Michigan
22-13
Florida
27-5
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | Final F |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michigan | 21 | 13 | 25 | 0 |
| Florida | 25 | 25 | 27 | 3 |
Michigan Bows Out of NCAA Tourney, Falls in Sweet 16 at Florida
12/9/2011 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Site: Gainesville, Fla. (Stephen O'Connell Center)
Event: NCAA Tournament (Regional Semifinals)
Result: #17 Florida 3, #22 Michigan 0 (25-21, 25-13, 27-25)
Records: U-M (22-13), Florida (27-5)
Next U-M Event: Season Complete
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- The No. 22-ranked University of Michigan volleyball team saw its season come to an end at the hands of hot-hitting Florida, falling, 3-0 (25-21, 25-13, 27-25), to the Gators in the regional semifinal of the NCAA Tournament on Friday night (Dec. 9) at the Stephen O'Connell Center.
The Gators hit .439 for the match, putting down 53 kills with just 10 errors, compared to Michigan's .248 (42 kills, 14 errors). Senior Alex Hunt (Granger, Ind./South Bend St. Joseph) led the Michigan offense with 13 kills, while senior Courtney Fletcher (Johns Creek, Ga./Northview) chipped in nine and sophomore Molly Toon (Middleton, Wis./Middleton) put down seven. Freshman setter Lexi Dannemiller (West Chester, Ohio/Lakota West) handed out 32 assists and recorded nine digs and three kills. Senior libero Sloane Donhoff (Louisville, Ky./Assumption) anchored the Michigan defense with 11 digs, the only Wolverine in double figures.
With the teams tied at 14-14 in the first set, Florida strung together a four-point run to take an 18-14 advantage. Hunt squeezed one through the block to stop the run, but the Gators went on for the 25-21 win. The Maize and Blue hit .286 in the set with just three attack errors but fell victim to three service errors and two ball-handling errors in the frame.
Michigan jumped out in front 3-0 to start the second set, but Florida responded with a 9-2 spurt to force a Wolverine timeout at 9-5. Michigan closed the gap to two points at 13-11, before the Gators ripped off eight consecutive points for a 21-13 lead. Senior/junior Claire McElheny's (Westfield, Ind./Brebeuf) termination stopped the spurt, but Florida closed out the set, 25-13, for a 2-0 match lead. The Gators held Michigan to a .000 attack percentage in the set, recording 6.0 blocks.
U-M raced out to a 7-3 lead in the third, forcing an early Florida timeout. Michigan kept the lead until Florida knotted the set at 12-12 off a right-side kill. Neither team held more than a two-point lead the rest of the way as Florida took match point at 24-23. Michigan staved off two match points on two back-row kills from Hunt, but the Gators strung together two points on a quick kill out of the middle and one on the outside for a 27-25 win.
With the loss, Michigan ends its season with a 22-13 overall record and its fourth NCAA Sweet 16 appearance in five years.
NOTES
• Michigan was making its fourth Sweet 16 appearance in school history. All four appearances have come in the last five years.
• With her start at libero tonight, Sloane Donhoff tied the program record for most career appearances at 140. She is tied with former Wolverine Lexi Zimmerman (2007-10).
• Michigan dropped the first set in all three NCAA Tournament matches this postseason.
• Michigan has not rallied from a 2-0 deficit since beating Minnesota, 3-2, on Sept. 25, 2010.
• The senior class of Karlee Bruck, Sloane Donhoff, Courtney Fletcher, Alex Hunt and Michelle McMahon finished with a 98-42 record the past four seasons.
• Sloane Donhoff went for double-digit digs for the 33rd time this season.
• Sloane Donhoff finished her career second on Michigan's career digs list with 1,918.
• Alex Hunt ended her career at No. 2 on Michigan's career kills list, putting down 1,620 in her career.
• Lexi Dannemiller finished the season with 1,523 assists, the fourth-highest single-season mark in program history.
• Florida leads the all-time series, 4-0, and it was the first meeting of the two teams since the 1996 season. Michigan has never won a set against the Gators.
QUOTES
Michigan Head Coach Mark Rosen
Opening statement ... "I thought Florida did a great job tonight. They played really well, especially in the first two sets. They played really clean and tried to attack us and kept us on our heels a little bit. I'm really proud of how our team fought back coming out of the break into game three. It's synonymous with our season. This team has been fighting all year, fighting through adversity. I was really impressed with how they came back in the third set, and credit to Florida for weathering that, but I'm proud of how our team played. I'm proud of our season."
On adjustments after break ... "I don't think that we made any adjustments other than that we played a little better. They were very good at getting kills. They did a great job at getting first-ball kills. In transition, they were even better. Every time they dug a ball, they would turn it into a kill. We knew we had to somehow slow that down. We also had to get some first-ball kills as well. I thought we did a better job of executing. Alex (Hunt) did a great job of getting hot in the third game. We really needed that. Defensively, I thought we did a little better job of serving and allowing our defense to get engaged a little bit more. We really just tried to slow them down. Whether it's their offense or our defense or a combination of both, I thought they played very clean tonight."
On Alex Hunt ... "Alex has been huge from her freshman year when she broke into our lineup. We recruited her as a right-side hitter and had no intention of playing her on the left side, and about a third of the way through her freshman year, we tried her on the left and she never left. She's had a great career. In this last month, she has been really good, and that's when we needed her to be that way. You love it when you see your team step up and carry the load when we really need them to."
On how the current Michigan team stacks up to his teams in the past ... "This is a very different team than I've ever had here. I don't think I've had a team that has fought this hard and tried so hard to create something out of the season. It didn't come easy. I'll remember how hard this team fought. As coaches, we challenged them a lot to look at the way we were playing physically, but in the intangible category, we weren't approaching it very well either. I'll be proud of this team for the way they fought through that. It's something that's very special. I think a lot of teams would have just given up, and this team didn't."
U-M Senior Libero Sloane Donhoff
On her career ... "It's a great honor to wear the Block M. Michigan has so much tradition. It's a great group of girls, and as captain, I'm so proud to be the leader of every single person on our team, especially this year. It definitely has not been the easiest year, but we responded to all of those games. We came in to the NCAA Tournament with nothing to lose, and I couldn't be more proud to say that I was a part of that team. It was a great run."
U-M Senior Outside Hitter Alex Hunt
On her career ... "I'm proud as well, especially this year, fighting through all the obstacles and battling ourselves. Coming back and making it into the Sweet 16 where nobody thought that we would even make it that far, or make it into the NCAA Tournament. I'm really proud of everything we did this season."
