2015 Gator Volleyball: A Year In Review

The 2015 Florida Gator volleyball team saw another brilliant season come to a conclusion on December 12th with a five-set loss to the #3 seeded Texas Longhorns in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. Despite losing in this stage of the tournament for the second straight year, Florida managed to go 25-7 (13-5 in SEC play) on route to a fourth place finish in the SEC. Some other notable accomplishments of this year's squad include:

• Victories over seven teams ranked in the final AVCA Coaches Top 25 polls
• 13-1 record at home (only loss to Kentucky)
• Nine-game winning streak from October 9th to November 8th
• Two victories over Florida State between the regular season and the postseason
• A five-set upset of #6 Wisconsin in the Sweet 16 as a #11 seed
• Finishing at #16 in the AVCA Coaches poll at the end of the season

Now that we have looked at the team's accomplishments, let's take a look at the accolades of some of the individual players. First the award winners:

Individual Awards & Honors

• 2015 AVCA Division I First-Team All-Americans
• Middle Blocker- Rhammat Alhassan (Sophomore)

• 2015 AVCA Division I Third-Team All-Americans
• Right Side Hitter- Alex Holston (Junior)


• 2015 AVCA Division I Honorable Mention All-Americans
• Setter- Mackenzie Dagostino (Senior)
• Outside Hitter- Ziva Recek (Senior)
• Outside Hitter- Carli Snyder (Sophomore)

• 2015 All-SEC Team
• Middle Blocker- Rhammat Alhassan
• Middle Blocker- Simone Antwi (Senior)
• Setter- Mackenzie Dagostino
• Right Side Hitter- Alex Holston
• Outside Hitter- Ziva Recek

Now let's look at the stat leaders:

Kills: Alex Holston (381)

Attack Errors: Alex Holston (106)

Total Points: Rhammat Alhassan (485.5)

Digs: Nikki O'Rourke (499)

Return Errors: Ziva Recek (38)

Assists: Mackenzie Dagostino (1,286)

Total Blocks: Rhammat Alhassan (189.0)

Block Errors: Rhammat Alhassan (19)

Service Aces: Mackenzie Dagostino (32)

Service Errors: Mackenzie Dagostino (64)

Sets Played: Rhammat Alhassan/Alex Holston/Simone Antwi/Nikki O'Rourke (117)

Final Season Takeaway:
The Florida Gator volleyball team continues to take positive strides forward with back-to-back Elite Eight appearances. Losing five seniors to graduation after this season, the team will rely on its two rising seniors (Alex Holston and Shainah Joseph) and five rising juniors to lead the squad to the promise land in 2016. The road will be tough as always, but with legendary coach Mary Wise calling the shots, the wait for the first national championship in program history will be ending very soon.

*All stats & accolades accredited to floridagators.com, avca.org, NCAA.com, & SECsports.com