Volleyball Loses Season Opener Against No. 13 Kansas

DURHAM, N.C. – South Carolina volleyball opened its season with a three-set loss to No. 13 Kansas on Friday afternoon, the first of three games for the Gamecocks (0-1) this weekend in Cameron Indoor Stadium at Duke. The Gamecocks were led by nine kills from Riley Whitesides and seven from Oby Anadi, but the Jayhawks (1-0) enjoyed sizable advantages in blocks (12-5) and service aces (7-1) to earn the win.

1^st SET: Kansas scored seven of the game’s first 10 points to start out front, but the Gamecocks scrapped back to tie the score at 11. After matching each other point for point, the Jayhawks pushed ahead with a 4-1 run to break a 15-all margin and South Carolina was unable to get back even in a 25-23 loss. A pair of kills from Campbell Paris cut the deficit back to one late, 22-21, but the Jayhawks were able to take the opening game after back-to-back kills from Toyosi Onabanjo. Outside of committing four more attack errors than Kansas, the Gamecocks finished with advantages in kills (19-17) and digs (18-14). Four different attackers had three or more kills, led by five from Riley Whitesides.

2^nd SET: Service pressure from Kansas put the Gamecocks in another hole in set two, a pair of service aces gave the Jayhawks an 11-6 advantage and forced an early timeout from Carolina. When it wasn’t scoring off the serve, Kansas still was keeping the Gamecocks out of rhythm offensively and was able to record a game-high 15 digs and four blocks to lead wire-to-wire in a 25-13 win. The team dropped from 19 first-set kills to seven in the second, with three from Paris leading the way.

3^rd SET: Kansas’ defense closed out the sweep with its best showing of the match, recording seven blocks in the third set alone for a 25-10 win. It was a close set early, but the Jayhawks used a 13-1 run to separate themselves from an 8-7 score, recording three blocks and a pair of service aces in the run. Whitesides added three more kills in the final game, but Kansas limited the rest of the South Carolina offense to just kills combined.

NOTABLE

• While the Kansas block did cause issues for the Gamecock offense, it was also the disparity in unforced attacking errors that hurt them. Over 88 total attacks the Jayhawks had just two attack errors that weren’t South Carolina blocks, on the flipside the Gamecocks had 11 unforced attacking errors to go along with the 12 balls blocks by Kansas.
• The Jayhawks also finished the afternoon with a 7-1 advantage in service aces while committing just one more error behind the line than South Carolina. Jolie Cranford recorded the team’s lone ace, her first collegiate point with the indoor squad after crossing over from beach volleyball this summer.
• Riley Whitesides finished with a team-high nine kills, giving her 1,023 for her career. That moves her past Megan Laughlin (2007-10) for the sixth-most kills by a Gamecock in the rally-scoring era (since 2001).
• Oby Anadi continued to build on a strong junior year offensively with seven kills and a .357 hitting percentage against Kansas. The veteran middle had more kills as a junior than her freshman and sophomore seasons combined and also had a career-high hitting percentage in 2023.
• Victoria Harris started as the team’s libero Friday night. She and current teammate Morgan Carter are the only Gamecocks to be the team’s primary libero as a true freshman since the position was introduced in collegiate volleyball in 2002. The Columbia native led the team with 10 digs and also passed out six assists.
• Five Gamecocks made their debut over the course of the game: Harris, Jolie Cranford, Brooke Doherty, Sarah Jordan and Anna Wilson.

UP NEXT: The team’s weekend in Durham continues Saturday. Next up is a match against defending Patriot League champion Colgate at 12 p.m. with coverage on the ACCNx online stream. The Raiders opened their season earlier in the day Friday, losing in five sets to tournament host Duke.