GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Sacramento State took the third ranked team in the nation to five sets, before eventually falling on the road at Florida, 3-2 (23-25, 25-17, 25-9, 21-25, 15-7), on Thursday evening at Exactech Arena.
To put this loss into context, the Hornets took a Florida team to five sets that had just swept second-ranked Stanford on the road, and swept fifth-ranked Minnesota at home. In fact, the Gators swept the Hornets in the Nest two years ago. Sacramento State had been swept by each of its last six top 10 opponents until that streak was stopped this evening.
Today marked the first match for the Hornets at the Gator Invitational, a three-day tournament hosted by Florida. Sacramento State will play Winthrop tomorrow at 1 p.m. PT, followed by Clemson on Saturday at 9 a.m. PT.
The loss dropped the Hornets to 5-3 while Florida, which reached the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals a year ago, improved to 5-0. Of the Gators' five wins this season, three have come against teams ranked in the top 10. That includes a 3-1 victory over eighth-ranked Penn State in the season opener.
In today's match, the Hornets played good defense throughout, finishing with 68 digs. Florida hit .276 against Sacramento State a little over a week after hitting .324 at Stanford.
The Hornets were led by three players with double figures in kills. That includes middle blocker
Kalani Hayes, who had 10 kills and a .350 hitting percentage. Outside hitter
Bridgette Smith had 15 kills, the second highest amount yielded by a Florida opponent this season. Smith had seven kills alone in the fourth set, and her kill at 23-23 in the first set helped the Hornets win that frame as well. Smith also had 11 digs, and the double-double was the 25th of her career.
Outside hinter
Ellie Tisko had 12 kills and 11 digs as four Hornets posted double-doubles. That includes setters
Kate Doorn (22 assists, 10 digs) and
Hailey Plugge (20 assists, 11 digs). Tisko had two of the Hornets' four aces.
Five Sacramento State players posted double figures in digs, led by
Caty Cordano's 18 digs.
Caitlin Volkmann posted eight kills,
Karlee Soderberg had three kills and two blocks, and
Tiyanane Kamba-Griffin added a pair of kills and blocks.
The Hornets had seven more digs than Florida, but the Gators registered more kills (58-50), aces (13-4) and blocks (14.0-4.0). Florida was led by AC Fitzpatrick who had a career-high 18 kills.
