Top-10 Matchup Set Between Gators and Cardinal

PALO ALTO, Calif. – The eighth-ranked Florida volleyball team is set for a Top-10 matchup when the team faces No. 2 Stanford on Tuesday night in Maples Pavilion.

First serve is slated for 9 p.m. EST on the Pac-12 Network with Troy Clardy and Nicole Branagh on the call. The match can also be heard on the airways of ESPN Gainesville 98.1 FM/850 AM with Tom Collett on the call.

Both the Gators and the Cardinal went undefeated in their opening weekends, with Florida defeating then-No. 8 Penn State and South Florida during the Road 2 Tampa Bay Invitational. Stanford kicked off its 2023 campaign with wins over Northern Colorado and Colorado State.

Stanford holds the 9-5 series advantage over Florida, but the series is tied 2-2 in Palo Alto, Calif.

National Spotlight

• As a team, the Gators are ranked in the Top-20 in the nation in the following:

  • Blocks per set (18th | 3.11)

• Individually, three Gators are ranked in the Top-20 nationally:
  

Historic Performances

• In the opening match of the 2023 season against No. 8 Penn State, Kennedy Martin (18) and Kira Hutson (14) combined for 32 kills
• The freshmen duo of Martin and Hutson were the first pair of freshmen to record 30+ combined kills in a season opening match, surpassing the mark of 28 from the duo of Kristy Jaeckel (15) and Kelly Murphy (13) in the season-opener in 2008
• Against South Florida on Aug. 26, Kennedy Martin posted 27 kills – the second-highest total for a freshman in the rally-scoring era (Aury Cruz, 31)
• Martin’s combined 45 kills were the most for a freshman in the first two matches of their career in the rally-scoring era, surpassing Thayer Hall’s mark of 41 in the 2018 season
• Against South Florida, Anna Dixon recorded a career-high 14.0 blocks, surpassing her previous career-high of 6.0. That mark was tied for the highest total in a match in program history with four-time All-American Rhamat Alhassan
• For their performances, Kennedy Martin and Anna Dixon were honored by the SEC, with Martin earning Overall/Offensive Player of the Week honors and Dixon being named Co-Defensive Player of the Week

Gators in the Polls

• After a 2-0 weekend to start the 2023 campaign, the Gators moved up three spots to No. 8 in the AVCA Top-25 Coaches Poll
• Four SEC teams are ranked in the Top 25: No. 8 Florida, No. 15 Kentucky, No. 23 Arkansas and No. 24 Tennessee. Auburn (56) and LSU (13) are all receiving votes in the preseason…