Oct. 6, 2006
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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The University of South Carolina volleyball team suffered a 3-1 (27-30, 30-23, 21-30, 19-30) setback to the 18th-ranked University of Tennessee on Friday night in Knoxville, Tenn. The loss pushed the Gamecocks’ record back to 10-8 overall and 3-4 in the Southeastern Conference, while the Lady Volunteers improved to 14-3 and 5-2 in the league.
The Gamecocks fell behind early in game one, trailing 16-9 after a hitting error. South Carolina recovered by going on a 10-3 run that was capped by a service ace from Alexcis Thomson to tie the score 19-19. The score was still tied at 23 before the Lady Volunteers won four in a row. USC’s Shonda Cole was able to chop the deficit to two, 29-27, after her eighth kill of the game, but Yuliya Stoyanova from Tennessee got a kill on the next play to give her team the frame.
Carolina recovered from a 4-0 hole in the second game and led 16-12 following a block assist by Ivana Kujundzic and Iris Santos. Tennessee managed to tie the score up at 19-all, but Belita Salters put the Gamecocks back in front with a kill from the right side. Cole took over following the sideout, serving four consecutive aces to put USC ahead 24-19. USC cruised through the remainder of the game, capitalizing on UT’s miscues to win by seven.
The Lady Vols jumped on South Carolina in game three, leading by as many as 14 on two occasions. Cole got a kill that made the score 17-11 in favor of Tennessee, but UT went on to win seven of the next eight rallies. Needing just one point for the stanza at 29-15, Tennessee failed to close out the Gamecocks easily. Carolina won six points in a row before Stoyanova finished things for Tennessee with her 12th kill.
South Carolina built an 11-8 advantage in game four after another kill from Cole, but UT charged back to snatch a 14-12 lead following a kill by Kelsey Fautsch. The Lady Vols were still up by two, 19-17, before having an 11-2 run to win the match.
Cole led the Gamecocks with 23 kills while adding four aces, six digs and five blocks. Santos nearly had a triple-double with 43 assists, 15 digs and seven kills. Kujundzic tallied five kills and had a career high seven blocks. Salters had seven kills and four blocks to help the Carolina cause.
Cole went over the 400-kill plateau for the season, making her just the second Gamecock in school history to post back-to-back years with 400 kills. The other was Lori Rowe in 1985 and 1986. Cole has 415 kills this season, one more than her total from a year ago.
The Gamecocks hit .163 (55-31-147) on the night, and Tennessee connected at a .229 clip (58-25-144). The Lady Vols’ 52 digs was two more than USC and they posted 12.5 blocks to Carolina’s 11.
South Carolina travels to Lexington, Ky., for its next match against the Kentucky Wildcats on Sunday at 1:30 p.m.
