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7 „ GAME'SCHEDULE MEN’S SOCCER vs. New Hampshire, 7:30 p.m. Friday AA1Tm A VOLLEYBALL vs. San Diego in Long Beach, Calif., 7 p.m. Friday (jQjNJ TACT L S WOMEN'S SOCCER vs. College of Charleston, 12 p.m. Saturday FOOTBALL vs. No. 9 Georgia, 3:30 p.m. Saturday Story ideas? Questions? Comments? MEN’S GOLF at The Ridges Intercollegiate in Johnson City, Tenn., E-mailusatgamecocksports@hotmail.com v Saturday-Sunday Revenge on Georgia’s mind Carolina has won last two meetings with UGA No. 9 Georgia at USC 3:30 p.m. Saturday Williams-Brice Stadium TV: CBS BY BRAD SENKIW THE GAMECOCK After a tough loss at Virginia, the USC football team is hoping to bounce back this weekend against the Georgia Bulldogs. Georgia, ranked 9th by the Associated Press and 10th by the coaches, is looking for revenge as it enters Williams-Brice Stadium on Saturday after losing to the Gamecocks the past two seasons. Carolina has never beaten the Bulldogs three times in a row, and head coach Lou Holtz knows the extent of the challenge ahead. “Looking at the University of Georgia, this is the last thing I want to do: to go into the Georgia game with that type of perfor mance,” Holtz said, referring to USC’s poor game at Virginia. “This could be embarrassing on Saturday.” The Bulldogs lead the overall series between the two teams 39 12-2, and they have won six of the last 10 meetings. Georgia is coming off a 31-28 win over Clemson in Athens two weeks ago, when kicker Billy ♦ WHO HAS THE EDGE? GO TO WWW.DAILYGAMECOCK.COM TO SEE WHICH TEAM HAS THE UPPER HAND FOR SATURDAY’S GAME. Bennett nailed a 43-yard field goal with 5:19 left in the game. Georgia had a bye last week and looks healthy and ready coming into Saturday’s game. “We had the open date, which was helpful,” Georgia head coach Mark Richt said. “The majority of the team is healthy. “We have a lot to prove this week. The fact that we haven’t beat South Carolina in a while is motivation.” Georgia’s offense is led by two quarterbacks this year — sopho more David Greene and redshirt freshman D.J. Shockley. The two combined for 117 passing yards and three touchdowns against Clemson. Musa Smith, who racked up 105 yards against Clemson, will be the Bulldogs’ featured rusher. “Musa Smith is a great run ner,” Holtz said. “He has very quick feet, and he is powerful.” Georgia’s most explosive weapons come at receiver, howev er, with a pair of Biletnikoff Award candidates in Terrence Edwards and Fred Gibson. Edwards caught a 24-yard touchdown against the Tigers, while Gibson did his dam age with a 91-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. “Georgia’s receiving corps is the best in the country,” Holtz said. “Gibson did not play against us last year. He is outstanding. Edwards is a career-leading re ceiver there. Then you put in (Damien) Gary — he’s the fastest guy on the team, and that’s hard to believe with Gibson and Edwards.” The Bulldogs also boast one of the top offensive lines in the coun try, with All-American Kevin Breedlove leading the way. Holtz is also weary of the strong and improved Georgia defense that could cause serious problems for the USC offense. “Defensively, I think they are better then last year, at least when we played them,” Holtz said. “They are much more aggressive. They have two great linebackers. The defensive line is very big, strong, aggressive, and their sec ondary is physical and quick. (Linebacker) Boss Bailey is an All American.” Despite the win over Clemson, Richt was not pleased with his team’s performance two weeks ago. “I really believe that South Carolina and Georgia are about in the same boat as far as not playing as well as we would like to early in the year, needing to get some things corrected, trying to find out what kind of a football team we have,” Richt said. “We’ve got a lot to prove, and I think South Carolina feels like they have a lot to prove, too. It’s going to be a game of two teams that are really trying to find out their identity.” The Bulldogs and the Gamecocks are scheduled for a 3:30 p.m. kickoff. The game will be nationally televised on CBS. