The Alabama volleyball team that showed up to play No. 3 Florida was not the team that head coach Ed Allen would have liked to see on the court. The team he wanted to see wouldn’t have dropped straight sets (21-25, 16-25, 18-25) to the Gators.
The team he saw struggled with hitting, passing and consistency.
“I think anytime that you get a chance to play against – really when you look at Kentucky, Auburn and Florida all three are pretty tough match out of the gate in SEC play – and you get a chance to see really what you do need work on because they’re going to force you to execute to beat them,” Allen said. “They’re not going to beat themselves.”
The match pointed out inconsistencies with passing. Also, two of the Crimson Tide’s top three hitters posted below-average hitting percentages. Despite Brittany Thomas’ nine kills, she hit for .071 on the match, less than half of her season average (.199). Krystal Rivers only put up five kills against Florida’s block and hit for .118 on the match. She averages .426 on the season.
“We’ll continue to work on our ability to pass a ball and not put momentum on the ball,” Allen said. “I think that’s one of the biggest pieces. Continuing to improve defensively, which we have over the course of the last three weeks, and then I think try to get back to where we’re executing on a much more consistent level, particularly offensively. Outside of Laura Steiner, every one of our players hit probably less than what they were capable of hitting in this match.”
Steiner put up nine kills and .421 hitting percentage, but this wasn’t enough for the Crimson Tide, who hit .155 on the match.
Alabama took a five-point lead in the second set but failed to keep it and ended up losing the set by the biggest point margin of the match. Setter Sierra Wilson, who had 25 assists on the match and a rare kill, said the team didn’t have the momentum to finish off Florida.
“That’s where the consistent energy comes in,” Wilson said. “We’re hyped up, we’re fired up, we’re going and then we’ll make a mistake, and it’ll be flat. What we really have to do is play one point at a time and look to the next point.”
The second set also had the team’s worst hitting percentage for any set on the season with a -.040. The Crimson Tide had more errors than kills.
“Ball control broke down,” Allen said. “Our ability to execute particularly offensively. Too many hitting errors in the set and then probably not nearly the competitive spirit that’s needed to finish off a team as talented as Florida.”
With this loss, Alabama fell to 13-4 on the season and 1-2 in SEC play.
