Gamecocks Drop Road Contest at No. 7 Texas
AUSTIN, TEXAS. – South Carolina volleyball locked horns with defending national champion and 7th-ranked Texas (8-3, 3-0 SEC) on Wednesday night, falling in a 3-0 decision with two of the three sets decided by the minimum two points. Junior Alayna Johnson was the focal point offensively for the Gamecocks (9-4, 0-2 SEC), leading all hitters with 16 kills while finishing with a .278 hitting percentage.
1st SET: Texas pushed ahead early with a 5-0 run to take a 6-2 lead, but the Gamecocks worked the score back even at 7-all. There would be seven more ties from then until South Carolina made its move. Trailing 16-15, a kill from Riley Whitesides tied the score and Ellie Ruprich followed her up with blocks on back-to-back points. Elizabeth McElveen put an exclamation point on what would be a 5-0 run, dropping in a pair of service aces to force Texas into a timeout with Carolina ahead 20-16. The Longhorns responded down the stretch, scoring seven of the next eight points and would complete the comeback in a 25-23 final score. Alayna Johnson and Whitesides combined for 11 of the team’s 15 total kills, but an efficient Texas offense finished with a .343 to .222 advantage in hitting percentage and 17 kills as a unit.
2nd SET: The Gamecocks stayed on Texas’ hip in the second set as well, but another clean offensive performance for the Longhorns made the difference in another 25-23 win and 2-0 set lead. Like set one, the home side took an early lead but South Carolina answered with a 4-0 run to take a 7-6 lead. Texas quickly regained the lead and would keep the advantage the rest of the way, but the Gamecocks hung around late thanks to the red-hot arm of Johnson. The junior pin added six more kills after six in the first, five of which helped the team sideout and stop Texas serving runs. The Longhorns left little room for the Gamecocks to make their comeback attempts, hitting .378 with just three attacking errors in the set.
3rd SET: Texas closed out the match with a 25-20 win in the third, using a big run early to hold off the Gamecocks. Out of a 4-4 tie, the Longhorns put away five kills in a 6-0 run and South Carolina would get no closer than three points the rest of the way. Texas’ offense put up almost identical numbers as it did in sets one and two, hitting .364 with 17 more kills, but the Gamecocks would have their lowest numbers of the night in the third with just 10 kills on a .194 percentage.
NOTABLE
- Wednesday night was the first SEC matchup between the Gamecocks and Longhorns in any sport and second meeting overall for volleyball (first since December 1997).
- Alayna Johnson’s 16 kills led all players and was one off her career high, last set against Tennessee on Nov. 25, 2023.
- Riley Whitesides finished with 13 kills in the match, she surpassed 1,200 career kills along the way Wednesday. She is the eighth Gamecock in program history to reach 1,200 kills and the first since Mikayla Shields (2016-19).
- Whitesides also recorded her 87th career ace in the match, tying her with Iris Santos (2003-06) for sixth-most in the rally-scoring era (since 2001).
- Ellie Ruprich led the defense with four blocks (two solo). Ruprich currently ranks second among all active players in the NCAA with 112 career solo blocks.
- The Gamecocks had a positive night behind the service line, holding a 4-3 advantage in aces while committing seven fewer errors than Texas.
UP NEXT: With no weekend game, the team will have some time before getting back into action. South Carolina will make its swing through the southeast next weekend, playing at Georgia on Friday, Oct. 11 and at Florida on Sunday, Oct. 13.
