Volleyball Exorcize Blue Devils to Cap Opening Weekend
DURHAM, N.C. – A strong two-way effort helped Gamecock volleyball end the opening weekend of the season with a win, taking down Duke (1-2) in four sets to cap the three-day tournament in Cameron Indoor Stadium. Riley Whitesides led the offense with a career-high 23 kills and the defensive duo of Victoria Harris and Elizabeth McElveen combined for 40 digs to key the team.
1st SET: The Gamecocks (2-1) took the opening game by a 25-18 score, a credit to clean play on offense and defense. The offense committed just two errors over 37 attacks and finished with 15 kills, led by Riley Whitesides’ six. Duke trailed 15-8 at the first break of the set, but rallied to score a 5-1 run out of the break and would cut the deficit back to one point, 17-16, before South Carolina pulled away for good. The Gamecocks scored a 5-1 run of their own out of their called timeout, aided by kills from Whitesides, Alayna Johnson and Ellie Ruprich, along with two service errors from Duke. Errors behind the service line would be the key for the entire set, as the Blue Devils committed four compared to zero for Carolina, negating almost identical offensive numbers for the two sides.
2nd SET: The home side jumped out to an 8-4 lead in the second and were able to hold the Gamecocks off late to take a 28-26 decision that evened the match. South Carolina was able to tie the score at 9-9 but was never able to push ahead. Duke set up set point with a kill to make it 24-21, but Whitesides would not let her side go quietly. She strung together a kill, a block and a kill in successive points to tie the score at 24-all. The Blue Devils had set-point chances at 25-24 and 26-25 that were also denied, but final were able to close out a must-win game for them. Duke was able to terminate on offense in the win, scoring 23 of its 28 points off kills, compared to just 14 for South Carolina.
3rd SET: The Gamecock defense answered the call after Duke’s strong offensive showing in the third, Oby Anadi had her strongest set of the afternoon and energized the team in a 25-18 win. The key run came midway through the set, when South Carolina broke out of a 14-all tie with four unanswered points, including a pair of kills from Alayna Johnson. The trio of Whitesides, Anadi and Johnson accounted for all 13 of the team’s kills, and Anadi sparked the defense with a pair of loud solo blocks. Behind her, Harris and McElveen totaled 18 of the team’s 23 digs to help hold Duke to a team hitting percentage of .045 and just 10 kills. To put it into perspective, McElveen’s 11 digs in set three was almost as many as she had over 31 sets as a freshman in 2023.
4th SET: South Carolina closed out the win with a 25-21 win in the fourth. There were eight ties in the first 20 points of the set, but a 4-0 run for the Gamecocks broke an 8-8 tie and the team never looked back. The defense held Duke’s offense to under .200 again for hitting percentage, while the combination of Johnson and Whitesides carried the load with 23 of the team’s 37 total attacks and nine kills.
NOTABLE
- Riley Whitesides matched her career high for kills, set previously over five sets against Florida on 11/12/20. It is her third career 20-kill game.
- Victoria Harris led the defense with 23 digs, the most by a Gamecock freshman since Taylr McNeil on Sept. 6, 2014 (23 vs. Furman)
- Elizabeth McElveen shattered her career high for digs, popping up 17 in the win. Her previous high was seven, against Kansas in the season opener. McElveen had 13 digs total in her freshman season (31 sets).
- Sarah Jordan enjoyed her best game of the weekend, passing out 46 assists and adding 14 digs, one block, two kills and a service ace.
- After allowing 23 kills to Duke in the second set alone, South Carolina’s defense limited the Blue Devils to just 25 kills combined in the final two sets.
- Efficiency behind the service line was a key stat on Sunday; both teams had just one service ace but Duke committed 10 more errors (13-3).
- This is South Carolina’s fourth win all-time at Duke, in a series spanning 19 games and 46 years.
QUOTABLE: TOM MENDOZA
Reflecting on the opening weekend
“We’ve played well at home so to be able to go back to the CVC 2-1, we’re excited to be home. We knew going into this weekend, three wins would be a dream. We were capable of it, but it would be the dream scenario, 2-1 would still be great because of the strength of the four teams that were here. Long term, it’s two good resume wins as we try to build the case for postseason and try to build that season-long resume, but short term for our team to be able to draw upon these and know we’re good enough to beat good teams.
I don’t think we were perfect, but we were good enough on two of the three days and that’s a good thing for us to build on and gives our team confidence. Starting from Friday to today, we thought we were more and more confident that we were going to come up out on the positive end of tight sets and tight matches and that’s invaluable as you go through the season.”
On the team’s defense making adjustments in-game
“The defense was awesome. Until you play other teams it’s hard to know how good your defense is and that was a really pleasant surprise. Not that I didn’t think our players were capable of it, but to see the plays that they were making consistently is what you want to give yourself a chance to win. The fact that we could match teams, especially as scrappy as Duke, is a great thing to be able to draw upon as we go through the season.”
UP NEXT: The team returns home and will host matches next weekend, welcoming Temple and North Carolina to the Carolina Volleyball Center. The Gamecocks open against the Owls at 6 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 6 and then end the weekend with a 2 p.m. match against the Tar Heels on Sunday, Sept. 8. South Carolina last played Temple in August of 2012, and Sunday’s game will be the first time North Carolina has visited Columbia since 2004. Both matches will air on the SEC Network+.
