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Florida coach Ryan Theis wins the first SEC game of his career

On3 imageby: Gators Online Staff09/29/25GatorsOnline
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The Gators win their first conference win under Florida's new leadership of Ryan Theis. (Photo by UAA Communications)

Story by Megan Brown

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Florida volleyball team snapped a three-game losing streak on Sunday to give first-year coach Ryan Theis the first SEC victory of his career. After dropping their conference opener against Mississippi State, the Gators defeated Alabama 3-1 to improve to 6-5 and 1-1 in the SEC.

UF’s Jordyn Byrd and Milicia Vidačić both had season-high games for kills, with 24 for Byrd and 18 by Vidačić.

Florida took the first set from Alabama 25-16. Bryd — the overall team leader in kills — had five, followed by Vidačić with four. The Gators struggled with serving, giving up four points to service errors in the first set alone.

In the second set, the Gators fell behind five points after leading by four. Alabama came back from a timeout and outscored UF 8-1, with reigning SEC freshmen of the year Jaela Auguste taking the only point in between. Florida was able to cut the deficit down to two, but the set ended with a service error committed by Vidačić.

The fourth set was very tight between points as the Gators and Crimson Tide battled it out. Byrd’s six kills, Augustes’ four block assists and Alexis Stucky’s 13 assists brought Florida to match point, where Emily Canaan committed a service ace to end it.

Vidačić topped her previous season high by eight kills and had a hitting percentage of .485. Alexis Stucky had her fifth double-double of the season with 53 assists and 12 digs, while also adding three kills to the scoreboard.

Auguste logged five block assists, with Vidačić, Kira Hutson and Alex Rothe logging three apiece as well. Jordyn Byrd had the only solo block of the night. Emily Canaan and Lily Hayes also logged double-digit digs with 11 and 19, respectively. Kira Hutson added eight digs and Rothe had six.

In the three sets the Gators won, they hit above their game average efficiency and average kills per set. Despite Florida’s 11 service errors, seven more than the Crimson Tide notched, UF had 29 more kills, 17 more digs and one block over Alabama.

“I think we can’t, you know, go in having a big head,” Byrd told the media. “I think we have to move on to the next one. This one, yes, it matters, but now we have to move on to the next one, which is Auburn.”

The Gators take on Auburn at home this Friday, October 3rd.

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