Oct. 19, 2008
AUBURN, Ala. – Behind double-doubles by Bridget Denson-Dorman, Ivana Kujundzic and Hannah Lawing, South Carolina ended a two-game losing streak with a 3-1 victory at Auburn, 25-11, 13-25, 25-18, 25-17, on Sunday afternoon in the Student Activities Center. The victory moved the Gamecocks to 15-4 on the season and 7-3 in the Southeastern Conference, while the loss drops the Tigers to 5-16 and 0-10 in league play.
Kujundzic led Carolina in digs with 13 and added 11 kills, while Lawing put together her first double-double of the season with 10 kills and 12 digs. Denson-Dorman had 39 assists and 10 digs. Sophomore Megan Laughlin, returning after missing two matches due to a leg injury, had a match-best 14 kills, three aces and .393 hitting percentage. Both Kujundzic and Denson-Dorman added three blocks on the day. Junior Sarah Cline had 11 digs and two aces. For Auburn, Kelly Fidero had 11 kills, while Jessica Glover added 10. Sara Shanks had 30 assists, nine digs and four kills, while Milena Bukinac added nine kills and 11 digs.
The Gamecocks got the early first-set advantage at 8-4 after a Lawing kill and two blocks, first by Salters and Denson-Dorman and seconded by a Kujundzic solo stop. The lead mushroomed out 18-7 after a nine-point string by South Carolina that included three kills by Kujundzic. The Garnet and Black closed out the set at 25-11 with five-consecutive points, started by a Moorhead smash and ended by the second Laughlin ace of the run. The Gamecocks hit .357 in the first set and had three aces. Cline led the way defensively with six digs in the first frame alone.
The second set was all Auburn. The Gamecocks had just two instances where they put together two points in a row, first coming to tie the frame at 3-3 and the other after the set was out of hand. The Tigers got five blocks and hit .600 in the set to take a 25-13 victory. Fidero had five kills in the frame, while Glover added three and two solo blocks. South Carolina made just four digs in the frame. After suffering their worst set loss of the season, the Tigers came back in second to take their biggest victory in a frame this year.
South Carolina broke out to leads of 4-1 and 7-3 in the third set, with Laughlin and Denson-Dorman both collecting two kills in the early going. The advantage grew to 12-8 after a Kujundzic smash down the line and another Denson-Dorman dump. After two-straight Auburn points, Carolina got four in a row to force the Tigers to use their final timeout. Cline enclosed the timeout with a pair of aces, stretching the lead to 17-10. Moorhead and Laughlin kills put the Gamecocks ahead, 21-12. But Auburn kept fighting, as Glover and Shanks both had kills to help the Tigers get within six at 21-15. The fourth Denson-Dorman kill of the frame wrapped up the set at 25-18. Laughlin added six kills, while Kujundzic contributed five digs, part of 17 in the third game for South Carolina.
In the fourth set, the Carolina Gamecocks got out to 5-1 and 12-6 leads, the last coming after taking six of seven points. The advantage was stretched to 16-7 after Kujundzic’s second back-row kill of the frame, a Salters smash and a Denson-Dorman solo block. Auburn worked its way back into the frame by taking seven of nine points to close to 18-14. But the Gamecocks would finish out the frame, as a block by Denson-Dorman and Salters set up match point with a block, and the Tigers’ final attack landed long to hand South Carolina the 25-17 victory. The Gamecocks held the Tigers to a .079 hitting percentage in the final set.
The Gamecocks host in-state rival South Carolina State on Thursday night at 7 p.m. in the Volleyball Competition Facility before starting the second half of the SEC schedule on Friday at Georgia.
