#1 Florida Cancels All But One Game of Weekend Active Ankle Challenge

Update: Later in the week, as Irma developed, the schools decided to call off this match as well.

The top-ranked Florida Gators have reduced the schedule for this weekend’s Active Ankle Challenge to just 1 match – managing to save the highest-profile of the weekend’s 8-game slate.

The VolleyMob #18-ranked Michigan State Spartans have decided to make the trek to Gainesville even with Hurricane Irma heading toward Florida. The two teams will play on Friday, September 8th at 5PM, after which Michigan State will quickly board its flight and return home to East Lansing that same evening.

The two teams face off last season in East Lansing, with the Gators winning 3-0. The 4-0 Gators already have 3 wins this season against teams ranked in the top 15 of the VolleyMob polls at game time – #1 Texas, #5 Nebraska, and #15 UNC. No other team in the country can boast that level of success against top 15 teams.

Michigan State enters the game with a 5-1 record. Their only loss came on August 26th against Georgia Tech, in Atlanta, on the back-end of a double-header. They’ve swept every other opponent on their 2017 schedule 3-0 so far.

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Latest forecasts from Irma have the storm passing along the northern coasts of Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Cuba, but then making a right turn and travelling up the east coast of Florida. At present, winds from the powerful category 5 hurricane are 64 knots as far as 45 miles to the west of the storm’s center, which puts Gainesville within a dangerous range, even if the eye of the storm remains off shore of Florida.

From the Florida ticket office:

Season ticket holders must bring Friday’s ticket—originally scheduled to feature UNC Greensboro and American—for admission to the match against Michigan State. A pro-rated portion of the season ticket price will be refunded directly, due to their no longer being a Saturday session. Those who purchased season tickets with cash can collect their refunded portion from the ticket office.

Those with single-match tickets for the previously scheduled Saturdaymatchup can bring their ticket to the ticket windows at Gate 1 of the O’Connell Center (starting at 3:30 p.m.) and exchange it for one to Friday night’s match against Michigan State.

Any tickets not exchanged will be automatically refunded.

Fans with a ticket for Saturday’s (Sep. 9) Florida-Northern Colorado football game will be granted free admission to the volleyball match.