Oct. 16, 2005
AUBURN, Ala. – Freshman outside hitter Marija Milosevic recorded a career high 13 kills as she led South Carolina to its first SEC road win of the season. The Gamecocks defeated the Auburn Tigers 3-1 with game scores of 30-28, 28-30, 30-23, 30-21 and snapped a three-match losing streak. USC improves to 10-8 and 3-5 in the conference, while Auburn falls to 7-9 and 1-7.
“It is good to finally get a road win. We came out after the break with a better intensity level, and when everyone plays their part, we do much better as a team,” said head coach Nancy Somera. “We made some hustle plays and were able to keep the momentum on our side.”
Senior Lauren Ford led the team in hitting with .318 as she had 12 kills and a season high eight blocks.AS a team, USC finished with 49 kills and Auburn had 52. The Gamecocks hit .192 while the Tigers hit .134.
South Carolina picked up their first game win in seven games, as the Gamecocks came from behind and beat Auburn 30-28. USC was outhit .324 to .194 and managed the victory after struggling to hold onto a lead. After being down 24-27, the Gamecocks fought back and after two kills and a service error, USC pulled to within one, 27-28. Marija Milosevic recorded a kill to tie it and an error by Auburn put USC ahead by one. At match point, Milosevic slammed a kill deep on the Auburn side to clinch the won for USC, 30-28.
The Gamecocks’ hitting continued to be dismal in game two as USC registered a .065 average with 10 kills and eight errors. Auburn posted 13 kills and five errors for a .229 average. USC had a two-point lead 25-23 but a kill by Julie Bosler and back-to-back errors by South Carolina gave the Tigers the lead, 25-26. AU went up two more points on back-to-back ball handling errors by the Gamecocks and a kill by Rachel Shanks put AU within game point. USC continued to threaten the Tigers and Lauren Ford followed through with a kill to extend the game and made the score 28-29, but Whitney Jacob posted the final kill of the game to give Auburn the 28-30 win, and tied the match 1-1.
After the break, South Carolina regrouped and answered back with 13 kills and a .235 attack percentage, en route to a 30-23 win. Iris Santos hit .429 for the game, while Cole hit .375. USC too the lead after the 10-10 tie and never fell behind again. Despite back-to-back errors by USC, the Gamecocks wrapped up the game on a kill by Cole and took a 2-1 lead in the match.
The momentum continued to sway in the favor of the Gamecocks in game four as USC came out on top with a 30-21 win. USC led by as much as 15 in the game and maintained at least a seven-point lead throughout the remainder of the match. The Gamecocks held the Tigers to -.025 in game four with 12 kills and 13 errors. AU had a small surge towards the end of the game and went on a 4-0 run, but that would not curtail the Gamecocks focus. Cole finished the match off with a kill from Petra Lorenzi and USC extended its win streak against the Tigers to 11.
