Nov. 18, 2016

Final Stats | Photo Gallery

COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina volleyball dropped a three-set match to Alabama (18-11, 7-9 SEC) Friday night, 28-26, 25-19, 25-22. Passing issues on service kept the Gamecocks from running their offense consistently, and the defense was unable to slow down the Tide’s Krystal Rivers (19 kills) to drop Carolina to 18-9, 6-9 in SEC play. Mikayla Shields countered Rivers as well as she could, hitting .438 with 16 kills in the loss.

1st Set: Alabama was able to steal away the momentum early with a come-from-behind win in the opening game. The Gamecocks were able to build a commanding lead early on, and held an 18-12 advantage before the Tide rallied to tie the set up at 23-all and force Carolina into a timeout. A solo block from Claire Edwards put the home side on serve for a chance at the win, but Alabama denied set points at 24-23, 25-24 and 26-25. It would lead just once for the entire set, but it came when it mattered most ââ’¬” at 27-26 ââ’¬” and closed out the set on the next point for the 1-0 lead.

2nd Set: Rivers would dictate the Alabama offense for the second set, as the pin accounted for half of her team’s kill total, with nine, and the Tide won the slugfest to take a 2-0 lead. Both teams hit over .400 in the game, but it would be mental errors that kept Carolina from evening the score. The Gamecocks had four service errors and allowed two aces to negate the offense’s success. Trailing 15-14 at the mid-way point of the set, South Carolina let the Tide roll off an 8-3 run from that point on to put the game to rest.

3rd Set: The errors that plagued the Gamecocks in the second set carried over into the third, with Carolina hitting .061 with seven attack errors and Alabama getting four more aces on serve. The visitors built a 9-1 lead right from the start of the game, and even with a rally late in the set the start would be too much to overcome. Shields finished with four more kills in the third to put her at 16 for the match, the second-most in a three-set match this season for South Carolina.

Stat of the Match

The Gamecock defense was unable to stop Krystal Rivers from Alabama, and the senior hitter hurt them with 19 kills, four aces and a .400 hitting percentage.

Notable

• The Gamecocks celebrated their five seniors Friday night: Jacqy Angermiller, Koko Atoa-Williams, Joely Cabrera, Megan Kirkland and Dessaa Legros.
• Legros had a season-high 14 kills in the match. Her previous high was 12 against Mississippi State ââ’¬” a five-setter.
• Mikayla Shields now has 299 kills for the season. With one more, she would become just the fourth freshman in the rally-scoring era (since 2001) to crack the 300-kill plateau.

Up Next

The Gamecocks close the penultimate weekend of the season with a road trip to Auburn. Carolina takes on the Tigers Sunday in a match that begins at 2:30 p.m. ET.

Tweet of the Match