GAINESVILLE, Fla. – After trailing 1-2, the No. 16 Florida volleyball team fought their way back to defend their home court and beat No. 18 Florida State 3-2 (25-23, 22-25, 21-25, 25-16, 15-6) on Tuesday night inside the Stephen C. O’Connell Center.
The Gators tally their first ranked win of the season as well as their first five-set victory for an overall 7-2 record.
Freshman setter Taylor Parks recorded a career-high 56 assists to command Florida’s .346 hitting percentage, while picking up 10 digs in her second double-double match of her career.
Senior Gabrielle Essix had a strong return, posting a career-high 16 kills to hit.714 (16-1-21) in her first match of the season. Also making her return Tuesday night was sophomore All-American Kennedy Martin, who recorded 15 kills in her welcome-back match. Isabel Martin finished with a .367 hitting percentage to register 15 kills as well, while freshman Alec Rothe tallied 10 kills of her own. Additionally, fifth year AC Fitzpatrick added eight to Florida’s season-high 66 kills.
Libero Elli McKissock led Florida defensively with 18 digs, while totaling four assists. Besides the fifth-year libero and freshman setter, eight Gators recorded at least one dig in the five setter: K. Martin (7), Fitzpatrick (6), I. Martin (5), Canaan (5), Essix (1), Engel (1), Lee (1) and Rothe (1)
Parks tallied her second career-high of the night after dropping four aces, while Fitzpatrick, I. Martin and McKissock each added one ace to the stat sheet.
The Gators only had 5.0 team blocks compared…
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