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com PHOTO BY CANDI HAUGLUM/THE GAMECOCK Rashad Faison (No. 11) played free safety last week, but he will be back at spur for Saturday's game with Georgia. Faison and the defense have a tough test against the Bulldogs’ receiving corps, which USC head coach Lou Holtz calls the best in the country. gftf Clemson * Mr 0-2) USC o (3-2) BY NICK YOUNG THE GAMECOCK The USC women’s soccer team lost a 1-0 heartbreaker to No. 18 Clemson on Wednesday night in front of a record crowd of 1,863 fans at The Graveyard. Tigers midfielder Heather Beem scored in the 87th minute ofiF a deflection that dropped right in front of her. “It’s unlucky,” USC head coach Shelley Smith said. “It was a deflection, and Elise (Matthews) got down, but not as Quickly as she would’ve liked. Then it just dribbled under her.” The loss for Carolina (3-2) was its sixth in a row to Clemson (3-2) and its seventh loss to the Tigers in the last eight years. “It hurts, it really does,” se nior Morgan McIntyre said. “Everyone played so hard, and we lost because of one lucky play. But we can’t think about it for too long. We have to get ready for our next game.” USC, looking to offset Clem son’s tremendous speed and po tent offense, came into Wednesday night’s game with a defensive strat egy. “We wanted to cover each other and stay orga nized, Matthews Matthews said. “We execut ed our plan, but they had that one little bounce that went their way.” The Gamecocks’ plan seemed to work, as they shut down Clemson’s offense for a large por tion of the first half. The Tigers had one quality chance, around the 20-minute mark when for ward Deliah Arrington’s shot hit the near post, but Clemson’s oth er early shots on goal were easy saves for Matthews. While USC’s defense was sue cessful in implementing its game plan, its offense struggled to cre ate quality scoring chances. Attacking midfielder Jessica Julin was one of the Gamecocks concerned about lack of posses sion. “It was frustrating to have the ball and then watch someone kick it away,” Julin said. McIntyre played most of the second half as the only forward and didn’t have much help. “I wasn’t frustrated,” she said. “The coaches asked me to do it, and I had no problem with it. It’s what the team needed to do to win. As long as that’s the case.” But it wasn’t the case for Carolina, as Beem took full ad vantage of her opportunity and put the Tigers up with little time remaining. Beem’s goal took the life out of the crowd, but it didn’t take the life out of the Gamecocks. With a mere two minutes left, USC made three late charges and had two shots on goal. “The team never quit,” Smith said. “I’m extremely proud of ! them. That last-minute charge was incredible; they wanted to win. Everyone should be proud ' of themselves.” Smith said she was especially encouraged by Matthews’ play. ] “Elise Matthews played ter- | rific in goal for us tonight,” Smith said. “She proved that ; she’s one of the best.” ; Smith is hoping her team can learn from this setback. I “We proved that we can play | with any team in the nation,” she j said. “But they have to learn that that’s what we’re expecting from ' them every game.” The Gamecocks will resume | play this Saturday against the \ College of Charleston. The match | starts at noon and will be played | at The Graveyard. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com ' PHOTO BY MORGAN FORD/THE GAMECOCK USC’s Kanika MeAlpine (No. 24) fights off Clemson’s Lindsay Browne during Wednesday night’s game at The Graveyard. r Clemson won 1-0 when Heather Beem scored in the 87th minute. The Tigers have now defeated USC six times in a row. USC riding high after tourney win BY KYLE ALMOND THE GAMECOCK Following what head coach Mark Berson called a “sloppy” 2-1 win over Jacksonville, there were a lot of questions about the USC men’s soccer team a week ago. But the Gamecocks had some answers this past weekend when they beat North Carolina State and Duke to win the Duke/Adidas Classic. “It was definitely a very good performance by our team,” Berson said. “We have a pretty young group, so that was a chal lenge to see