Florida finished road trip with victory

November 5th, 2006

Junior opposite hitter Amber McCray picked up 20 kills on .543 hitting as the seventh-ranked University of Florida volleyball team won its 14th consecutive match by snapping Arkansas’ five-match winning streak in a 3-1 (30-24, 30-26, 28-30, 30-16) victory on Sunday afternoon at Barnhill Arena.

Florida (22-2 overall, 15-1 SEC) won its 17th consecutive match against Arkansas and moved to 8-0 all-time in Fayetteville with the victory. The Gators also moved closer to a 16th straight SEC title as UF’s magic number to clinch at least a share of the crown is now two with four matches left to play. The Gators finished with more kills (80-63) and digs (85-52), while out-hitting the Lady Backs (15-9, 8-8) .359-.203.

“I can’t say enough good things about our team today,” Florida coach Mary Wise said. “These players really battled out there, especially when the Arkansas crowd was really into it. We had production from a lot of different players and for us to beat good teams on the road, we’ve got to get production from everyone and that happened today.”

Florida out-hit its opponent for the 14th consecutive match and claimed its 76th straight win against teams from the SEC Western Division.

A pair of notable records concerning digs came to fruition for the Gators during the match. Junior outside hitter Marcie Hampton surpassed a career milestone in becoming the ninth and fastest player in school history to reach 1,000 career digs as she recorded nine and now has 1,001 in her career. Freshman libero Elyse Cusack – fresh off a 46-dig effort on Friday at #11 LSU – broke Hampton’s school record for most digs by a freshman by collecting 25 to break the old mark of 354.

Florida displayed a diversified offense against Arkansas as five different players finished in double figures in kills led by McCray. Hampton also added 18 kills on .294 hitting with junior Kisya Killingsworth finishing with 13 kills, sophomore middle blocker Kelsey Bowerswith 12 and freshman middle blocker Kristina Johnson with 10. Junior setter Angie McGinnis wasn’t far away with seven kills on .500 hitting, while she also collected 64 assists and nine digs. Her assist total was just two shy of her career best.

Senior defensive specialist Rhian Davis helped the Gator back row defense by tying her season best with 18 digs, while sophomore defensive specialist Christina Diaz adding a career best 12 digs.

Florida returns home after its four-match road swing by hosting Mississippi on Wednesday, Nov. 8 at 7 p.m. (ET) at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center before welcoming Mississippi State on Sunday, Nov. 12 at 1 p.m. Both matches will be carried on WRUF-AM 850 and www.GatorZone.com, while both can also be seen via GatorVision Online.