Box Score AUSTIN, Texas – In the summer before every season, Wisconsin volleyball coach Kelly Sheffield meets with his seniors and asks them a probing question.

What's going to be your unconditional gift to the program?

Taylor Morey, the indefatigable libero and co-captain from Muncie, Indiana, was the only participant in that meeting five months ago. When her career ended here Friday night amid tears of anguish, there was more than one neatly wrapped package left in her wake.

"Everyone else is a better teammate," Sheffield said. "Everyone is a little more passionate about the game. Everyone is a little more consistent with their approach. Everyone's a little bit tougher."

Morey, Sheffield concluded, is "as great of a warrior as I've ever coached."

All those traits were on display for Sheffield and Co. one final time during a NCAA regional semifinal loss to Florida at Gregory Gym.

Sixth-seeded Wisconsin gallantly rebooted its hard drive after dropping the first two sets, but ran out of answers in the fifth and was ousted by 11^th-seeded Florida 25-17, 25-23, 19-25, 22-25, 15-12.

The Badgers (26-7) saw their 14-match winning streak end because they were unable to consistently solve the riddle of 6-foot-4 middle blocker Rhamat Alhassan and 6-1 right-side hitter Alex Holston, All-Americans who had 24 and 20 kills, respectively.

"They were really, really tough to deal with," Sheffield said.

"They played," junior middle blocker Haleigh Nelson said, "like All-Americans."

The Gators (25-6) hit .349 – including a ridiculous .441 through the first two sets – making them the second opponent to top .300 against Wisconsin this season. The other was defending NCAA champion Penn State during a Big Ten Conference season-opening win over the Badgers on Sept. 23.

That match against the Nittany Lions was also one of only two other times this season that Wisconsin lost the first two sets.

"That was new territory for us, but we tried not to let it get to us," said junior setter Lauren Carlini, who led the club with 19 digs. "I think we gave it our all."

No one more so than Morey.

She woke up in her Crown Plaza hotel room Friday morning with an intense migraine and was still feeling its effects when the match began.

"I feel like towards the beginning I was struggling a little bit with my eyesight," Morey said. "But I found my rhythm and I was fine going through the match."

Morey has dealt with the agonizing headaches before. She said changes in weather, exposure to bright lights and even a very heavy sleep pattern have been known to trigger them.

"Some are worse than others and unfortunately this one turned out to be a bad one," she said.

Still, when Sheffield suggested that Morey skip a pre-match video review and a late-morning serve-and-pass session, he got some blow back.

"It was like wrestling a bear to get her to stay back," he said. "She wasn't really happy about that."

Morey didn't want to use her health issue as an excuse.

"Is it unfortunate? Yes," she said. "But I wanted to be in the gym."

When the match was over, Morey led the Badgers in the handshake line before breaking down in tears as she exited the court. She had a much different vision for her final college match.

"Obviously I dreamed it would be (with) a national championship, but that's what most seniors do," she said. "When you get into the NCAA tournament you just think about winning."

Did Morey do all she could in her final 2 hours and 22 minutes as Wisconsin volleyball player.

"I think our whole team did," she said. "Our whole team left it on the court.

"It was a great match. We just didn't come out on top."

During the post-match press conference, Carlini, Morey and Nelson – the three co-captains – sat next to Sheffield and heard him reference a "heartbroken locker room." Later he was seen giving red-eyed players long, supportive hugs.

As a coach, is there anything more difficult than dealing with that sad scenario?

Sheffield struck a thoughtful pose and suggested that no two seasons end the same.

"When you do this a long time there are some years where … the team fizzles, they stop making the connections, they stop working hard," he said. "People are just tired. They're tired of each other. They're tired of me. I'm tired of them."

That was not the case with the Badgers, who reached the Sweet 16 for the third straight season even though six freshmen and two transfers were incorporated into the mix.

"There's other teams that are all the way in the deep end," Sheffield continued. "They dive in head-first.

"Those teams sell out in a good way. They risk. They don't give up on themselves. They don't give up on each other. Those losses with those teams are really, really hard."

This was after sophomore outside hitters Kelli Bates and Lauryn Gillis had 21 and 20 kills, respectively, for the Badgers. It was a career-best showing for Bates, while Gillis equaled her best outing.

This was after Wisconsin and Florida dueled through nine ties in the grueling fifth set.

Sheffield ended his 15^th season as a major-college coach saying this was the hardest-working group he'd ever been around.

"The team stayed with it," he said. "They stayed with me. They stayed with each other through the tough times.

"When you're with a group that's investing so much, individually and in each other, and they're playing for each other, those are hard losses."

Especially when you must figure out a way to replace Morey.

"Everyone saw how she approached things," Sheffield said, "so you learn from that.