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KATIE KIRKLAND/THE GAMECOCK Kimmy Gillespie dribbles the ball down the field earlier in the season. Gillespie scored the first goal of her career in a 1-1 tie at Vanderbilt on Friday. SEC win eludes Gamecocks By STEPHANIE PENDRYS THE GAMECOCK The USC women’s soccer team concluded its Homecoming weekend road trip in the same place it started — still searching for a first SEC victory. The Gamecocks battled the Vanderbilt Commodores to a 1-1 tie and lost a heartbreaker of a game in Lexington, Ky., where they were defeated 1-0 by the Kentucky Wildcats The Gamecocks clashed with Vanderbilt (3 5-3, 2-1-2 SEC) Friday evening at the Vanderbilt Soccer Stadium. After a well-played but scoreless first half, South Carolina struck first with a header by freshmen midfielder Kimmy Gillespie. The goal was Gillespie’s first as a Gamecock and the result of a well-placed corner kick by USC midfielder Jessi Swaim. Swaim leads USC in assists for the 2004 season with five. But minutes later, Vanderbilt bounced back with a display of impressive offensive skill. Meghan Habig, the Commodores’ leading scorer, knocked a shot past USC net-minder Thorstenson to even the score at one goal apiece. The Vanderbilt goal was assisted by Lea Lafield, tying Lafield at the top of the SEC in assists with six. Neither team was able to find the net again in the second half or during the extra period, and USC earned its second-consecutive Friday night draw. The Gamecocks finished the match with an 11-10 shot advantage on the evening with Gillespie, Ashley Kirk, Erin Sullivan and Amanda Thurber all tallying two shots on the night. This is the first tie in the South Carolina-Vanderbilt soccer series. South Carolina wrapped up the weekend travels with a Sunday afternoon match in Lexington, Ky., against the Kentucky Wildcats, where they were handed a 1-0 loss. The Wildcats’ first major scoring opportunity came in the 24th minute of play. Kristin Jedlo directed a free kick into the penalty box, but senior midfielder Alii Haeussler headed the ball well over the crossbar. The Gamecocks made the mistake of giving Haeussler too much space in front of the goal and they paid the price. Haeussler was successful on her next header two minutes later after a Wildcat corner kick bounced off a USC player and in front of the goal Haeussler collected the rebound and booted in the loose ball from four yards out to score Kentucky’s first goal, its first in three matches. Gamecock defender Sarah Lentz headed in a corner kick in the final minute of the first half and looked like the game would go into halftime tied at one. But the goal was nullified by a Gamecock foul in the penalty box, preserving the 1-0 Wildcat lead. Lentz continued her aggressive play in the second half and headed a pair of corner kicks toward the UK net in the 51st and 72nd minutes, but Kentucky goalkeeper Liz Butler recorded saves on each occasion. South Carolina controlled possession throughout the second half and had a number of goal-scoring chances, tallying nine second half shots to Kentucky’s two. South Carolina had one last chance to tie in the closing seconds, but Butler escaped her box and swatted away a shot by USC’s Amanda Thurber as time expired. Butler corralled seven saves and was aided by a united Wildcat defensive effort, as the Cats turned away six corner kicks in the second half to preserve the shutout. Kentucky almost doubled South Carolina’s shot total in the game, collecting 13 to USC’s seven. Gamecock goalie Lindsay Thorstenson finished the game with three saves, and Liz Butler collected seven saves for the Wildcats. Kentucky improves to 6-6-1 and 3-2-1 in the SEC while South Carolina drops to 6-7-2 and 0-4-2 in the SEC. The Gamecocks look to notch their first SEC victory and to improve their ranking for the upcoming SEC Tournament during a home stand this weekend against a pair of conference foes from the Magnolia state, Mississippi and Mississippi State. