University of South Carolina Libraries
Howell suspended first 12 games of season BY BRAb SENKIW TIIKCMMKCOGK The USC Athletics Department handed Rolando Howell a 12-game suspension Friday that stems from his criminal domestic vio lence charge that came down on Oct. 9. Howell will be ineligible to play through the Charleston Southern game on Dec. 17, and the suspension includes two exhibi tion matches. Howell’s expected return is Dec. 20 against N.C. State at the Colonial Center. “I am relieved that Rolando’s status has been established and that everyone, including Rolando, can now turn our attention to the future,” head basketball coach D&ve Odom said. Howell is currently practicing with the team and participated in Midnight Madness, just hours af ter the decision was made by the Athletics Department. “Our^staff and team welcome Rolando back and will do every thing in our power ■——- to help him as we all work together to improve our basketball team,” Odom said. Howell has been suspended from the team since Howell Au8- 12 after he was charged for abusing his girl friend at the their apartment. Howell was then sentenced on Oct. 9 to a $50 fine and abuse counsel ing. If not completed, Howell will be forced to spend 30 days in jail. Howell’s presence is greatly needed this season, as the Gamecocks are lacking experience and size after losing four seniors last year. Odom is likely to use his younger and smaller players until the 6-foot-9-inch junior -returns. The Gamecocks opened prac tice at midnight Saturday and practiced twice during the day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Odom was pleased with his team’s performance Saturday “The pace was a lot quicker, a lot faster, a lot more organized than I’ve seen,” Odom said. “I ex pected that and would have been disappointed otherwise. This is the best shape we have been in this early in the season. This prac tice was a very good start.” The team practiced twice on Sunday and will practice again to day before getting Tuesday off. The Gamecocks open up the season on Nov. 17 against Gardner-Webb in the Guardians Classic. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail. com USC basketball goes mad PHOTO BY MARK SCHILLING/THE GAMECOCK ■ Tarence Kinsey takes flight in front of more than 1,500 fans at Midnight Madness last Saturday. The Gamecocks put on a show for the students with a 10-minute scrimmage. Women’s soccer defeats Kentucky on Senior Day PHOTO BY JOHNNY HAYNES/THE GAMECOCK Ashley Williams scored the first goal of the day. HUKL Kentucky 1 arK. (6-6-3,4-1-2 SEC) A fi USC 2 (9-6-2,2-3-1 SEC) * BY WES WOLFE THE (IAMECGCK The USC women’s soccer team (9 6-2,2-3-1 SEC) gave its senior players a good send-off in the last home game of the season, defeating Kentucky (6-6 3,4-1-2) Sunday afternoon by a score of 2-1. The Gamecocks were coming off a 1-0 loss to Vanderbilt (6-5-2,2-3-1) on Friday, in which a Michelle Brunlett second-half goal was the de ciding factor. Sunday’s game was Senior Day for Gamecock seniors Erica Bowie, Becca Epstein, Melissa Huston, Alison Jarrow and Elise Matthews. “Their leadership is important and those five stepped it up for us and played well,” said USC head coach Shelley Smith. Kentucky was the favorite coming into the game, since the Wildcats were unbeaten in conference play and at the top of the SEC East. Carolina, on the other hand, was languishing in the divisional cellar. nr)____3 _ “I’m proud of the effort from our team. Our players know that if we come out and play our game, we can compete with any team.” SHELLEY SMITH use HEAD COACH Georgia Southern on Sept. 26. The first half of the contest between the Gamecocks and the Wildcats was relatively tame, with USC out-shoot ing Kentucky 3-2, but neither team -J X „ LU XT_ X xxx pi UUU U1 U1V> effort from our team,” Smith said. “Our players know that if we come out and play our game, we can compete with any team.” The winning goal of the game came with just over nine minutes left in the game, when defender Sarah Lentz hit the ball past a crowd of players in front of the goal and into the net. Lentz finished the game with one shot and one goal. The game-winning shot was Lentz’s second goal of the season. Both goals have been game-winners, the oth er one coming in Carolina’s win over UJUUUgV/V1 tv/ lilt 111V net. Kentucky had a one-on-one shot chance before the end of the first half, though the shot never materialized because the Wildcats were called for off sides. The teams ended up going into halftime tied up at 0-0. Kentucky got the second half start ed by going on the attack. UK forward Ashley Schillig had a shot early in the second half, lining the ball just over the crossbar. Soon thereafter, forward Ashley Williams knocked in a goal from outside the box and into the right side of the Kentucky net. The goal was Williams’ second goal of the season and marked the first time Kentucky trailed in a game since a Sept. 21 match against Arizona State. & In the 61st minute, Kentucky for ward Elizabeth Ramsey slid into Lentz’s ankles and earned the only yellow card of the match. Eighteen minutes later, Wildcat forward Elizabeth Jones sent the ball past usually Williams stingy goalkeeper Matthews to score Kentucky’s only goal of the day. Nine minutes later, Lentz put in the game-winning goal to give Carolina a 2-1 lead, which the Gamecocks held on to until the end. Forward M.A. Foster had a chance to give USC a two-goal lead just after Lentz’s goal, but her shot missed slightly to the right. Carolina travels to Mississippi this week with a Friday game at Ole Miss at 8 p.m. and a match against Mississippi State on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com Volleyball struggles in losses to Arkansas, LSU BY BRAD SENKIW TIIKIiAMKCOCK The USC volleyball team hit rock bot tom this weekend after being outplayed twice at home, losing to Arkansas 3-0 on Friday and LSU 3-1 on Sunday. Carolina (10-10,4-4 SEC) has lost three straight games this season. Arkansas 3, USC 0 It couldn’t have been worse for USC head coach Kim Hudson Christopher and the Gamecocks as Arkansas (15-4, 8-0) brought its 11-game winning streak into Columbia and kept it going