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Up 24-23 in the fourth set, Stanford setter Kami Miner lofted a backset to middle blocker Holly Campbell who delivered her eighth kill of the night to secure a four-set victory over the Gators.

After climbing inside the top-five in the national rankings, Florida wrapped up its west coast road trip Tuesday with its first loss this season.

The Gators built a four-point advantage in the first set until Stanford won 11 of the next 16 points to prevail in a tie-breaker. The Cardinal carried their momentum into the second set in which they jumped out to an 18-8 lead and won by 7 points.

Florida fought back in the third set when senior outside hitter Thayer Hall kickstarted a nine-point swing with a trio of kills. The Gators went on to win by the largest margin of any set (8) largely due to their efficiency. Following a pair of average attacking sets, Florida landed 14 kills on 23 attempts with only a pair of errors. This elevated the Gators’ hitting percentage to .522, but they came back down to earth during an inefficient fourth set (.154) that proved the third set to be an outlier.

Florida gained an early 6-1 lead in the fourth set after freshman Merritt Beason landed a pair of kills. Up 12-7, Florida redshirt senior T’ara Ceasar committed a service error before four attack errors and a Stanford kill gave the Cardinal their first lead of the set. Seesawing points ensued until Stanford pulled away just in nick of time to win the match.

Box Score

No. 5 Florida: 24-18-25-23

No. 20 Stanford: 26-25-17-25

Stat Leaders

Next Up

The Gators will return to the east coast ahead of Sunday’s home opener versus No. 10 Minnesota. The match will begin at 2 p.m. and air on ESPNU.