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu Interested in taking The Gamecock Challenge? If you can beat the editors, you'll win a free Gamecock T-shirt. Send your picks to gamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu by 2 p.m. Thursday. We’ll select ONE person’s picks, at random, to be our Reader of the Week. This week’s games: 18 Louisville at 3 Miami 25 Ohio State at Iowa 15 Arizona State at 1 So. Cal. N.C. State at Maryland 10 Wisconsin at 5 Purdue 6 Virginia at 7 Florida State Missouri at 9 Texas Arkansas at 4 Auburn Southern Miss at Alabama USC at Kentucky ♦ FOR TIE-BREAKING PURPOSES, PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR SCORE FOR THE USC-KENTUCKY GAME. AND DON’T FORGET YOUR NAME! Intramural Volleyball Registration: $15 Per Team ft Men's, Women's, CoRec, Fraternity and Sorority Leagues Monday, October 11 4:00-8:00 pm WFC Rotunda Tuesday, October 12 4:00-8:00 pm WFC Rotunda Wednesday, October 13 12:00-4:00 pm WFC Rotunda Official's Clinic: Monday, October 18 8:00-10:00 pm WFC Main Gym IB—M BB WHi, wmk iBIk sa»w.. i msm ...... HMmm i j % Racquetball Ladder October 18-December 3 Divisions: Men's/Women's f 3v3 Basketball Sunday, November 7,12:00 pm Blatt PE Center, Gym 305 Divisions: Men's/Women's Tennis Tournament Sunday, November 14,12:00 pm Blatt PE Center Tennis Courts Divisions: Men's/Women's Singles, Doubles, Mixed Tug-O-War Sunday, November 24,8:00 pm Blatt PE Center Fields Divisions: Men's/Women's/CoRec/Fraternity/Sorority Registration for all events: FREE Teams may sign up at during volleyball registration or register after these official dates as space permits by emailing sdjones@gwm.sc.edu up until 5:00pm on the Wednesday prior to the tournament. Please include your personal information along with a team name (if applicable) and division in which you would like to participate. Schedules will be posted on the intramural website by the preceding Friday afternoon. 1 campusrec@sc.edu http://campu5rec.sc.edu/im SCX/IH0R()ljm. Department of Student Life/Division of Student Affairs/USC aa/ada/eoe CAMPUS RECREATION Carolina demolishes Magnolia State foes By MEGAN GIBSON THE GAMECOCK The Gamecocks had an impressive showing this past weekend in Mississippi as they defeated both Ole Miss and Mississippi State to improve their overall record to 10-5 and their SEC record to an even 3-3. Carolina first faced the Ole Miss Rebels on Friday night in Oxford. They defeated Ole Miss in four games (30-26, 30-27, 31-33, 30-21) to add to their 16-game winning streak against the Rebels. In game one, junior Lauren Ford led the defense with a career-high 10 block assists and three solo blocks. The team also recorded a season-high 21 blocks for the match. “Our blocking was what won the match for us tonight,” USC head coach Kim Hudson said. “Lauren Ford did an excellent job tonight.” In the second game of the match, sophomore Shonda Cole recorded six kills to post her 200th kill of the season and add to her impressive total of 487 career kills. The third game proved to be the nail-biter of the match as the Rebels tied up the score at 30-30. Cole put the Gamecocks ahead on a kill before Ole Miss retaliated with a kill and a service ace to pull out the win and force Carolina into a fourth game. In game four, the Gamecocks led by as many as 10 points before the Rebels began closing the gap. However, Carolina didn’t let go and finished out the game 30-21 and the match 3-1. The women then traveled to Starkville, Miss., Sunday where they met the Mississippi State Bulldogs. At their first encounter of the season in Columbia, the Gamecocks fell to Mississippi State in three close games. However, the Gamecocks surprised the Bulldogs and swept the match in three straight games (35-33, 30-14, 30-19). The Gamecocks posted high numbers with sophomore setters Katelyn Panzau and Iris Santos combining for 36 of the 40 assists. Ford and Cole each had 10 kills, and Ford added six blocks. The first game proved to be the deciding factor for the momentum of the rest of the match. The Gamecocks fought hard for the win, pushing the score all the way up to 35-33. The two teams tied at 28-28 on a service ace by Bulldog Megan Lukasek, then tied five more times before Carolina was able to capitalize on Mississippi State’s unforced errors and clinch the win on a kill by Cole. “It is good to feel like we are on track again,” Hudson said. “Game one was so critical in our mental toughness and our team chemistry. I am very pleased with how we fought through that.” In game two, the Gamecocks went errorless, recording 11 kills and zero errors in 20 attempts. Ford had three kills and a .600 kill percentage while Santos posted two and a .667 percentage. In the third and final game, the Gamecocks again recorded impressive numbers. As a team Carolina hit .281 and held the Bulldogs to only .024 while out-blocking them 9-0. The Gamecocks next match is Friday when they travel to Tuscaloosa to face SEC opponent Alabama. