Gators Power Through First Round with Sweep Over NC State
Florida’s offense was led by Kennedy Martin’s 18 kills.
Box Score<https://floridagators.com/documents/2024/12/6/NC_State_Box_Score.pdf> | 2024 Volleyball Tournament Bracket<https://www.ncaa.com/brackets/volleyball-women/d1/2024>
LAWRENCE, Kan. – The Florida volleyball team opened the 2024 NCAA Tournament with a 3-0 (25-18, 25-21, 25-13) win over NC State on Friday night on neutral territory inside the Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena. The Gators improve to 22-7 on the year and advance to the Second Round of the Tournament for the 30th time in program history.
Florida, who is the sixth seed in the lower left region will play the host-team Kansas in the Second Round on Saturday, Dec. 7 at 7:30 p.m. ET inside Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena. The Jayhawks are the third seed in the lower left region and opened the tournament with a sweep (25-18, 25-23, 25-22) over Colgate.
Taylor Parks commanded Florida’s offense to a .352 hitting clip, while recording her fourth career double-double with 30 assist and 12 digs. AVCA Division I Player of the Year Semifinalist Kennedy Martin led the Gator attack with her 18 kills on .324 hitting percentage. The sophomore now sits only 50 kills away from recording 1,000 career kills.
Isabel Martin contributed seven kills and seven digs to Florida stat sheet, while also leading the way for the Gators behind the service line. The outside hitter not only tied her career high of four aces, but she also joins 15 former players who sit second in the program’s NCAA Tournament Record Book for individual aces recorded in a single match.
AC Fitzpatrick returned to Florida’s rotation and added six kills, while Jaela Auguste’s six, Amaya Thomas’ three and Park’s two combined for 11 of the team’s 42.
The Gators were a force at the net, tallying 10.0 team blocks to hold the Wolfpack to a .135 hitting percentage. Auguste had a match-high seven to tie her career high, while Park’s three tied her career high as well. K. Martin posted Florida’s only solo block to finish with five of her own in the sweep. Thomas contributed two block assists to UF’s stat line and Fitzpatrick and Isi Martin tallied one a piece.
Elli McKissock put together a solid performance from the back row, finishing with 13 digs to lead the way for the Gators. She now only needs 24 more digs to hold the top spot in Florida’s record book for career digs. Additionally, the libero dished out seven assists in the win.
Records
No. 6/22 Florida (22-7, 11-5 SEC)
NC State (16-13, 11-9 ACC)
How It Happened
Set 1
* All-around effort from the Gators awarded an 9-4 lead and forced an early NC State timeout at the start of the first set. Out of the huddle, Florida continued its momentum and extended their lead to 13-6 after an ace from Parks. The Wolfpack settled in, and with the help from Gator errors, inched back within four. UF regained a 18-12 lead thanks to points from the Martin duo and Auguste. Following NC State’s second timeout, K. Martin put one down to bring Parks back to the service line, where the freshman served four-straight points to widen the gap to 23-15. K. Martin recorded her eighth kill of the set to put Florida at 24, but the Wolfpack kept the fight and rallied three-consecutive points before Fitzpatrick sealed the 25-18 win for Florida.
* Set 1 Team Stats | .429 Hitting % | 18 Kills | 18 Assists | 12 Digs | 5.0 Team Blocks | 1 Ace
Set 2
* Trailing 1-3 at the start of set two, back-to-back kills from K. Martin notched it up at three. The two teams exchanged points before an ace from Canaan capped a 3-0 scoring run to hand Florida an 8-5 advantage. The Wolfpack stayed close, but serving errors allowed the Gators an 15-13 advantage heading into the media timeout. Out of the break, two-straight kills from NC State evened the score at 15, but Auguste’s efforts in the middle helped UF push to an 17-15 advantage. Following an NC State timeout, the Wolfpack quickly used their second after Parks dropped an ace to give the Gators a 20-17 lead. A solo block from K. Martin made it set-point, as the Fort Mill, S.C. native secured the 25-21 win.
