Sept. 3, 2004
Winston-Salem, N.C. – It was a case of season opening nervousness and the South Carolina volleyball team could not overcome it. The Gamecocks (0-1) lost 3-1 to the Wake Forest Demon Deacons (1-0) in the first round of the Wake Forest Invitational Friday night. USC fell 19-30, 30-26, 20-30, 22-30 and hit only .090 with 47 kills and 34 errors. Lynae Vanden Hull and Shonda Cole led the Gamecocks with 13 kills apiece while Vanden Hull led in hitting with a .423 percentage. “We definitely had first game jitters. We saw things from the team that we never even saw in practice,” said head coach Kim Hudson. “We were nervous the whole match and it showed. We have to calm down and grow up. This is not the type of team we are.” The Demon Deacons owned game one as they took a 1-0 lead early in the match 30-19. The Gamecocks was only up 2-0 before Wake Forest pulled ahead and maintained the lead. USC recorded 11 kills and 11 errors to post a .000 hitting percentage while the Deacons hit .464 with 15 kills and only two errors. The Gamecocks were down 23-25 in game two before a kill and a service ace by Vanden Hull tied the score. An error by the Deacons put USC up 26-25, but an error by South Carolina tied the game again. USC got a break on a service error by Wake and took a 27-26 lead. From there, the Gamecocks held the Demon Deacons and sealed the deal on an ace by Sarah Morgan and a kill by Lauren Ford. USC tied the match 1-1 with a 30-26 game two final. South Carolina recorded five receiving errors and posted only two aces as the Deacons took a 2-1 lead in the match. Wake Forest controlled all of game three and never fell behind after the 6-6 tie. Up 25-20, Wake went on a 5-0 run at the end of the game to win 30-20. The Deacons held on in game four and beat the Gamecocks by eight with a 30-22 score. USC jumped out to an early 4-1 lead and held on for eight more points until Wake tied the game with a block solo by Morgan Havig. An error by Cole put Wake in the lead and the Deacons never trailed again. For the match, Wake Forest hit .328 as Valerie Rydberg led the match with 16 kills and Kim Stern followed with 13. Wake also out blocked the Gamecocks 10-3 and recorded seven block solos to USC’s zero. The loss extends the Gamecocks losing streak to six games dating back to last season. The game two win was the first for USC since the Georgia match back in November 2003. USC returns to action Saturday morning when they face Connecticut at 11 a.m. (ET). The Gamecocks will play their final match of the tournament at 5 p.m. against Marshall.
