Florida had just finished its home-and-home weekend series Sunday with Georgia in the O'Connell Center when Mary Wise and Mary Buczek finally shared a laugh at midcourt.
"I really don't like to play friends and we joked about that," said Wise, who hired Buczek as an assistant at Florida from 1993-'95.
But what happened to the Bulldogs was no laughing matter. The ninth-ranked Gators continued their dominance of the Southeastern Conference with a 3-0 (30-12, 30-21, 30-15) win before a crowd of 1,245.
The Gators (14-1, 9-0) were coming off an equally dominant sweep in Athens on Friday and showed no signs that performance was an accident.
"Mary told us to treat them with respect," Florida sophomore Jacque Robinson said. "Just because we beat them (Friday), doesn't mean we are going to beat them again."
Georgia, which is Florida's travel partner thus forcing the teams to play on the same weekend once a year, got Florida's attention last season. After Georgia fell 3-0 in Gainesville, the Bulldogs came out two days later in Athens and stole the first game from the Gators before losing 3-1.
"We talked about last season and how we don't want to repeat that," setter Kris Bova said.
And they didn't. Although Buczek and the Bulldogs (9-8, 3-6) made adjustments from Friday, the Gators proved to have too much depth and athleticism. With Aury Cruz being held to just 10 kills, Robinson came through with seven while four other Gators each added six. Robinson also hit .583 for the match.
"Jacque Robinson is a player who stays under the radar screen," Wise said. "Certainly, a lot of teams have to give attention to Nicole (McCray) and Benavia (Jenkins) in the front row. And Jacque has really found her rhythm offensively and Kris has done a good job getting her the ball."
Bova finished with 33 assists. She also use some nifty moves at the net to record six kills in eight total attacks.
Adding to Georgia's frustration were a total of 26 hitting errors, 16 unforced.
"That's the type of team Florida is," Buzcek said. "They force you into those unforced errors."
Said Wise: "Our blocking has something to do with that. You block balls, you force hitters to hit different shots."
The win was Florida's 28th straight against Georgia and extended the Gators winning streak to 12 matches on the season. The Gators have also won 30 straight games during that stretch, not having lost one since going down 0-2 at South Carolina on Sept. 21.
Florida travels Wednesday to play at LSU and Friday at Arkansas.
