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_Sports___ i- -- Volleyball falls to Clemson, 3-2 by David Cloninger Assistant Sports Editor The biggest crowd that Clemson’s Jervey Gymnasium has ever seen was packed into the stands Tuesday night to see the Lady Tigers barely escape the Gamecock volleyball team, 3-2. Clemson, undefeated through 12 matches and ranked No. 13 in the nation, went into the match flying high with then highest national ranking ever, a senior leading the nation in hitting percentage, and a home crowd that wouldn’t quit. Carolina, playing without All-SEC performer Cally Plummer, had coasted to a 2-0 start in Southeastern Conference play, a 3-0 record against the Atlantic Coast Conference so far this season and a 3-0 victory over Clemson last year. Also, about 20 of the 1,367 fans in at tendance were clad in garnet shirts, cheer I ing their team in the midst of a sea of or ange. USC (8-5), suffering the lossofPlum mer and an ankle injury last week to se nior captain Crystal Moore, still managed to keep Clemson guessing, even if the matchup of three USC freshmen against three Clemson seniors hardly seemed fair. Game 1 began with USC freshman setter Megan Hosp putting her team ahead 2-0 on two straight serves. However, the Tigers came roaring back to tie the score after senior Alison Coday knocked a crucial kill past the outstretched hands of Carolina’s Danika Taylor. USC then put the game out of reach by jumping to a 9-3 lead, thanks to superior defensive play from junior Sara Heri and sophomore Liz Price. Fresh men Bema Dwyer and Sam Alban also contributed to the sudden spurt by con tinuously pounding the ball past Clem son defenders. The Laly Tigers managed to score one more point, but USC capitalized on a Tiger mistake and rattled off seven more points. The Gamecocks walked to the oth er side of the net with a 15-4 victory and a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five match. With the crowd somewhat sub dued, USC began the second game by col lecting an immediate sideout, blocking a Cindy Stem kill back into Clemson ter ritory. Stem, leading the nation in hitting percentage and a preseason choice for ACC Player of the Year, then took mat ters into her own hands. With Stem serving and three 6-fo'ot blockers alongside the net, the Tigers blitzed their way to a 15-9 Game 2 win. With the 6-foot-1 Coday, 6-foot-1 sophomore Jodi Steffes and 6-foot-3 Stem, the Tigers were able to power the ball past Carolina’s depleted defense. Taking ad vantage of the loss of Plummer, Clemson shut down USC’s offense and tied the score. After the break, the Tigers showed no signs of cooling off, as they jumped to an 11 -4 lead. Freshman setter Jessi Betch er, earning Freshman of the Week hon ors, was instrumental for Clemson, col lecting 59 kills for the match. The Gamecocks, who hit a miserable .000 in Game 2, fared no better in Game 3 as the Tigers nailed a lofty .359 hitting percentage to win, 15-8. Facing a possible 3-1 loss, USC coach Kim Christopher substituted junior Mandy Quarterman, who’s been on fire lately, in to the lineup. After Quarterman imme diately garnered a kill, USC bounced back to take Game 4 convincingly, 15-10. With the stage now set for an upset and the crowd much smaller, USC man aged to get a 54 lead in Game 5. How ever, one critical flaw developed. Through out the match, Clemson had relied on its strength and size along the net to simply overpower USC’s blockers. By now, that tactic wasn’t working as well as it should, so Clemson coach Jolene Jor dan Hoover instituted a new policy. From then on, anytime a play was set to kill the ball over USC’s blockers, Clemson simply lofted the ball over the outstretched hands of USC’s Milica Perovic, Alban and Dwyer to let it fall untouched to the floor. The strategy pushed Clemson to a 14-8 lead. USC rallied to score three points, but in the end, the Lady Tigers were tdo strong, winning the match, 15-11. “Wfe knew we had to win,” Stem said. “Otherwise, the fans wouldn’t have come back.” “I was surprised at the end, because it felt like the last game,” USC’s Taylor said. “We fought really hard. This will show people that we don’t give up and we’re fighters.” Although unhappy with the loss, Christopher was proud of her team’s ef fort. “Every time I’ve been here, it’s been a 3-0 sweep,” Christopher said. “It does us much better to overcome adversity and take a good team to the wire.” The Gamecocks will travel to Ba ton Rouge, La., on Friday to play theESU Tigers and will play the No. 21 Razor backs on the return trip Sunday. use from page 10 Kenny Woods and Anthony Magee should be able to effectively tontain Goodman and his receivers. USC returned safety Arturo Free man last week, but he made no imme diate impact. The Gamecock backs are primarily superior at the blitz defense installed by coach Lou Holtz, but don't cover receivers particularly well. - Edge to Mississippi. Koras The punting game will be of para mount importance in this game. South Carolina is last in the SEC in net punt ing average, at just 27-.5 yards per punt. Gamecock punter Courtney Leavitt is averaging 38.5 yards per punt overall. Rebel punter Reagan King is aver aging just 37.4 yards per punt. This might shorten the field for both, and give these offenses a much-needed advantage. Edge to Mississippi. * Kickoff for Saturday’s game is 7 p.m. The series is tied, 5-5. Carolina fell to the Rebels in Oxford, Miss., last season, 30-28. -* Soccer from page 10 performance in the Furman game, but a repeat of the William and Mary loss, in which they surrendered four goals, could kill the Gamecocks’ hopes for suc cess. All-American goalie Henry Ring covers up most defensive mistakes. Going into this weekend, Berson is thinking positive. « “I think we are settling in defen sively,” Berson said recently, “and I think we are continuing to attack well." Two wins this weekend would push South Carolina’s record to 6-2-2, and along with some consideration in the rankings, it would also bring much-need ed confidence to a team that still has to face a good Clemson team, South Flori da (an NCAA tournament team), and the powerful Penn State Nittany Lions, who are No. 1 in the country and undefeat ed. Money from page 10 deserve to be played every time Chip per Jones comes up to bat in Atlanta Dit to for Elton John’s “Levon" and that Li van Hernandez guy. Hey, and speaking of what side of the earth did you fall off of... • More eager and knowledgeable sports casters get their breaks in primetime in favor of old, blathering ex-jocks, like Van Earl Wright and Steve Lyons. • See USC win a national championship in some major sport. Now that would be something. 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