FAYETTEVILLE -- No. 3 Florida took several big shots from Arkansas in its Southeastern Conference volleyball opener on Sunday afternoon in front of 1,343 fans in Barnhill Arena.
But when the Razorbacks couldn't track down Carli Snyder's big swing out the back row, the Gators escaped with a hard-fought 3-2 win (25-22, 21-25, 25-16, 23-25, 15-13).
Florida (9-0, 1-0 SEC) battled back from an early deficit in the fifth set, then took control scoring four of five for a 13-10 advantage. Arkansas (11-3, 1-1) pulled to within 14-13. However, the 6-1 Snyder hammered the ball hard off an Arkansas defender and her teammate could track it down to end it.
Florida coach Mary Wise embraced Arkansas senior Pilar Victoria following the match and heaped praise on the 5-11 outside hitter.
"We just witnessed a special performance," Wise said. "She's probably going to shatter all kinds of records. We knew it wouldn't take (Arkansas coach) Jason (Watson) long to turn it around. Just another tough night in the SEC."
Victoria, who leads the nation in kills per set, torched the Gators for a match-high 30 kills on an incredible 73 swings. It was her her fourth match this season with 30 or more kills and seventh of her career.
The senior team captain said the loss is tough to swallow, but the big effort from the entire team bodes well for the rest of the season.
"Yeah, it hurts, not getting the outcome that we wanted," Victoria said. "The goal is to win every single match. But at the same time, we know what we're capable of. Now, we're going to bounce back. We'll learn from it."
Arkansas coach Jason Watson doesn't talk much about moral victories, but the performance tells him his team, which includes nine freshmen, is on the right track. All three of the Razorbacks' losses have come to nationally ranked teams, two in five sets.
"At the end of the day you get measured whether you get it done, but for me I think we could say it validates the process we are going through," Watson said. "It still hurts. It hurts for the team. Credit to them for putting it out there, especially after game three that was not clean.
"Pretty clean in game five. We just ran outta time."
Sophomore Reagan Robinson, who prepped at Shiloh Christian, supported Victoria with 12 kills, Robinson and Victoria combined for 13 kills in Arkansas' big fourth-set, come-from-behind win.
The Gators were led by senior Rhamat Alhassan. The 6-4 middle blocker had a team-best 20 kills and hit a sizzling .516 to go with six block assists. Snyder added 17 kills, two aces and 14 digs. Freshman Paige Hammons chipped in 11 kills.
The Razorbacks looked to be in serious trouble, after getting worked over in the third set and trailing 22-20 in the fourth. But they scored five out of the last six points to force a fifth set. Junior middle blocker Kelly O'Brien stuffed Alhassan to close it out.
Paul Boyd can be reached at pboyd@nwadg.com or on Twitter @NWAPaulb.
Sports on 09/25/2017