Sept. 28, 2003
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Shonda Cole and Lynae Vanden Hull each posted 10 kills for Carolina but the Gamecocks fell at the hands of the Arkansas Lady Backs 3-0 Sunday. Game scores were 30-18, 30-16, and 30-25. The Gamecocks (7-7, 1-1 Southeastern Conference) only hit .078 on the day as the Lady Backs (10-4, 3-0 SEC) hit .432.
“Today we played a very good Arkansas team,” said Carolina Head Coach Kim Christopher. “They played practically an errorless match. We didn’t put much pressure on them either. No one on our team played as they should have because we never really were a threat.”
Arkansas committed only eight errors in the match while Carolina committed 28. Arkansas also out-blocked the Gamecocks 10-1 and out-killed Carolina 46-36.
Carolina kept game one close early, tied at 12, before Arkansas went on a 10-5 run to go up 22-17. The Lady Backs never allowed Carolina to come back and cruised to a 30-18 game one victory. South Carolina only hit .023 in the game while Arkansas posted a .312 hitting percentage.
Arkansas easily took game two, 30-16, holding USC to the fewest amount of points in a non-game five game this season. The last time USC was held to under 17 points in a game was in a 30-15 loss at Florida in 2002. Carolina hit .074 while Arkansas a dominating .667, recording 17 kills with only one error on 24 attempts.
South Carolina played better in game three, but it wasn’t enough to stop Arkansas from sealing the 30-25 game three victory and match win. Carolina hit .156 to Arkansas’ .375 in the game. Arkansas led by as much as eight in the game while Carolina never was able to establish a lead.
The Garnet and Black return home to continue their SEC Western Division campaign as they face the Rebels of Ole Miss on Oct. 3 in Columbia at 7p.m. The Gamecocks will be looking to continue their string of 13 consecutive wins over the Rebels. USC then faces Mississippi State on Oct. 5 at 1:30 p.m. and hopes to notch its 11th consecutive win over the Bulldogs.
