Aug. 24, 2007
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NEWARK, Del. — South Carolina’s Ben Somera picked up a 3-0 win in his inaugural match as the Gamecocks’ head coach Friday in Newark, Del. The Gamecocks defeated Binghamton 32-30, 30-25, 30-16 in the opening contest of the Delaware/Asics Invitational.
Carolina freshman Megan Laughlin led the Gamecocks’ offense with 11 kills on 24 attempts with just two errors, and she added a team-high six blocks. Ivana Kujundzic, Belita Salters and Dani Bedore all posted nine kills and hit .333 or better. Freshman Jordan Bradosky handled the majority of the setting duties with 26 assists, while junior Petra Lorenzi chipped in a dozen.
Defensively, junior Dinelia Concepcion dug a game-high 17 balls. Sarah Cline reached double figures as well with 11. Salters and Bedore made four block assists apiece, and Meredith Moorhead had three to go along with seven kills.
Ashley Allen led the Bearcats with eight kills on 20 attacks and also contributed four assisted blocks. Kathleen Schauer, Jacki Kane and Michelle McDonough all had six kills. Jaclyn Strader notched 13 digs to lead Binghamton, and Lindsey Mueller was close behind with 12.
Overall, the Gamecocks made 55 kills and hit .281 (55-16-139) compared to 33 kills and a .093 (33-21-129) clip for the Bearcats. South Carolina also had a 49-27 edge in assists and out-dug Binghamton 60-48.
Game one saw South Carolina fall behind by as many as six, and late in the frame Binghamton led 24-19. A quick 3-0 spurt by the Gamecocks closed the margin to two before a Bradosky kill deadlocked the score at 28-all. With the score still tied at 30, Kujundzic ripped a kill and Laughlin secured the 1-0 advantage for Carolina with a solo block against McDonough.
“In the first game, we missed a lot of serves,” Somera said. “We served aggressively and sometimes that ends up giving the other team opportunities. It took us some time to settle down and figure things out.”
The second game was tied 12-12 before South Carolina won six straight points to take control. The Gamecocks’ lead swelled to nine before they finished off the game by a five-point margin. Game three saw the first eight points go to Carolina, and the Gamecocks continued to put the pressure on Binghamton to win by 14.
“We took the momentum from the first game and carried it to the second,” Somera said. “We put the pressure on and our defense gave us some transition points. By the third game, we were hitting on all cylinders. All parts of our game were looking pretty smooth. We took care of the routine plays so we could run our offense.”
The Gamecocks conclude play in the Delaware/Asics Invitational playing Boston College at 11 a.m. and Delaware at 7 p.m. Saturday.