how their focus would be on the road.” USC (4-0) defeated the Wolfpack 2- 1 and finished off the Blue Devils 3- 0 to take the tournament crown. With the impressive performance, the Gamecocks were moved to No. 6 in the NSCAA poll. Leading the way for Carolina was forward Jordan Quinn, who scored the game-winner against N.C. State and was named the tour nament’s most valuable player. “We played really awesome,” said Quinn, who was also named to Soccer America magazine’s Team of the Week. “I thought the guys pulled together. “We didn’t play as good as we thought we could against Jacksonville, so we didn’t know where we stood. But I thought we stepped up and played really well this weekend.” The confident Gamecocks will look to build on their momentum Friday when their annual home tournament, the Gamecock Soccer Classic, kicks off at The Graveyard. USC welcomes the College of Charleston, New Hampshire and Washington for the event. The Gamecocks have held the Classic since 1987, and they’ve won it 11 times. But since winning seven straight Classics from 1993 99, Carolina has slipped up and lost its last two. Charleston won in 2000, and Maryland won a year ago. Quinn says the team is hungry to reclaim its own tournament. “We’ve got to win this,” he said. “We really want to win. There’s going to be two tough tests, but I think, for the most part, we’re ready.” Carolina’s tests will be New Hampshire on Friday night and Washington on Sunday. New Hampshire is undefeated at 4-0, and Washington (1-0-2) has been to the NCAA Tournament The Gamecock Soccer Classic All matches to be played at The Graveyard Friday: Washington vs. College of Charleston, 5 p.m.; No. 6 USC vs. New Hampshire, 7:30 p.m. Sunday: New Hampshire vs. Charleston, 11 a.m.; USC vs. Washington, 1:30 p.m. the past seven seasons. TheXlassic begins Friday at 5 p.m., when Washington takes on Charleston (2-1-1). After that game, USC will face New Hampshire at 7:30 p.m. Play wraps up Sunday with New Hampshire facing Charleston at 11 a.m. and USC playing Washington at 1:30 p.m. “Our players always point to this weekend,” Berson said. “It’s a big weekend for us as far as a lot of families coming in, and we always want to do well in our home tour naments. It’s a major focus for us.” Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com SPORTS CHALLENGE HE CHALLENGE: Kyle Matt he Gamecock’s readers and Almond Rothenberj taff test their sports knowledge Sports Asst. Sport: irith predictions of the Editor Editor i/eekend’s games. (Rankings (12~8) (12-8) ire from the Associated Press.) Chris Mary Justin Edward [ Foy Hartney Bajan Barnes ; Defending Editor in Co-Editor, Reader of Champion Chief The Mix the Week (11-9) (13-7) (6-14) (12-8) ndiana at Kentucky Kentucky Kentucky /liami (Ohio) at 25 LSU LSULSU /lississippi at Texas TechOle Miss Texas Tech [Q Wash. St. at 6 Ohio St. Ohio St. Ohio St. ' Michigan at 20 Notre Dame Michigan Michigan .7 Southern Cal at 18 Colorado So. Cal So. Cal )uke at Northwestern Duke N’westem owa St. at Iowa Iowa St._Iowa St. Georgia Tech at Clemson Ga. Tech_Clemson I Georgia at USC Georgia Georgia 27-23 31-27 Kentucky Indiana Kentucky Kentucky LSU Miami (OH) LSU LSU Ole Miss Ole Miss Texas Tech Ole Miss Ohio St. Wash. St. OhioSt. Ohio St. Michigan N. Dame Michigan N. Dame Jo. Cal_So. Cal _Colorado Colorado N'western N’westem N'western Duke Iowa St. Iowa Iowa Iowa St. Ga. Tech Clemson Ga. Tech Ga. Tgch USC Georgia USC USC 27-24 35-21 35-31 ' 25-24 AST WEEK’S WINNER: Matt Rothenberg (6-4) - Rothenberg edged out Gerald Smith, our reader of the week, via the iebreaker. Rothenberg was the only one to predict that Virginia would upset USC in Charlottesville. He did not, lowever, predict seven Carolina turnovers. lartney, who along with Foy and Almond went 5-5, holds on to a slim overall lead. Assistant Viewpoints Editor Erin )’Neal, the Gamecock staff member of the week, buried her co-workers’ chances with a humiliating 1-9 week. VANTTO BE READER OF THE WEEK? E-mailyourselectionsnextweektogamecocksports@hotmail.com. If you have he best record, you’ll win a free Gamecock T-shirt and be able to talk all the trash you want