Oct. 20, 2006
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GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The South Carolina volleyball team lost a 3-0 (27-30, 27-30, 28-30) decision to No. 7 Florida on Friday in Gainesville, Fla., to fall to 11-11 on the year and 4-7 in the Southeastern Conference. The Gators improved to 17-2 and 10-1 with their ninth consecutive victory.
Shonda Cole led South Carolina’s offense with 14 kills on 38 attempts. Marija Milosevic had six kills and Belita Salters chipped in six as well. Salters also had six blocks. Iris Santos recorded 24 assists, five kills and three digs. Sarah Cline led USC in digs with 12 and Alexcis Thomson dug 11 balls.
Amber McCray led Florida with a dozen kills and three blocks. Kisya Killingsworth was the only other Gator in double figures for kills with 10. Angie McGinnis made 41 assists, six kills and fell one dig shy of a double-double. Elyse Cusack had a game-high 18 digs.
UF posted 54 kills to South Carolina’s 37 and hit .225 (54-25-129) to USC’s .137 (37-21-117) figure. The Gators out-dug Carolina 46-39, but the Gamecocks’ seven blocks was one more than Florida. Service errors plagued both teams, as the Gators misfired 15 times and Carolina did likewise nine times.
Florida built several four-point leads in the first game, but the Gamecocks countered each time. Down 21-20, South Carolina dropped the next four points to fall behind by five, but recovered by claiming four of the next five rallies to close within two, 26-24. Cole kept Carolina in the game down the stretch, accounting for four of its seven points with kills. The Gators, however, never let the Gamecocks get closer than two points before winning by three.
South Carolina trailed 14-13 in the second game before running off five consecutive points that were capped by a dump from Santos. The Gators responded and eventually regained the upper hand, 23-22, after an assisted block. Carolina regrouped with a timeout and received a kill and service ace from Cole on the next two rallies to steal back the lead. The Gamecocks were up 26-24 before Killingsworth tallied three straight kills, and McGinnis added another to finish the Gators’ 4-0 spurt. McGinnis scored an ace on game point to put Florida ahead 2-0.
The Gators jumped on South Carolina in game three, winning the first six points before Rhian Davis’ seventh serve went into the net. Florida would lead by as many 11 at 14-3, but USC slowly crept back into the game. Still down 23-13, the Gamecocks won four straight to close the deficit to six. Carolina found itself down by six again, 26-20, but managed to win six rallies in a row to deadlock the score. The early 6-0 hole, though, proved to be too much for Carolina despite outscoring Florida 28-24 afterward.
The Gamecocks next play at Auburn, Ala., on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. ET against the Tigers.
