Oct. 22, 2004
Columbia, S.C. – South Carolina volleyball fell to the Georgia Bulldogs 3-1 in Friday night action as USC fell 30-32, 30-26, 24-30, 25-30. Nicole Miller led the team in hitting with .333 hitting percentage and registered a season high 12 kills and had 13 digs for her second double-double of the year. The Gamecocks are now 11-7 overall and 4-5 in the SEC while the Bulldogs improve to 13-5 and 6-3 in the conference.
“This is a very disappointing loss for us. We didn’t play hard enough to win this match,” said head coach Kim Hudson. “Individually, I thought Katelyn Panzau set well tonight and Nicole Miller put up some good numbers. She had a pretty good night.”
USC had five players reach double-figures in kills and out blocked the Bulldogs 12-9. The Gamecocks also had 22 block assists to UGA’s 12. Alexandra Oquendo led both teams with 19 kills and a .429 hitting percentage.
The Gamecocks were down by two at the 25-27 mark in game one before three back-to-back service errors and an attack error by UGA tied the game 28-28. USC went up by one to take their first lead in the game on a kill by Shonda Cole. UGA then tied it 29-29 on a kill by Oquendo and an attack error by Ford gave the Bulldogs the lead again. Another service error, this time by UGA, tied the game for the third time in three points, 30-30. Iris Santos was then called for a ball handling error and the Bulldogs capitalized on the opportunity and a kill by Megan Welch gave Georgia the 32-30 win and the 1-0 lead.
The Gamecocks came back fighting in game two and jumped out to an 8-3 lead early on. USC maintained the led the entire game and led by as much as 10 points before tying the match 1-1 with the 30-26 win. In game two, USC held UGA to .098 in hitting while Ford hit .385 with six kills and Cole accounted for six more of the Gamecocks’ total 18 kills.
After game one, the Gamecocks never hit above .200 as UGA held USC to .192 in game two, .154 in game three and .064 in game four. The Bulldogs came out with the game three and four wins to earn their third straight win against USC.
In game three, USC had several ties with their last one coming at the 11-11 mark. The Bulldogs then put their foot forward on back-to-back service aces by Margot Wallace and went on an 8-1 run to never fall behind again.
In the final game of the match, the Gamecocks held on tight a little longer and was down 22-24 before 4-0 run to go up 29-23. A kill by Miller and an attack error by Oquendo kept USC in the game but a final kill by Simona Speed sealed the match 3-1 for the Bulldogs.
USC returns to action Sunday afternoon when they host No. 8 Florida at 1:30 p.m. Sunday is also the “Gamecock Kids Book Drive”. Fans that bring a book to donate to Reach Out and Read will get in for $1 admission.
