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A Gamecock Sports Schedule -mAW” ^^4 ■ Women’s soccer vs. Georgia, Fri., 7 p.m. V h |r I ■ Volleyball vs. Kentucky, Fri., 7 p.m. k ■ U V V ■ ■ Football at Alabama, Sat., 1 p.m. ■ Equestrian in Irmo, Sat., 8:30 a.m. * Page 10 TOlC CBaitlCCOCk Friday, September 29, 2000 i USC faces first road test of year at ’Bama With starting quarterhack, Phil Petty, injured, Gamecocks look for Erik Kimrey to repeat success from last week | : ■ :-'¥-- ■"■-• .■__J Sean Rayford The Gamecock USC’s Derek Watson is hugged by teammates and cheered by fans after scoring a touchdown against Georgia earlier this season. Watson and USC face their first road test of the year Saturday at Alabama. by Michael Haney The Gamecock South Carolina is looking for its first ever win over the Alabama Crimson Tide this weekend as they make their first road trip of the season to Tuscaloosa. Carolina (4-0,2-0) is ranked 23rd in both major polls. Alabama (1-3,1-1), ranked preseason No. 3, has fallen out of the rankings after being picked by many to win the SEC championship again and contend for a national title. The Gamecocks head into Saturday’s game in a tough situation. Quarterback Phil Petty, who has started in all four Gamecock wins, won’t be on the travel team this week. He sprained his ankle in the win last week over Mississippi State. Walk-on Erik Kimrey will start for USC, and true freshman Dondrial Pinkins might see playing time this weekend. Wide receiver Carlos Spikes is also an option. Holtz said the prospect of not hav ing Petty is frustrating. “It’s not an ideal situation,” Holtz said. “We get in a position to have a big game on the road, and we are basically going to have to start from scratch of fensively.” The running game will look to re bound this week after gaining only 30 yards against the Bulldogs last Saturday. Tire team had been averaging 224.3 yards per contest. Sophomore Derek Watson will get the start at tailback Watson is av eraging 105.2 yards per game. Andrew Pinnock will share the duties as well. Phil Petty isn’t the only starter with an injury, as wide receivers Jermale Kelley and James Adkisson were injured earlier in the week. Kelly, who was this week’s SEC Offensive Player of the Wfeek re-aggravated a ligament injury to fingers in his left hand. Adkisson sprained his left knee. The Tide offense has been nothing but a mere ripple so far this season, as the team ranks 89th in the country with 293 yards per game. Most of the yardage is coming from the running game, averag ing 189.8 yards rushing. Tyler Watts and Andrew Zow have been sharing time at quarterback, but Watts is expected to start. Alabama features a strong backfield with Ahmaad Galloway and Brandon Miree at tailback and Dustin McClint cockat fullback Galloway and Miree are averaging nearly 110 yards rushing per game between the two of them and have added five touchdowns. The Gamecock defense won’t get a rest this week as they face .mother huge offensive line. Center Paul Hogan was a 1999 SEC First Teamer and is an All American candidate this year. The receivers are led by pre-season Playboy All-American Freddie Milons. While Milons is having a sub-par year so far with only 14 catches for 102 yards, he is still a threat to go the distance every time he touches the ball. He leads the team in punt and kickoff returns, and he has one punt returned for a touchdown. The defense has been USC’s strong suit so far this season as the Gamecocks rank in the top 10 in the nation in most defensive categories. However, the Carolina defense suf fered its first big injury this season when linebacker Kenny Harney went out with a broken fibula during the first quar ter against Mississippi State. Carolina has intercepted eight pass es to lead the SEC and tie their entire team total from last season. Kevin House and Dennis Quinn lead the team with two each. Linebacker Andre Offing has blasted onto the scene this year, leading the team in tackles with 39, and comerback Rashad Faison leads the team in tackles for loss with six. Faison is also tied for sacks with defensive tackle Cecil Caldwell with three. Alabama’s defense is one of the most talented and physical in the league. All star candidates cover the board at near FOOTBALL see page ti Senior writer has senior moments by Jared Kelowitz Kelo-Wits Sports Commentary I would like to start off by saying that I am not at all a Crimson Tide fan, nor am I affiliated with the University of Alabama in any way. But just enlighten me for a second. Where does a columnist from Columbia, South Carolina get off telling anyone they should be kicked out of the Southeastern Conference for a deficient football program? In the Sept. 29 edition of The State, senior writer Bob Gillespie asserts this about the Alabama Crimson Tide’s football team. I think this senior writer may be having a senior moment. Is he forgetting about a certain team that lost 21-straight games over the past two seasons? In the immortal words of one of my professors, “Duh.” I have read columns by this gentleman before, and thought “man, is that stupid”, but this latest diatribe is the straw that broke the camel’s back for me. Just four short games ago the University of South Carolina was the laughing stock of the SEC, if not all of college football. And now some loud-mouth columnist is gonna piss off one of the more talented teams in the conference right before we have to play them. All any reasonable person could say is “duh.” Mr. Gillespie, I’ll wager that by about 10:00 a.m. Thursday every lock er of every football player in Tuscaloosa will have your work of journalis tic brilliance plastered all over it. Pardon me, I mean journalistic ignorance. Well, you see Gillespie, sports teams don’t take too kindly to being crit icized and told that they don’t belong in their respective conferences. Yes, I know that some jackass in Kentucky and some fool from Birming ham may have said the same stuff about USC last year. But in case your momma didn’t tell you, two wrongs (or three for that matter) don’t make a right. That is the biggest slap in the face that a team could ever receive. And along with that slap in the face, you have given the University of Al abama one more reason to kick the hell out of our football team come Sat