There is no getting around that 2025 was not a great season by Florida Volleyball standards. It was a transition year, as long-time head coach Mary Wise had retired and Ryan Theis took over, but the end result was a 16-12 season, Florida’s worst record since 1990.
In their exhibition match against Nebraska last week, the Gators proved they have the pieces to climb back towards their standard if everything clicks. Tonight and tomorrow night, Florida is in Madison, WI, with another chance to make a statement to open the 2026 season.
Florida Volleyball takes on Minnesota and Wisconsin on back-to-back nights
The Gators are in Madison as part of the inaugural Big 10/SEC Challenge. They will take on No. 11 Minnesota tonight and No. 5 Wisconsin on Wednesday night.
Florida showed last week in the Spikes Under The Lights event that it could hang with anyone, as they kept it tight with Nebraska, but in a match that tight, they were undone by one too many errors, combined with Nebraska having a bit better of a presence at the net. That was also a best-of-three format with sets to 21 points. Tonight and tomorrow night are back to the standard best-of-five.
Florida has been leaning on a number of transfers to power their attack. In their 3-0 win over Stony Brook, Selena Leban led Florida with nine kills. Leban, a native of Slovenia, transferred in from Kansas this offseason. What was notable was fellow transfer Logan King, who came from Long Beach State, was Florida’s leader against Nebraska and started against Stony Brook, but she wasn’t used in the third set against the Seawolves. Vanderbilt transfer Kamryn Chaney saw increased action compared to the Nebraska opener, and she had six kills in two sets against Stony Brook.
The biggest tell for Florida these next two days, above all else, is going to be just how many errors and free points they give away. Even in their win over Stony Brook, while Florida had eight aces, they also had 12 service errors. In the second set alone, the Gators had eight total errors en route to a .176 hitting percentage.
You can get away with that against Stony Brook, but Florida probably doesn’t get away with that these next two nights.
Florida’s match against Minnesota will be at 9 PM on the Big Ten Network, and Wednesday's match against Wisconsin will be at 8 PM on FS1.
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