Sept. 2, 2005
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – It didn’t take long for South Carolina volleyball head coach Nancy Somera to pick up her first victory as the Gamecocks (1-0) posted a 3-1 upset win over the Pittsburgh Panthers (2-2) in the opening round of the Florida State Tournament. With the victory, the Gamecocks snap a four-match losing streak dating back to last season. It is also the first ever win for the Gamecocks against the Panthers.
Shonda Cole led the team in kills with 15, while Lynae Vanden Hull followed with 12, and freshman Marija Milosevic started and made her debut with 11 kills. Milosevic hit .280 while Cole and Vanden Hull both hit .242.
The Gamecocks got off to a rusty start but were able to pull out a 2-0 lead to go into the break. USC recorded 16 kills in both of its first two games, but mistakes were the difference in the hitting percentage. USC had nine errors in game one, a high for the match, and hit .141. Pitt hit .194 with 12 kills and five errors. In game two, the Gamecocks were able to keep the errors down to five and hit .333, also a match high.
At the end of game one, USC was up 24-23 before Pitt recorded a service error and back-to-back attack errors to give the Gamecocks a 27-23 lead. The Garnet and Black scored two more points and held on, despite allowing the Panthers to score three straight points and come within three, 29-26. Game point was a kill by Vanden Hull, her fifth of the game.
The Gamecocks also controlled game two as they allowed the Panthers to score only 17 points. Cole led off the game with an attack error, allowing Pitt to take a 1-0 lead early on, but that would be the only lead the Panthers would see. After a ball handling error by Allie Cherven gave USC its first point of the game, the Gamecocks never looked back. Pitt recorded 11 kills and 11 errors in 39 attempts in the game.
The tables turned in game three. Down for the first part of the game, the Gamecocks played catch-up and were able to tie the match 10-10 before 13 more lead changes and 14 ties. A bad set by Nicole Taurence put USC up 30-29, before Pitt called a time out. The Panthers then responded with back-to-back kills by Jessica Moses and Andreyko to go up 31-30. Lauren Ford kept the game alive for USC as she tied it 31-31 with a kill. However, that would be the final points for the Gamecocks as a kill and a service ace by Diana Andreyko gave the Panthers the win, 31-33, and forced a game four.
The Garnet and Black bounced back midway in game four and maintained a steady lead until an attack error by Milosevic brought Pitt to within one, 25-24. Another Pitt error put USC 26-24 and from there, the Gamecocks would score two more points off of kills by Milosevic and clinched the game 30-25 and the match 3-1.
The Gamecocks totaled 63 kills and hit .259 with 13 total team blocks. Pitt had 56 kills and hit .176 with seven total team blocks. Andreyko led the match with 21 kills. Senior Nicole Miller had eight blocks, just one block shy of tying her career high of nine. Miller posted three block solos and five block assists. As a team, the Gamecocks had 16 block assists to Pitt’s six.
The Gamecocks return to action tonight at 7:30 when they take on Florida State. The match can be heard live via the Internet at uscsports.com or Seminoles.com.
