GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The No. 20 Florida volleyball team defeated the Auburn Tigers in straights sets on Wednesday night in Exactech Arena to extend its win streak to seven matches.

The Gators improve to 18-6 on the year and 12-2 in the SEC, while Auburn falls to 13-12 overall and 5-10 in league play.

UF took the first set handily with a 25-11 win and followed with a 25-15 victory in the second frame. The Gators secured the match with a 25-19 win in the final set.

Florida’s offensive attack was led by T’ara Ceasar, who posted 12 kills on the night. Thayer Hall followed with an 11-kill, .455 performance of her own, while Lauren Forte added 10 kills in the victory on a .667 clip.

Marlie Monserez dished out 39 assists in the match, moving her into the No. 5 spot in program history for career assists. She also led the team to a .305 clip on night.

The Gators held Auburn to a .089 hitting percentage on the night, the fourth time this season the squad has held an opponent below .100. Bre Kelley posted a team-high two blocks in the sweep.

Elli McKissock led Florida’s backcourt defense with a 17-dig performance, while Ceasar and Monserez pitched in 12 and 10 digs, respectively, on the night.

Four different players registered a service ace in the match – Trinity Adams, Merritt Beason, McKissock and Monserez.

The Gators close out the home portion of their schedule with a two-match series against the South Carolina Gamecocks, beginning on Saturday. First serve for Saturday’s match is set for 4 p.m., while Sunday’s match is slated for a 2 p.m. start. Sunday will also serve as Senior Day for Florida’s five seniors – T’ara Ceasar, Lauren Dooley, Lauren Forte, Thayer Hall and Marlie Monserez.

Records
No. 20 Florida (18-6, 12-2 SEC)
Auburn (13-12, 5-10 SEC)

How it Happened

• The Gators held control for the entirety of the first set, beginning with a 5-0 Hall service run to force an Auburn timeout at the 6-1 mark. The Tigers pulled to within five at 9-4, but Florida continued to strike, taking the 18-7 advantage to make Auburn use its final timeout. Out of the break, UF closed out a 7-4 run to take the first 25-11.
  • Florida hit a stellar .464 in the first set, while holding Auburn to a .000 clip. Ceasar, Forte and Hall each recorded four kills in the frame to lead the way offensively.
• The second set started as a back-and-forth battle, with neither team holding more than a two-point lead until Florida strung together a 3-1 run to take the 10-6 advantage. The Gators continued to extend their lead, taking the 15-8 edge into the media timeout. UF grabbed all of the momentum coming out of the break, grabbing the 22-12 lead late in the frame. Florida capped off the set with two Sofia Victoria kills and a Ceasar kill to take the 2-0 lead in the match.
  • The Gators tallied 17 kills in the second set on a .364 hitting percentage. Beason posted a team-high four kills in the frame, while Ceasar and Hall each added three apiece.
• Similar to the start of the second set, the beginning of the third frame was tight between the two squads until Florida was able to create some distance at the 14-9 mark. The Tigers cut the deficit to four at 16-12, then again at 20-16, but Florida was able to win the battle to 25, taking the frame 25-19.
  • Ceasar and Forte each recorded a team-high five kills in the third set, followed by four from Hall.

Notables

• T’ara Ceasar recorded her team-leading 11th double-double in the match, finishing with 12 kills and 12 digs
• Marlie Monserez notched her ninth double-double of the year, recording 39 assists and 10 digs
• Florida improves to 52-2 against Auburn in the all-time series, including a 48-1 record under Mary Wise
• The Gators are now 39-0 against the Tigers in three-set matches
• UF improves to 26-0 against Auburn in Gainesville, Fla.
• Florida is now 14-1 in three-set matches during the 2021 campaign
• The Gators improve to 4-0 in the month of November
• With her 39 assists, Marlie Monserez moved into fifth place all-time in career assists, surpassing Nikki Shade (3,429 – 1993-97)

Thoughts from Coach Wise

• “We did a lot of things right following the game plan tonight. A lot of credit to the players for staying focused and executing to win in three in a week where we have so many matches in so few days.”

Up Next

• The Gators close out the home portion of their schedule with a two-match series against the South Carolina Gamecocks, beginning on Saturday
• First serve for Saturday’s match is set for 4 p.m., while Sunday’s match is slated for a 2 p.m. start
• Sunday will also serve as Senior Day for Florida’s five seniors – T’ara Ceasar, Lauren Dooley, Lauren Forte, Thayer Hall and Marlie Monserez.

