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.■.GAME SCHEDULE ■ I W ill * FOOTBALL vs. Tennessee, 6 p.m. Saturday I I VOLLEYBALL vs. Auburn, 7 p.m. Friday ■ I I i WOMEN’S SOCCER vs. Ole Miss, 7 p.m. Friday Story ideas? Questions? Comments? / v'l V ■ W VII I L j MEN’S SOCCER vs. Cal State-Fullerton, noon Write us at gamecocksports@hotmail.com w\. 9 I W I I I ^ M Friday USC at Tennessee 6 p.m. Saturday at Neyland Stadium, Knoxville TV: ESP-N2, Radio: WVOC 560-AM BY CHRIS FOY THE GAMECOCK The No. 12 Gamecocks will travel to Knoxville tomorrow to take on the ninth-ranked Tennessee Volunteers in a highly anticipated SEC matchup. Not only are the teams’ poll and Bowl Championship Series rankings at stake, but the game also has major conference implications. With the Georgia-Florida game also being played Saturday, two teams will be falling out of serious contention for the SEC East title. The winner of this game will also get a quality win in the RPS Qvcfpm pr»H will likplv mnvp intn major bowl contention. Last season, the Gamecocks held the Volunteers for the majority of the game until then-freshman Casey Clausen or chestrated a six-minute drive at the end of the game to put Tennessee up for good, 17-14. The teams are evenly matched in what should be a close game. USC offense vs. Tennessee defense Rushing: USC’s tandem of Derek Watson, Andrew Pinnock and Ryan Brewer will be squaring off against the best rush defense in the conference and one of the better ones in the country. The stingy Tennessee defense allows just 71 rushing yards per game and has only given up one touchdown on the ground all season. Watson has not yet had a true breakout game, but the ju nior has been averaging five yards per carry and has three touchdowns on the year. Pinnock has also been a strong factor in the Carolina ground attack with seven touchdowns this season. Tennessee is led by star defensive tack le John Henderson, who has 18 career sacks as a Volunteer. Henderson has also had at least one tackle for a loss or a sack in each of his last 14 games. Kevin Burnett is also a force for the rush defense with three sacks. Star lineman Will Overstreet is expected to miss the game. ADVANTAGE: Tennessee Passing: USC’s Phil Petty has been solid at quarterback this season, throw ing for 1,231 yards with nine touch downs and three interceptions. Petty’s strongpoint has been his ability to read opposing defenses. Backup Corey Jenkins has shown a lot of promise and has run for two touchdowns and thrown for 139 yards. Brian Scott has been Petty’s go-to guy and leads the team with four touchdowns and an av erage of 17.5 yards per catch. Brewer has gathered 469 all-purpose yards on the year. The Volunteer secondary has pulled in four interceptions this sea son. Rashad Baker has two, and the group on the whole has given up seven touchdowns in the air. ADVANTAGE: USC Tennessee offense vs. USC defense Rushing: Travis Stephens leads the UT offensive charge. He has scored five touchdowns and averages an impressive 150 rushing yards per game. USC’s de fensive line has been in question for most of the year. It has given up six touch downs and an average of 140 yards per game. The line usually is able to contain running backs but struggles when quar terbacks run the option, and the Vols will probably not run the option. Kalimba Edwards has remained solid in the line backer position, however, putting up 36.5 tackles thus far this season. ADVANTAGE: Tennessee Passing: Clausen has solidified his position as the Volunteers starting quarterback. He is throwing for an av erage of 233 yards per game and has seven touchdowns under his belt. Wideout Kelley Washington has been leading the receiving corps in the past Phil Petty led the Gamecocks to 656 yards of total offense during last week’s game against Vanderbilt. This week, Petty and USC face the Tennessee Volunteers, photo by travis lynn three games with 24 receptions, 457 yards and two touchdowns. Washing ton had a school-record 256 yards re ceiving against LSU. The USC sec ondary has been sharp this season, in tercepting nine passes and rising to sec ond in the conference. The USC defense is anchored by its secondary, with Andre Goodman and Sheldon Brown on the corners. Goodman leads the team with three interceptions. ADVANTAGE: USC Tennessee special teams vs. USC special teams Kicking/Punting: Daniel Weaver has put the Gamecocks’ usual poor kicking game behind them for the most part, making seven of nine field-goal attempts this season. He remains con sistent on the extra point as well, notching in 21 of 23. UT’s Alex Walls hasn’t been quite on the mark with field goals this season, hitting six of 10, ♦ TENNESSEE, SEE PAGE 8 Volleyball team faces off against young SEC teams BY RICK JOHNSTON THE GAMECOCK The USC volleyball team plays host to a pair of SEC opponents this weekend as they wrap up the 2001 season. The