Volleyball Loses Weekend Finale at Ole Miss

OXFORD, MISS. – South Carolina lost at Ole Miss Saturday night in straight sets. The Gamecocks finished with their lowest kill total of the Tom Mendoza era, as the Rebels finished with a 51-26 advantage in kills to improve their record to 17-5 for the season (6-5 SEC). South Carolina (12-10, 4-8 SEC) was led on offense by Riley Whitesides’ six kills and .385 hitting percentage.
 
SET ONE: Ole Miss led wire-to-wire in the opening game, pushing ahead in the match with a 25-15 score. The Rebels took an early 6-1 lead and found success throughout the set on the attack, enjoying a 19-8 advantage in kills. South Carolina’s one push came via a 4-0 run that tied the set at 13, but the Rebels answered that with an 8-0 run that included seven kills and put the score back out of reach. Ole Miss’ back line of the defense helped stifle the Gamecock offense, who committed only three errors on 32 swings but were dug 18 times by the Rebels.
 
SET TWO: After losing star senior Mikayla Robinson to an injury late in the first set, South Carolina opted for a change to its offense and brought in Mallory Dixon and Kiune Fletcher in a two-setter offense with Oby Anadi taking Robinson’s place in the middle. The offense struggled mightily in set two, hitting in the negative as Ole Miss won 25-13 for a 2-0 lead in the match. The Gamecocks had seven kills but nine errors, six of which were unforced, and the Rebels again would not trail at any point. 
 
SET THREE: South Carolina earned its first lead of the night after scoring the opening two points of the third, but Ole Miss ran off the next six points unanswered. Lauren Bowers came in as a serving specialist and helped her team respond, scoring five points in a for a 9-8 lead and forcing Ole Miss to take a timeout. The Rebels cooked up another run out of the break, scoring a 4-0 run with three kills in a row and would not give the lead back again in a 25-20 final score that closed the match. It was the best set of the night for the Gamecock offense, who hit .310 with 11 kills, but the Rebels totaled 18 kills and finished the night with 51 total.
 
NOTABLE

• Redshirt senior middle blocker Mikayla Robinson exited the match with an injury late in the first set of the match and did not return.
• The Ole Miss offense dominated the match, finishing with a 51-26 advantage in kills while hitting .389. That is the highest percentage by a Gamecock opponent this season and highest overall since Kentucky hit .418 on Nov. 15, 2019.
• South Carolina’s 26 total kills is the lowest this season and lowest since Oct. 27, 2017 against Florida.

UP NEXT
The schedule does not get any easier for the team, who face ranked opponents in four of the final six games of the regular season. That starts next weekend when the defending national champion Kentucky comes to Columbia for a two-game series. The Gamecocks and Wildcats play at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 4 and Friday, Nov. 5 – both matches will air on the SEC Network+.