urday. Way to go, jackass. In my book, this diarrhea on paper that you call a column is right up there in the sports journalism hall of shame, alongside Jim Grey’s interview with Pete Rose last fall. Have journalists’ egos gotten so big that we believe we can say any thing to anyone? Yes, the First Amendment does afford us this right, but common sense should tell us some things are better left unsaid. Maybe if more journalists thought before they spoke, or wrote in your case, then we wouldn’t have such a bad reputation of being vicious heathens. For years now I have been trying to figure out why journalists feel the need to criticize everyone else. On any day of any year there is a critical column about someone or some thing in every newspaper across this coun try, most of which appear in the sports section. Are these columnists jeal ous of the talent of some athletes, or do they resent the coaches for know ing more about the game than they do? Whatever the reason, it really doesn’t matter, all I know is there are a lot more positive things to write about than what journalists convey. For instance, why couldn’t Bob Gillespie have written a column today about how proud he was to be an American, after the USA’s upset of Cuba in base ball yesterday. Actually, that’s what I had planned to write about, until I was unfortunate enough to stumble across this piece of journalistic dung on the front page of sports in The State. , Mr. Gillespie, in your column you also say “Somewhere, Bear Bryant is spinning in his grave.” Sir, you may be right, but if that’s true, I believe that somewhere Lewis Grizzard is probably spinning in his grave as well. The sports desk can be reached at gamecocksports@hotmail.com. Volleyball starts SEC play tonight ■ Gamecocks face Kentucky, Tennessee in key weekend games by Rick Johnston The Gamecock The Carolina volleyball team contin ues its quest for an SEC championship this weekend as the Gamecocks host Eastern divi sion rival Kentucky tonight in their first SEC home game, and then take on Tennessee Sunday. Carolina is coming off a weekend that saw them extend their winning streak to seven games and defeat Western division foes LSU and perennial national power Arkansas. In the game against LSU, Carolina hit .297 for the match and got 21 kills from red shirt sophomore Cally Plummer. Plummer con tinued her spectacular play against the Razorbacks, notching three of Carolina’s five service aces in the match. “With a tough roadtrip from Baton Rouge, La. and a young team, this was a big Win for us,” USC head coach Kim Christopher said after the Arkansas game. “We knew we had to be patient with them. It was a great vol leyball match.” The Gamecocks are looking to win their seventh game in a row at home when they play Kentucky, which is 4-8 and 2-0 in SEC play. A key player for the Wildcats will be sophomore Liz McCastin, who totalled 44 kills and 39 digs in UK’s two victories over Mississippi State and Ole Miss. Another play er to watch will be senior Whitney Sample, who is continuing her assault on the UK record books, moving into sixth place all-time in assists in the Wildcats’ win over MSU. Last season, the Gamecocks defeated UK 3-1 in Columbia. Sophomore Sam Alban totaled 12 kills, two digs and five block assists in last year’s victory. On Sunday, the Gamecocks will host the Tennessee Volunteers, who are 11-2 (2-0 SEC) and riding a five-match winning streak. The Vols are off to their best start since 1986. The match against the Vols will be a high-profile match, as the last two SEC Players of the Week will square off in Plummer and Tennessee sophomore Janelle Hester. Hester was named this week’s Player of the Week after her career-high 21 kills against Mississippi State. The middle blocker also leads the Vols in hitting percentage after she hit over .300 in all three matches this past weekend. Another player the Gamecocks will have to contain will be sophomore outside hit ter Kelli Scott, who had a strong match against Ole Miss, adding a team high 14 digs, three blocks and 12 kills in the Vols’ SEC opener. Last season, the Gamecocks and Vols tied for second place in the SEC Eastern divi sion. Carolina took out Tennessee 3-1 in Columbia. In last year’s win over UT, senior Milicia Perovic hit .542 in the match, knock ing down a match high 15 kills, adding 13 digs, three aces and four block assists. Tennessee’s Scott served eight straight points in the first game, notching three aces. Friday’s game starts at 7 p.m. and Sunday’s at 2 p.m. Both games will be at the Volleyball Competition Facility adjacent to Carolina Coliseum and are free to students. Friday’s game will also host a benefit for the Walk for Life breast cancer research fund where some of the proceeds will benefit breast cancer research. The sports desk can be reached at gamecocksports@hotmail.com. Men’s soccer keeps up its winning ways 11—■iiiiiih—»—fimwii p——■ ii Travis Lynn The Gamecock Forward Jordan Quinn has been an offensive force for USC all sea son, leading the Gamecocks in goals, assists, and total points. by Kyle Almond The Gamecock The South Carolina men’s soc cer team defeated in-state rivals Winthrop, 4-0, Wednesday night to improve to 7-1-1. The No. 5 Gamecocks received a pair of goals each from their front line of freshman Ryan Daley and sophomore Jordan Quinn, and three USC goalkeepers combined for the shutout. Daley scored the first goal of the game in the 21st minute. Fellow freshman Robert Rosenberg found an open Daley in the box, and the forward headed the ball into the back of the net for his fifth goal of the year. Before halftjme, Quinn increased the lead to two with his team-lead ing seventn goal or tne season, rresn man David Minges assisted the goal for his first point in his Gamecock career. Carolina dominated the first half of play, out-shooting Winthrop (4 3) by five shots and also holding a 6-1 advantage in corner kicks. The second half was more of the same. USC scored twice more in a four-minute span to put the game out of reach and bury the host Ea gles. Quinn scored his second goal of the night at the 67:48 mark off as sists from midfielders Jack Cum mings and David Testo. Daley com pleted his pair at the 70:50 mark off a corner kick from Dave Moore. For the game, USC out-shot their Soccer see page «