with ease. Carolina didn’t put up much of a fight against the top team in the SEC West as Arkansas won the three games 30-28,30-24 and 30-25. Lauren Ford was the only Gamecock to put up double dig its in kills with 10. Iris Santos and Sarah Morgan finished with seven digs each. “We’re just in a situation where we’re young and our leadership is sus pect,” Christopher said. “If we don’t make the decision to get better, then we’re going to continue to play this way.” The Gamecocks never led the first game as Arkansas ■ jumped out to an early 5 1 lead. The Lady ‘Backs let Carolina get within two at 27-29, but finished USC off to take the first game. In the second game, Carolina grabbed the p0 r(j lead, but Arkansas went up 6-5 and never looked back, winning 30-24 with a .353 hitting percentage. The final game wasn’t much differ ent as the Gamecocks showed little en thusiasm and lost 30-25. USC tied it at 21, but could only muster four more points as Arkansas showed its domi nance. The Gamecocks finished game three with a .188 hitting percentage compared to Arkansas’ .364. Christopher said she was not pleased with her team’s performance and played with several different line-ups, hoping to find a competitive combination. “We’re going to make mistakes but I’m going to have six people who care and compete. We’re not going to play in front of all these people and not at least put on a show that we can all be proud of,” she said. LSU 3, USC 1 The Gamecocks were just as suc cessful against the Tigers (9-12,4-5) in volleyball as they were in football after winning the first game and losing the las‘t three. It was the first time the Gamecocks have lost to LSU since 1995. “We didn’t have our rhythm in this match,” Christopher said. “We are not passing well, and in the last three matches, we have just not played well. We are going to have to come together as a team and figure out a way to come out and play our true game.” Ford once again led USC in kills with 15 and three other players finished in double digits. Carolina had trouble getting the ball past the LSU defense as the Tigers recorded 12 team blocks and added a .304 hitting percentage in the win. The first game final ly went the Gamecocks way after winning 30-18 behind Niece Curry’s seven kills and the team hitting .581. It didn’t last long as the Tigers came back in Curry game two to win 30-22. Carolina got behind ear ly and never caught up after hitting only .151 in the game. The third and fourth games contin ued to go the Tigers way after Carolina jumped out to a 19-9 lead in game three to watch LSU come back and win 30-26. LSU took an early lead in the final game and never looked back, winning 30-17 and tying the season series with the Gamecocks. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com PHOTO BY MARK SCHILUNG/THE GAMECOCK Mariana Branquinho smacks a shot across the net in the 3-1 loss to LSU on Sunday. BRIEFLY Men’s soccer team ties Furman on road The USC men’s soccer team (8 5-1) battled to a 0-0 tie in a defen sive contest at Furman (3-6-4) on Sunday afternoon. Carolina out shot the Paladins 10-9 but could not get the ball past Furman goal keeper Alex Jvlaslow. Gamecock goalkeeper Brad Guzon had two saves on the day, earning the shutout. Midfielder Jack Cummings and forward Ryan Deter each had three shots on the day, with Cummings getting one shot-on goal and Deter earning two shots-on-goal. Defender Josh Acala also had two shots-on-goal against the Paladins. “It was a very hard-fought game,” said USC head coach Mark Berson. The Gamecocks return home to play host to Davidson on Halloween, Oct. 31. Lake wins South Carolina Collegiate The USC cross country team took its position as the best team in the state by winning the South Carolina Collegiate Champion ship at the Clemson Invitational in Clemson on Saturday. Carolina won the championship by beating Clemson, Charleston Southern and South Carolina State. Junior Jenny Lake was the overall meet champion for the second year in a row, winning by 12 seconds. Freshman Karen Wigal finished 15th, freshman Tristan Rackow was right be hind at 16th, freshman Nicki Breves ended at 27th, and junior Mary ciaire Utsey was at 31st. Seven other runners also com peted for Carolina. USC’s next ac tion will come at the SEC Championships on Nov. 3 in Athens, Ga. PHOTO BY JOHNNY HAYNES/THE GAMECOCK Matthew Thomas had four receptions for 104 yards. Football CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7 quarter as USC quarterback Dondrial Pinkins found a streak ing Matthew Thomas for a 77-yard touchdown catch that was the sec ond-longest completion of Pinkins’ career and put USC on the board, cutting the lead to 12. After forcing the Tigers to punt, Pinkins was sacked by LSU’s Kirston Pittman, which forced a fumble that was picked up by LSU’s Jason LeDoux and returned 15 yards for a touch down, putting LSU up 26-7. “After the fumble, we couldn’t get back into the game,” Pinkins said. “It just seemed like after that, things fell apart.” Finally, with 6:56 left in the fourth quarter, Vincent scored again on a one-yard run, giving LSU a 33-7 lead. While Carolina was unsuccess ful on the ground, Pinkins passed for a career-high 254 passing yards in the loss, despite getting hit hard several times by the LSU defense. “I thought Dondrial did a nice job,” Holtz said. “We’ve got to be able to control the line of scrim mage. We protected the passer well, except for the blind side sack. Dondrial was excellent.” Holtz was nearly speechless af ter the game and said he didn’t have any answers for the loss and that he would know more by Monday after watching game film. “We are in the SEC. We give scholarships. We have a training table. There is no reason this,” Holtz said. The players were equally con fused and embarrassed after the game. “Everyone on the team was em- ^ barrassed,” USC cornerback Dunta Robinson said. “If you weren’t embarrassed tonight then you don’t care and I know we do.” The Gamecocks will have to bounce back quickly as Vanderbilt comes to town next week in the an nual homecoming game Saturday at Williams-Brice Stadium. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com