* Set 2 Team Stats | .250 Hitting % | 18 Digs | 14 Kills | 12 Assists | 3 aces | 2.0 Team Blocks
Set 3
* NC State went on a 3-0 scoring run to open the third set, but Florida responded with two blocks from K. Martin and Auguste as well as kills from K. Martin and Thomas to take a 5-4 lead. With Hoyle behind the service line, the Gators scored five-consecutive points to pull ahead to 12-8. Points from the Martin duo pushed Florida past the halfway mark, as NC State used their second timeout after trailing 11-16. Out of the huddle, Isi Martin recorded three aces during a Gator 5-0 scoring run before K. Martin closed out the match sweep with an ace of her own for a 25-12 third-set win.
* Set 3 Team Stats | .381 Hitting % | 10 Kills | 10 Assists | 8 Digs | 4 Aces | 3.0 Team Block
Notables
* Florida improves to 27-0 in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament
* The Gators move to 8-1 (5-0 under Wise) in the all-time series record against NC State
* Florida becomes 1-0 against NC State in NCAA Tournament play
* UF remains undefeated in three-set matches against the Wolfpack, sitting 5-0
* The Gators improve to 83-34 in the NCAA Tournament, including an 82-33 record under Mary Wise
* Florida evens it neutral-match record to 17-17 in the NCAA Tournament
* UF stretches to 10-3 in three-set matches during the 2024 season
* When playing on a Friday, the Gators are now 8-1
* Florida raises their November record to 7-2
* Gators are now 2-2 against ACC opponents
* Isabel Martin’s four aces joins 15 former Gators who rank second in Florida’s NCAA Tournament Record Books for individual service aces in a single set.
* Jaela Auguste’s 7.0 blocks ties Florida’s individual three-set high and joins 13 other names on Florida’s NCAA Record Book for individual block assists in a single set
* Taylor Parks recorded her fourth career double-double with 30 assists and 12 digs
* Kennedy Martin’s 18 kills marks the only Gator to finish with double-digit kills
* Two names finished with double-digit digs:
* Elli McKissock: 13
* Taylor Parks: 12
* Three players tied one career high:
* Jaela Auguste: 7 Blocks
* Isabel Martin: 4 Aces
* Taylor Parks: 3 Blocks
* Kennedy Martin’s 18 Kills continues her streak of recording double-digit kills in every match she has played wearing the Orange and Blue (51 Matches)
* The sophomore sits only 50 away from 1,000 career kills
* Elli McKissock ranks 2nd for career digs (1,115), 8th for career aces (143) and 21st for career assists (537) in Program history
* Taylor Parks ranks 19th for career assists in Program history with 824
Thoughts from Coach Wise
* “A complete match with so many contributions, particularly behind the service line. To come out with a 3-0 win against such an experienced NC State team is a testimate to how well we had to play tonight.”
Up Next
* Florida returns to tournament play tomorrow, Sat. Dec 7. The Gators will face the host-team Kansas at 7:30 p.m. ET inside the Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena. The Jayhawks are the No. 3 seed in the lower left region of the bracket and are ranked No. 12 in the newest AVCA national rankings. Fans who can’t attend will be able to stream the match on ESPN+ as well as fans can follow @GatorsVB on socials for match updates or via live stats, which can be found on volleyball’s schedule page on FloridaGators.com.
Vs. Kansas (25-4, 15-3 Big 12)
Date & Time: Saturday, Dec. 7 | 7:30 p.m. E.T.
Watch: ESPN+<https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/8741bbcd-1e18-4cc0-89b2-0cc944a0e243>
Live Stats: StatsBroadcast
Follow: @GatorsVB<https://x.com/GatorsVB>
* Series history
* Florida leads series: 1-1 (1-0 under Mary Wise)
* 3-set: 1-1 | 4-set: 0-0 | 5-set: 0-0
* Home: 0-1 | Away: 0-0 | Neutral: 1-0
* Last Time Out: Sept. 96 1997 | Evanston, IL | Florida wins, 3-0
* NCAA Tournament Series
* Have yet to face each other in the NCAA Tournament.
* Notable:
* Making fourth-straight NCAA tournament. The Jayhawks have five ranked wins this season and nine wins over teams that made the 2024 bracket
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