No. 20 Florida vs. South Carolina Broadcast Information – Nov. 20
Date & Time: Nov. 20 | 4 p.m.
Live Stream: SEC Network +
Live Stats: Statbroadcast
Radio: FloridaGators.com/watch

No. 20 Florida vs. South Carolina Broadcast Information – Nov. 21
Date & Time: Nov. 21 | 2 p.m.
Live Stream: SEC Network +
Live Stats: Statbroadcast
Radio: ESPN 98.1 FM/850 AM

Series Information – No. 20 Florida vs. South Carolina
Gamecocks | 2021 season synopsis: 13-11, 5-9 SEC

• This is the 69th meeting between the Gators and the Gamecocks    
• Florida leads the series 59-9 (53-3 under Mary Wise)
• 3-set: 45-2 | 4-set: 10-4 | 5-set: 4-2
• Home: 30-1 | Away: 27-6 | Neutral: 2-1
• Last Time Out: Nov. 12, 2020 | Columbia, S.C. | L, 2-3 (21-25, 25-17, 25-21, 13-25, 12-15)

After racking up 15 points, a career-high 16 rebounds and six blocked shots against 20th-ranked Florida State, Gators forward Colin Castleton has been named the Southeastern Conference Player of the Week.

With Sunday’s performance, Castleton now owns four career double-doubles and five games with a half-dozen or more blocked shots. Today also marks the third time the Deland native has earned conference player of the week honors, as the SEC rewarded him twice during the 2020-21 season as well.

During the season opener against Elon, the 6-foot-11, 231-pound Castleton produced 18 points and six more blocked shots, so to say he is off to a stellar start might be an understatement.

“It was about us and how hard we were going to play, how tough we were, how much heart we had, and we felt like we brought more of that than they did,” Castleton said after Sunday’s victory. “That helped us get the win. We did a lot more things that helped us win the game – played together and played for one another.”

The 24th-ranked Gators are 2-0 and scheduled to host Milwaukee on Thursday evening, with tipoff slated for 6:00 p.m. EST.

A Record-Setting Performance During a Roller-Coaster Season for Gators QB Jones
Julianna Reichenbach, 

Florida snapped a seven-game losing streak against Florida State on Sunday with a 71-55 victory over the 20th-ranked Seminoles.

Defense set the tone early for the Gators. The ‘Noles couldn’t get much going in the first few minutes of the game, which forced them to play catchup for much of the half. Once they did get the lead, Florida took it right back after the half and ran away with it.

Colin Castleton, Florida’s star center, recorded his first double-double of the year, and forward Anthony Duruji emerged as the hustle player Florida desperately needed to energize the team.

Read the entire story here.

In a gritty performance of defensive execution and timely shotmaking the Florida Gators exorcised their demons and finally, for the first time since 2013, beat their rival Seminoles coming away with a 71-55 victory. It was a tight matchup for most of the game until midway through the second half where the Gators started coming away with offensive rebound after offensive rebound allowing for high percentage shots and points that Florida State couldn’t match on the other end. Florida played with an intensity and confidence that we haven’t seen from recent rosters, and perhaps this game signifies just how tough an out these Gators will be all season long.

The setting: In 1962, with a season teetering on the brink and following consecutive losses to Georgia Tech and Duke, the Gators were about to play a very tough Texas A&M team. Sensing the despair on his team and the need to inspire all its players, Coach Ellenson wrote a now famous letter to the Gator players, personally addressed each one and slipped them under the doors of each dorm room late at night. In it, he recalled a night during the 1945 Battle of the Bulge in which the remnants of a small platoon that he commanded fought and won against impossible odds. For his heroism, General Patton pinned Bronze and Silver stars on Coach Ellenson’s chest. He would go on to win another Silver Star while fighting in the European theater.

Here’s Coach Ellenson’s letter, appropriate for this Veterans’ Day. With a figurative toast to Coach Ellenson, and a salute to all US veterans, I also send my best to you and your families:

*******************************************************************************************************************************************

Dear ____________ :

It’s late at night. The football offices are all quiet and everyone has finally gone home. Once again my thoughts turn to you all.