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocksporlMffsm.sc. edu ■ CLARY Continued from page 12 only had a great catch, but he did an outstanding job blocking up field. What more can you say except that it is now over with and we have to move forward. We’re now just past the halfway point of the season and to get bowl eligible, we have to win two more games. I don’t know about you, but my attitude the rest of the year will not be what does it take to be bowl eligible, but what will it take to win as many games as possible. The past two seasons, we’ve tried so hard to get that sixth win, but failed every time. I think we’re better than that this year. So much better in fact that I still believe we can win eight games this year. Don’t let one bad game set the tone for the rest of the year. We’ve played five good games and I know we can play five more even better. So we got the bad one out of our system and sure it would have been nice to come out on top. However, instead of dwelling on the loss, let’s stay positive about the rest of the year. Look on the bright side: Clemson is 1-4. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecoeksports@gwm.sc.edu ■ BROOM Continued from page 9 seen was seated around a green table playing a card game. On television! Where did they get these people? It looked like a poker game broke out during a Star Trek convention. I wasn’t exactly sure what to do. I go from two guys in short shorts playing table tennis to a bunch of nerds trying to calculate the odds of a guy they call “Jesus” Ferguson having a pair of eights. I’m not really sure where I wanted to go with this column. It started as a way for me to vent a ■ FOOTBALL Continued from page 12 goal. “With seven seconds, you got a shot from the 12-yard line unless you scramble,” Holtz said. Working from the shotgun, Newton did scramble. When his pass was dropped by Whiteside in the end zone, there was no time remaining. “Hindsight, looking back, we probably should have kicked the field goal,” Holtz said. USC tied the gam£ 21-21 on a 33 yard touchdown pass from Newton to Williamson with 7:25 remaining in the third quarter. Williamson finished the game with four catches for 74 yards, but had a 59-yard catch negated on the drive because of a holding penalty on center John Strickland. Penalties plagued the Gamecocks. After not being flagged at all last week at Alabama, USC was whisded six times for 48 yards against Ole Miss, some of which hurt the team’s field position. “We had terrible field position,” Holtz said. “We started inside our 10 yard line I don’t know how many times.” Ole Miss regained the lead 24-21 on a 25-yard field goal by Jonathan Nichols with five seconds left in the third quarter. Demetrii Summers was quick to change that. The sophomore tailback, hampered by injury much of the season, ran 17 yards for a touchdown to give USC its first lead at 28-24 and set up Flatt’s late heroics. Daccus Turman was stopped short of a first down late in the fourth quarter, and USC was forced to punt with just 2:22 remaining. Starting from his own 27-yard line, Flan completed passes of 23 and 21 yards before throwing three consecutive incomplete passes to bring up fourth down. Holtz said he believed he had the right coverage called on the play. “We were in four deep,” Holtz said. “Which is about as good as you can be in.” Flowers slipped behind the coverage down the sideline and was able to haul in Flan’s pass for the winning margin. > Holtz had a straightforward answer for why his team lost the gam?. “You win close games when everybody does what they’re supposed to do,” Holtz said. “It’s not the players fault, don’t get me wrong. I made enough mistakes to last me a lifetime.” Williamson thinks the team was simply caught off guard by the level at which the Rebels played. “We didn’t know they would come out and play that hard,” Williamson said. “I don’t think 1 saw that team on film. Comments on this story ? E-mail gamecocksports@gwm.sc. edu litue, ana i guess tnat is now it will end, too. But if you ever see a guy wandering around campus with a remote' control in his hand and a stunned look on his face — it is probably me. Just point me toward the nearest sports bar and act like nothing happened. ■ DEFENSE Continued from page 12 that situation. “When you feel like you’re a good defense and you have the momentum going your way, you don’t ever want to let anyone score on you,” Wilson said. “Your chances are always good when it’s fourth-and-long. Fourth-and-one and your chances are good.” The play of the defense caused questions to stir in the post-game conference about a possible letdown by USC. “As a team we came out flat,” cornerback Taqiy Muhammad said. “We weren’t as hyped up as we were supposed to be. They came out fired up and they put points up. We did the best we could and tried to rally, but sometimes things just don’t go the way you want them to go.” Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocksportMgwm.se. edu