Sept. 10, 2004
Durham, N.C. – South Carolina volleyball took one in the loss column Friday night as they fell 3-0 to the Duke Blue Devils at the Duke Invitational. Duke won 30-21, 30-21, 30-24 to drop the Gamecocks to 3-2 on the season. Carolina recorded 35 kills and 28 errors in 127 attempts to hit .055, a season low. Duke recorded 40 kills and 20 errors in 123 attempts and hit .163. USC did outblock Duke 7-5.5 but had a season high 12 service errors and only one service ace.
“We were extremely flat, especially since we just came off of a strong win earlier in the week. We were flat in all areas, emotionally, mentally and physically,” said head coach Kim Hudson. “We had 40 unforced errors and that will not help you win.”
The Blue Devils took a 2-0 lead into the break and held the Gamecocks to 21 points and a below .100 hitting percentage in both games. In game one, Shonda Cole led USC with five kills and hit .385 but it wasn’t enough as the Gamecocks only hit .079 as a team. Duke also posted 19 kills to Carolina’s nine. The Gamecocks had plenty of errors in game two with 12 while Duke only had three. At the break, Carrie DeMange led the match with 13 kills.
USC jumped out to a 6-2 lead in game one but Duke chipped away and tied the game 11-11. From there, Duke moved out in front and was able to capitalize on Gamecock errors. USC got within two points at the 17-19 mark but the Blue Devils held on and clinched the win 30-21.
Carolina established a lead early in game two and kept the scoring closer as there were 12 ties recorded. However, the Blue Devils were up 25-20 before they went on a 5-1 run to close out the game 30-21. At the end of game two, USC had no service aces and seven service errors.
It was more of the same in the final game of the match as Duke controlled the tempo. There was a slight run by USC at the end as they came within two, 24-26 but that would be all that the Gamecocks would get. An error by Carolina gave Duke match point and the final point came on an out of bounds attack by Sarah Morgan.
USC is now 1-2 against ACC schools this season while Duke is 1-1 against SEC schools. Despite holding DeMange to just one kill in game three, she still led the match in kills with 14 while Cole led the Gamecocks with 11, keeping in-tact her double-figure kills streak. This now marks five straight matches Cole has posted more than 10 kills.
The Gamecocks return to action Saturday morning at 10 a.m. when they play Northern Illinois. USC will close out their tournament stint at 5 p.m. when they take on Towson. All matches can be followed through the Internet via Gametracker at uscsports.com.