The reason I feel I have something to say to you is because what you need now more than anything else is a little guidance and maybe a little starch for your backbone. You are still youngsters and, unknowingly, you have not steeled yourselves for the demanding task of 60 full minutes of exertion required to master a determined opponent. This sort of exertion takes two kinds of hardness: physical, which is why you’re pushed hard in practice; and mental, which comes only from having to meet adversity and whipping it.

Now all of us have adversity – different kinds maybe – but adversity nonetheless. Just how we meet these troubles determines how solid a foundation we are building our life on; and just how many of you stand together to face our team’s adversity will determine how solid a foundation our team has built for the rest of the season.

No one cruises along without problems. It isn’t easy to earn your way through college on football scholarship. It isn’t easy to do what is expected of you by the academic and the athletic. It isn’t easy to remain fighting when others are curling around you or when your opponent seems to be getting stronger while you seem to be getting weaker. It isn’t easy to continue good work when others don’t appreciate what you’re doing. It isn’t easy to go hard when bedeviled by aches, pains and muscle sprains. It isn’t easy to rise up when you are down. The pure facts of life are that nothing is easy. You only get what you earn and there isn’t such a thing as “something for nothing.” When you truly realize this – then and only then will you begin to whip your adversities.

If you’ll bear with a little story, I’ll try to prove my point. At midnight, January 14, 1945, six pitiful American soldiers were hanging onto a small piece of high ground in a forest somewhere near Bastogne, Belgium. This high ground had been the objective of an attack launched by 1,000 US Army men that morning. Only these six made it. The others had been turned back, wounded, lost or killed in action. These grimy, cruddy six men were all that were left of a magnificent thrust of 1,000 men. They hadn’t had any sleep other than catnaps for over 72 hours. The weather was cold enough to freeze the water in their canteens. They had no entrenching tools, no radio, no food – only ammunition and adversity. Twice a good-sized counter attack had been launched by the enemy, only to be beaten back because of the dark and some pretty fair grenade heaving.

The rest of the time, there were incessant mortars falling in the general area and the trees made for dreaded tree bursts, which scatter shrapnel like buckshot. The attackers were beginning to sense the location of the six defenders. Then things began to happen. First, a sergeant had a chunk of shrapnel tear into his hip. Then a corporal went into shock and started sobbing.

After more than six hours of the constant mortar barrage and two close counter attacks by the Germans, and no food since maybe the day before yesterday, this was some first-class adversity. Then another counter attack, this one making it to their small position. Hand-to-hand fighting is a routine military expression. I have not the imagination to tell you what this is really like. A man standing up to fight with a shattered hipbone, saliva frothing at his mouth, gouging, lashing with a bayonet, even strangling with his bare hands. The lonesome five fought (the corporal was out of his mind) until the attackers quit.

Then the mortars began again. All this time the route to the rear lay open, but never did this little group take the road back. At early dawn a full company of airborne troopersrelieved that tiny force. It still wasn’t quite light yet. One of the group, a lieutenant, picked up the sergeant with the broken hip and carried him like a baby. The other led the incoherentcorporal like a dog on a leash. The other two of the gallant six lay dead in the snow. It took hours for this strange little group to get back to where they had started some 24 hours earlier. They were like ghosts returning. The lieutenant and oneremaining healthy sergeant, after 10 hours of sleep and a hot meal, were sent on a mission 12 miles behind the German lines and helped make the link that closed the famous Bulge in theline of defense of the Allies.

Today, two of the faithful six lay in Belgium graves, one is acareer army man, and one is a permanent resident of the army hospital for the insane in Texas, one is a stiff-legged repairman in Ohio, and one is a football coach and Defensive Coordinatorat the University of Florida.

This story is no documentary or self-indulgence. It was told to you only to show you that whatever you find adverse now, others before you have had as bad or worse and still hung on to do the job. Many of you are made of exactly the same stuff as the six men in the story, yet you haven’t pooled yourcollective guts to present a united fight for a full 60 minutes. Your egos are a little shook – so what? Nothing good can come from moping about it. Cheer up and stand up. Fight an honest fight, square off in front of your particular adversity and whip it. You’ll be a better man for it, and the next adversity won’t be so tough. Breaking training now is complete failure to meetyour problems. Quitting the first time is the hardest – it gets easier the second time and so forth.

