Aug. 26, 2006
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FORT WORTH, Texas — South Carolina’s volleyball team improved to 3-1 Saturday evening in Fort Worth, Texas, with a 3-0 (30-24, 30-19, 30-17) win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the TCU Molten/La Quinta Invitational.
South Carolina used its blocking prowess throughout the first game, tallying six as a team. Junior middle blocker Crystal Johnson racked up five block assists, while senior outside hitter Shonda Cole added four assists and seven kills.
The Gamecocks’ blocking and accurate hitting continued in games two and three, while the Islanders were plagued by errors. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi had a negative hitting percentage in the second game with seven kills and eight misfires. Between the second and third games, South Carolina posted 32 kills and just seven errors while hitting .417 (32-7-60).
Cole led USC with her 16 kills and seven blocks. Sophomore outside hitter Marija Milosevic reached double figures in the kills category for the first time this season with a dozen. Senior setter Iris Santos flirted with a triple-double thanks to six kills, 38 assists and seven digs.
The Gamecocks finished with a .354 (48-14-96) hitting percentage and totaled 13 blocks. Corpus Christi hit just .026 (32-29-114) and made three blocks.
“As we’ve gone through the weekend, we talked about getting the block cleaned up a lot more, and we looked a lot better in this match,” USC head coach Nancy Somera said. “I didn’t like how many serves we missed. That’s something we’ll be working on. I thought that cost us the TCU match.
“All in all, going 3-1 for opening weekend, that’s good. You want to be greedy and be 4-0, but we’ll learn from the mistakes in the TCU match, and it will make us a better team.”
Cole and Santos were named to the All-Tournament Team following the conclusion of the event. Cole averaged 5.86 kills per game and hit a stellar .408 (82-120-152) during the four matches. Santos had 12.15 assists, 1.15 kills and 1.54 assists per game.
The Gamecocks return to action Thursday facing intrastate rival Clemson at 7 p.m. on the Tigers’ home floor as part of the Big Orange Bash. USC plays Charlotte and Tennessee State the following day at 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. before finishing its stay with a 3 p.m. Saturday match-up against Western Carolina.
