Oct. 7, 2004

Columbia, S.C. – South Carolina volleyball begins a four-match road stint as they travel to Mississippi this weekend to face the Ole Miss Rebels (8-7, 1-3 SEC) in Oxford and the Mississippi State Bulldogs (9-7, 2-2 SEC) in Starkville. The Gamecocks are 8-5 and 1-3 in the SEC and are looking to snap a two-match losing streak. USC and Ole Miss will meet Friday at 8 p.m. (EST) and on Sunday, the Gamecocks face the Bulldogs at 2:30 (EST) p.m.

Carolina’s only conference win this year is against the Rebels and the Gamecocks hope to record their first series sweep of the season. Two weeks ago, USC opened the conference season and fell 3-0 to Mississippi State in Columbia but came back to sweep Ole Miss 3-0 at the Volleyball Competition Facility.

For the series, USC leads Ole Miss 17-6 and also leads Mississippi State 15-5. The loss to MSU snapped an 11-match win streak for the Gamecocks while USC has not lost to Ole Miss since 1992, 15 matches.

In SEC play, Lynae Vanden Hull leads Carolina in hitting percentage with .309, while Shonda Cole leads in kills and kills per game with 53 and a 3.79 average. Nicole Miller and Lauren Ford are USC’s top blocking leaders with 1.57 and 1.43 respectively.

Jaclyn Toohey and Kristen Carroll lead Ole Miss in SEC play as the Rebels’ top two kill leaders. Toohey boasts 152 while Carroll follows with 145.

The Bulldogs are off to a league best start as Rachel Cooper is averaging 3.76 kills per game, followed by Orsolya Kriegel with 2.67 kills per game to lead MSU.

Should Carolina record two victories this weekend, it will raise their SEC record to the .500 mark.