Arkansas Swept by No. 22 Florida in Game One

The Hogs hosted No. 22 Florida for the first of two matches on Friday and fell in straight sets to the Gators.

Arkansas is now 17-7 overall on the season and 8-5 in the SEC. The Gators are 9-2 in conference play and 15-6.

Junior Jill Gillen led the Hogs with 10 kills, hit .233 and had eight digs. Sophomore Taylor Head also added 10 kills and freshman Courtney Jackson also had eight digs.

Florida came out hot from the start of the match and quickly jumped out to a 6-2 lead. Arkansas answered with four points, but Florida fired right back and the Hogs headed to a timeout down 10-4. The Gators poured it on from there and while the Hogs strung together a three-point run, Florida still held a 16-11 advantage. Arkansas added just one more point and Florida took the first set 25-12.

The second set was tight at first and the Hogs used a pair of points, which included a solo block from Gracie Ryan, and went up 5-4. The lead was short-lived, though, and Florida scored nine of the next 11 for a 13-7 edge. Arkansas battled back, and three straight points capped off by an ace from senior Lauren Evans made it 15-13. Florida then went on a 7-1 after a timeout and went up 21-14. The Hogs added five more, but couldn’t catch up and the Gators came away with a 25-19 victory and 2-0 match lead.

The third set started with a 5-2 run for Florida that gave the Gators the lead that they held all the way through. While Arkansas limited Florida’s ability to create any long runs, the Hogs couldn’t score more than two points at a time, and the Gators went up 15-10 at the media timeout. A kill from Gillen and two aces from Ryan made it 15-13 and another pair of kills cut the deficit to one, but the Gators tacked on three more for a 19-15 lead. Florida had the match in sight at 23-17, but the Hogs added a trio of kills and sent Florida to a timeout. The Gators got the next two points to seal the set 25-20 and the match 3-0.

Up Next
Arkansas and Florida have a Saturday rematch at Barnhill Arena. First serve is set for 5 p.m. and the match will be streamed live on SEC Network+. 

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