Sept. 25, 2015
COLUMBIA, S.C. – The South Carolina volleyball team opened SEC play Friday night at the Carolina Volleyball Center, hosting #24 Kentucky. The Wildcats used their height advantage to hold down the Gamecock offense and claimed a 3-0 decision, 25-15, 25-22, 25-18.
Carolina moves to 7-7 overall and 0-1 in conference play, Kentucky improves to 8-5, 1-0. Jacqy Angermiller led the offense with 10 kills in just 20 swings, a new season high for the junior middle blocker.
The first set was controlled early by Kentucky, but the Gamecocks held close and trailed just 12-10. The visitors would close out the set 13-5, for the early 1-0 advantage.
Led by an offensive outburst from Angermiller, South Carolina played a significantly stronger second set. After falling behind 9-3 early, the Gamecocks used three straight kills from Angermiller to pull closer at 11-7. Despite Kentucky hitting a match-best .389 in the set, it committed five service errors and saw Carolina pull close late.
Following a timeout and facing an 18-10 deficit, the home side pulled out a 9-3 run to get the crowd of 1,365 fans on their feet at the CVC. It could get no closer than two points at the tail end of the set, though, and went to half down 2-0.
In the third set, it would be service errors on South Carolina’s side that made the difference in what was a bitterly contested frame. Over the first 25 combined points of set number three, there would be 12 ties and four different lead changes. The twelfth tie came off another Angermiller kill to make it 12-12, but Kentucky rallied to take a 15-12 lead at the media timeout.
Carolina scored the first point out of the timeout, but the Wildcats then went on a 7-0 run to take control and seal the match.
Match Changer
The Wildcats hit .389 in the second set to overcome a feisty effort from the Gamecocks to even the match. Kaz Brown led the visitors with six kills in the set on 15 attacks.
Key Stat
The team’s .098 hitting percentage was the lowest of the season, and its 26 total kills were also a season low. It had only 92 total attacks in the match, marking just the fourth time this season that the team did not reach triple digits in attacks.
Notable
• Kentucky was just the third opponent all season to hit over .300 in a match after finishing at .311.
• Jacqy Angermiller’s .500 hitting percentage over 20 attacks was a season high for the junior.
• The crowd at the Carolina Volleyball Center totaled 1,365 Friday night. Now through eight matches at home, the team averages 1,277 fans per match.
Quotable
Head Coach Scott Swanson
Kentucky is a really good team, with most of their players back and healthy they’re probably better than #24 at times. It was a mismatch in a lot of spots on the net for us, their physicality overwhelmed us and their experience against our youth was pretty tough. It was one of those matches where I thought we played well in spurts but just not well enough at times to really hang tough.
Up Next
The team hits the road to cap the conference’s opening weekend, traveling to LSU. The match is set to begin at 2 p.m. EST and will air live on SEC Network+. The Tigers also lost their conference opener, losing 3-2 to Arkansas.
Tweet of the Match
A packed house inside will only get more so once these people find seats. @GamecockVolley pic.twitter.com/CgONimGQQo
– Reggie Anderson (@ReggieWLTX) September 25, 2015