I’d like to see a glint in your eye Saturday about 2 p.m. withsome real depth to it – not just a little lip service – not just a couple of weak hurrahs and down the drain again, but some real steel – some real backbone and 60 full-fighting minutes.Then and only then will you be on the road to becoming a real man. The kind you like to see when you shave every morning.

As in most letters, I’d like to close by wishing you well andleave you with this one thought. “Self-pity is a roommate with cowardice.” Stay away from feeling sorry for yourself. The wins and losses aren’t nearly as important as what kind of man you become.

I hope I’ve given you something to think about-and remember, somebody up there still loves you.

Sincerely,

Gene Ellenson

Travaris Robinson (40) – Miami defensive backs 

 

Friday, Nov. 12
Cincinnati at South Florida | 6 p.m. | ESPN2
Wyoming at Boise State | 9 p.m. | FS1

Saturday, Nov. 13
New Mexico State at Alabama | 12 p.m. | SEC Network
Oklahoma at Baylor | 12 p.m. | FOX
West Virginia at Kansas State | 12 p.m. | FS1
Northwestern at Wisconsin | 12 p.m. | ESPN2
Mississippi State at Auburn | 12 p.m. | ESPN
Michigan at Penn State | 12 p.m. | ABC
Rutgers at Indiana | 12 p.m. | Big Ten Network
Samford at Florida | 12 p.m. | ESPN+/SECN+
UConn at Clemson | 12 p.m. | ACC Network
Syracuse at Louisville | 12 p.m. | ESPN3
UCF at SMU | 12 p.m. | ESPNU
East Carolina at Memphis | 12 p.m. | ESPN+
Houston at Temple | 12 p.m. | ESPN+
Bucknell at Army | 12 p.m. | CBSSN
Western Kentucky at Rice | 2 p.m. | ESPN+
Utah at Arizona | 2 p.m. | Pac-12 Network
Georgia State at Coastal Carolina | 2 p.m. | ESPN+
South Alabama at Appalachian State | 2:30 p.m. | ESPN+
Georgia Southern at Texas State | 3 p.m. | ESPN+
Georgia at Tennessee | 3:30 p.m. | CBS
Purdue at Ohio State | 3:30 p.m. | ABC
USC at Cal | 3:30 p.m. | FS1
Florida International at Middle Tennessee | 3:30 p.m. | ESPN3
Charlotte at Louisiana Tech | 3:30 p.m. | Stadium
Florida Atlantic at Old Dominion | 3:30 p.m. | ESPN+
UAB at Marshall | 3:30 p.m. | CBSSN
Miami at Florida State | 3:30 p.m. | ESPN
Southern Miss at UTSA | 3:30 p.m. | ESPN+
Boston College at Georgia Tech | 3:30 p.m. | ESPN3
Duke at Virginia Tech | 3:30 p.m. | ACC Network
Louisiana at Troy | 3:30 p.m. | ESPN+
Iowa State at Texas Tech | 3:30 p.m. | ESPN2
Minnesota at Iowa | 3:30 p.m. | Big Ten Network
Maryland at Michigan State | 4 p.m. | FOX
South Carolina at Missouri | 4 p.m. | SEC Network
UTEP at North Texas | 4 p.m. | ESPN+
Tulsa at Tulane | 4 p.m. | ESPNU
Hawai’i at UNLV | 4 p.m. | Spectrum Sports
Arkansas State at UL Monroe | 5 p.m. | ESPN+
Stanford at Oregon State | 5:30 p.m. | Pac-12 Network
Texas A&M at Ole Miss | 7 p.m. | ESPN
Kentucky at Vanderbilt | 7 p.m. | ESPN2
Arizona State at Washington | 7 p.m. | FS1
New Mexico at Fresno State | 7 p.m. | Stadium
Air Force at Colorado State | 7 p.m. | CBSSN
Notre Dame at Virginia | 7:30 p.m. | ABC
Kansas at Texas | 7:30 p.m. | ESPNU
NC State at Wake Forest | 7:30 p.m. | ACC Network
Arkansas at LSU | 7:30 p.m. | SEC Network
TCU at Oklahoma State | 8 p.m. | FOX
Colorado at UCLA | 9 p.m. | Pac-12 Network
Washington State at Oregon | 10:30 p.m. | ESPN
Nevada at San Diego State | 10:30 p.m. | CBSSN
Utah State at San Jose State | 10:30 p.m. | FOX