Balanced Effort Fuels No. 17 Gators in Season-Opening Victory

Sunday, August 30

Gainesville, FL

1 PM

Florida Gators

1-0,0-0SEC

Stony Brook

1-3,0-0CAA

Team	1	2	3	Final F
Stony Brook	16	20	20	0
Florida	25	25	25	3

A female athlete in white holds a white and blue volleyball before serving on a blue court

Taylor Parks' five service aces marked a career-high. // Photo by Hannah White | UAA Communications

Balanced Effort Fuels No. 17 Gators in Season-Opening Victory

Sunday, August 30, 2026 | Volleyball

Box Score Gamebook

The Gators defeated Stony Brook, 3-0, to start 1-0 on the season.

By: Andrew Hile

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – A balanced offensive attack and strong blocking at the net pushed No. 17 Florida volleyball to victory in its opening match of the season, defeating Stony Brook 3-0 (25-16, 25-20, 25-20).

Selena Leban led the Gators (1-0, 0-0 SEC) with nine kills, while Kamryn Chaney and Alec Rothe each added six. Taylor Parks paced the offense with 26 assists and a career-best five service aces. As a team, the Gators outperformed Stony Brook (1-3, 0-0 CAA) in kills (40-22), assists (36-22) and aces (8-4), hitting .247 while holding the Seawolves to .023.

The Orange & Blue also built a wall at the net, recording 12.5 blocks, led by a solo block and four block assists by Brooklyn Briscoe. Libero Lily Hayes contributed 12 of the Gators' 39 digs, while Stony Brook finished with 33 digs and six total team blocks.

Ella Sanders led the Seawolves with eight kills and nine digs, and Ayanna Pierre Louis added two solo blocks and two block assists.

Set One - UF 25, Stony Brook 16

The first point of the 2026 regular season came from a block by Jordyn Byrd and Rothe.
Stony Brook pulled within one at 7-6, but a 4-0 run by the Gators extended the lead to 11-6. Briscoe recorded a kill and solo block during the run.
Leading 16-14, Florida reeled off a 9-2 run to close out the set, clinched by Logan King's first service ace as a Gator.
It was a block party in the opening set, with the Gators recording 7.5 blocks, including a triple block assist from Briscoe, Chaney and King, while holding the Seawolves to -.100 hitting.
Briscoe paced the Orange & Blue with four kills, four block assists and a solo block.
The offense picked up steam as the set wore on, ending with a .269 hitting percentage, 11 kills and 10 assists.

Set Two - UF 25, Stony Brook 20

Parks' first kill of the match put Florida up 9-6 and sparked a 4-0 run that pushed the lead to 12-6.
The Seawolves knotted up the score at 19 late in the set, but a kill by Chaney and ace from Parks forced an SBU timeout before the Gators used a 6-1 run to put away the set.
Parks finished with a set two stat line of two kills, eight assists and three service aces.
Chaney and Rothe combined for eight of Florida's 14 kills.
The defense held the Seawolves to .083 hitting.

Set Three - UF 25, Stony Brook 20

The third set was a back-and-forth affair early, before UF used a 5-1 run, which featured two kills by Leban and a solo block from Amaya Thomas, to take a 15-10 lead.
Stony Brook took the lead at 17-16, but a two-point swing with kills from Leban and Aniya Madkin swung the Gators back in front, 20-18, proving to be the difference en route to the set and match victory.
The Gators turned in their best offensive set of the night, ending with 15 kills and 14 assists while hitting .303.
Leban closed out with seven of her match-high nine kills in the set, while Madkin added four.

Quotes from the Court
Head Coach Ryan Theis
…on what he took away from today's match
"I liked our blocks in the first, and then credit to Stony Brook for changing speeds and angles after that to make us produce kills as opposed to just getting free points on blocks. I thought, at times, we served it pretty well. Walt [Ryan Walthall] called a good game back there and players changed some speeds and gave us some over passes, so good stuff."

…on what was applied in the match from practice
"I thought our middle connection was pretty good. That's something we've been focusing on, I didn't feel great against Nebraska, so it was nice to see Alec [Rothe] a little bit electric in her first two sets.

Third-Year Setter Taylor Parks
…on her excitement being back in the O'Dome for the regular season
"It was so much fun. We had a big student section, which was awesome. I love when our students come out, they have a really good energy. It's fun to be back, we've been competing against each other so much in practice, so now we get to compete against people in other jerseys and be a little bit more competitive, which I love. This week will be a big week and I'm really excited to play against really good competition.

…on her career-high five service aces
"Honestly, I've been working on a lot of different serves to implement, but today I stuck with simple serves. At the beginning, working with some pace seemed to work, and then after a bit of that, I think I got in their head and it ended up working out."

Notables

Florida has now won seven-straight home openers.
The Gators are 33-3 in home openers since 1991.
Parks is just six assists away from becoming the 18th Gator to record 1,000 career assists.
Florida owns a 1-0 series record against Stony Brook.
Head coach Ryan Theis is 2-0 in home openers at UF.

Up Next
The Orange & Blue now turn their attention to the Big 10-SEC Challenge where they'll meet Minnesota on Tuesday, Sept. 1 at 9 p.m. ET and Wisconsin on Wednesday, Sept. 2, at 8 p.m. ET. Both matches will take place in Madison, Wis.

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