Gamecocks Pick Up First SEC Win of the Season at Arkansas
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The South Carolina volleyball team (7-9, 1-5) earned its first SEC win of the season against Arkansas on Sunday afternoon in the Barnhill Arena, taking down the Razorbacks 3-1 to snap a seven-game win streak in the series record between the two teams.
The win marked coach Sarah Rumely Noble‘s first SEC win as a head coach. It was an evenly played match with Arkansas narrowly out-killing the Gamecocks 49-48 and the two teams having the same number of attacks at 129. For the second consecutive match the Gamecocks put up 12 blocks, again tying the second highest number this season.
1st SET: Arkansas claimed an early lead, but the Gamecocks quickly responded as a kill from Ava Leahy and an ace from Victoria Harris gave them their first lead of the match at 6-5. South Carolina extended the margin to 11-7 following a kill and block from Laiya Ebo and Leahy. The Razorbacks came within one at 12-11, but a service error from Arkansas kept the Gamecocks ahead. A quick ball kill from Emily Beeker gave South Carolina a 17-13 advantage, forcing a Razorback timeout. A 3-0 run later pushed the lead to 22-16, and after a 5-0 surge, the Gamecocks reached set point at 24-16. Leahy closed it out with her fourth kill of the frame to secure the 25-18 win. South Carolina hit .290 in the set while holding Arkansas to a .069 clip.
2nd SET: The Gamecocks carried their momentum into the second, taking control early and maintaining the lead for most of the frame. South Carolina went ahead 7-4 before using a 3-0 run to extend it to 10-5. The lead grew to 15-8 heading into the media timeout, and a block from Beeker and Elise Marshal followed by a kill from Alayna Johnson made it 18-10, forcing an Arkansas timeout. Back-to-back Razorback errors helped the Gamecocks advance to 21-12 before reaching set point at 24-17. Arkansas responded with a 3-0 run to cut the deficit to 24-20, but a Razorback service error ended the set 25-20 in favor of South Carolina, giving the Gamecocks a 2-0 match lead.
3rd SET: Arkansas came out swinging to start the third, going on a 3-0 run before South Carolina tied it up at 3-3 behind a kill from Hall and back-to-back aces from Leahy. The Razorbacks answered with a 5-0 run to push ahead 8-3 and extended their lead to 13-6. At midway through the set, Arkansas held the Gamecocks to a .053 hitting percentage while hitting .562 themselves. A timeout at 16-7 couldn’t slow the Razorbacks’ momentum, as they continued to roll, eventually taking the set 25-11 to stay alive in the match.
4th SET: South Carolina regrouped quickly, jumping out to a 5-2 lead and later using back-to-back kills from Johnson to go up 12-8. The Gamecocks maintained a 15-11 lead at the media timeout, then extended it to 17-12 after a block from Beeker and Marshal and a kill from Beeker, forcing an Arkansas timeout. South Carolina reached set point at 24-17 before the Razorbacks fought back with a 3-0 run to make it 24-20. However, a service error from Arkansas sealed the 25-20 set win and a 3-1 match victory for the Gamecocks. South Carolina hit .406 in the final frame, its best efficiency of the night, to close out the road win in Fayetteville.
Notables
- Six separate Gamecocks tallied five or more kills
- Nine of the ten Gamecocks that played today got at least one dig
- Six separate players had two or more blocks
- Emily Beeker led the team with nine blocks which tied her career high
- Alayna Johnson paced the offense with 14 kills, her 10th match of the season in the double digits
- Ava Leahy recorded a season high 10 kills and hit a team leading .500
- Victoria Harris recorded 21 digs, her fifth time this season earning in the 20s
Up Next: The Gamecocks return home, hosting Mississippi State on Friday, Oct. 17 for their breast cancer awareness pink out game before rounding out the week against Alabama on Sunday, Oct. 19 at 1:00 p.m.
