Staff - Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – University of Florida's head volleyball coach, Ryan Theis announced on Wednesday that Eysha Ambler will remain on staff as an Assistant Coach for the 2025 season.

The talented, hardworking coach and recruiter with over 17 years of experience at the highest levels enters her fifth season at Florida and her first under the new leadership of Theis.

Ambler joins the assistant coaching team of Abby Gilleland and Ryan Walthall, who came on board with Theis from Marquette in February.

They Said:
"I'm incredibly blessed and grateful for the opportunity to continue with Florida Volleyball. I want to thank Ryan for believing in me and allowing me to be part of this new chapter. I'm excited to work alongside him and the rest of the staff as we continue building on the incredible tradition that's already been established here in Gainesville."
Eysha Ambler, University of Florida Assistant Volleyball Coach

"Eysha is a true professional and an amazing person. We are excited in both her willingness to stay and all of the help she has been able to provide us through the transition."
Ryan Theis, University of Florida Head Volleyball Coach

Along with Ambler, the volleyball support staff will remain the same as well.

 

Only one home game that overlaps with a football weekend. That stinks. Always like when we can get in a Friday VB game to start the weekend. Will be there for that Auburn/Texas combo weekend.