Gamecocks, tied at 21st with Minnesota in the USA Today/AVCA Coaches’ poll, will face the Auburn Tigers at 7 p.m. tonight and the Alabama Crimson Tide at 2 p.m. Sunday. The Gamecocks (14-3, 7-3 SEC) are coming off a weekend that saw them defeat Tennessee 3-1 and Kentucky 3-0. The wins gave USC the regular-season sweep against the Wildcats and evened the sea son series with the Lady Vols. This weekend’s games will be against teams with a lot of young talent. T'Viq Tioorc rohim fmir ctarfpr<; from last year’s squad, which had a 13-16 overall record but a paltry 3-12 SEC record. However, the Tigers haven’t seen much success this year, going 1-17 overall and winless in the SEC. The Tigers fell to Alabama this weekend in a 3-0 sweep. Running the offense for Auburn is senior setter Meghan Keck. She will be trying to feed the ball to her returning starters on the front, Nicole Sandifer and Christine Iraggi. Keck leads the team in assists and is fourth on the team in digs, with 93 on the year. Alabama is about as young as their rivals from Auburn, return ing jpnly three starters from last year’s western division champi onship team. Even then, the three returning starters are all under classmen. However, the Tide has seen more success than Auburn, and they come into this weekend’s play riding a six-match winning streak. They defeated Auburn and South Florida last weekend, up ping their home record to 7-1. Alabama’s overall record is 16-5 overall and 7-3 in the SEC.The Tide’s three returning starters, Shelley Adamcik, Erin Price and Emily Sebastian, are all on the front. Price is also a threat from the service line. She sparked the Tide to a 6-0 run with two aces during the Auburn match. The Tide offense is run by ju nior setter Bridget Studnicka, who nau «_»j aooiau n/iauanuuiuu. Gamecock players to watch this Weekend include junior Nadia Sefferovich, who with her 17 kills against Tennessee set a season high for kills in a four-game match. Sefferovich also notched 10 digs for the match against the Lady Vols. As always, junior Cally Plummer will be an offensive pow er for the Gamecocks. She has notched double-digit kills in 15 of USC’s 17 matches. Plummer showed her defensive prowess this weekend when she got 10 digs in the Tennessee match. Another thing to watch is the setter position to see if head coach Kim Christopher uses both junior all-SEC candidate Megan Hosp and redshirt freshman Amy Pratt to run the Gamecock offense. Pratt was rotated in on a regular basis Nadia Sefferovich (No. 6) puts the ball between the hands of two Tennessee players, photo by aaron hark in tne ftentucKy matcri in oruer 10 give the Gamecocks a different look on the floor and to allow Hosp a well-deserved break in the match. NOTES ♦Tonight’s game will be Senior Night as the Gamecocks bid farewell to the three seniors: Nia Mackie, Milicia Perovic and Columbia native Liz Price. ♦ Sunday’s game will be Military Appreciation Day and the annual nauoween costume con test. Fans are encouraged to come in costume to the game. ♦ Sunday’s game will also fea ture a post-game volleyball clinic for adults, conducted by Christopher and her staff. ♦ This is not the final home game for the Gamecocks. In a rare game after the SEC tournament, USC will play host to the University of North Carolina on Nov. 24 at 2 p.m. 1 Why we want Florida to win CHRIS FOY GAMECOCKSPORTS@HOTMAIL.COM Before I even get into this column, let me clarify something. It is every South Carolina Gamecock’s duty to hate, if not loathe, the Florida Gators. The Gators are the epitome of everything that is wrong with sports. Florida is a lot like the New York Yankees. Everyone hates them, and no one can beat them. I remain convinced that some under-the table action has to be going on in Gainesville. There is no way, short of selling your soul, that you can rank that high in nropficalltt QTTr»r*ir nnl 1 nnioln sport. And yet, they do. You name it, they’re up there. So I’m sure you’re asking, “Why on earth do we want the Gators to win?” We want them to win because if Georgia wins, South Carolina will finds itself in an SEC race where it will have to win the remainder of its games. Look at it like this: If Georgia happens to upset Florida, it will have gone through its toughest SEC East opponents 2-1 and, more importantly, will still only have that one loss. The Dawgs look poised to win the remainder of tneir games. U UbC, Honda and Tennessee each have one more conference loss than Georgia, then the Bulldogs will be representing the SEC East in the SEC championship. The best-case scenario would be for us to beat the Volunteers this weekend and for Florida to beat Georgia. Both teams should breeze past their opponents next week, as Carolina plays host to Wofford and Florida has its homecoming against Vanderbilt. After that, USC would truly control its own destiny. If the Dawgs win tomorrow, they would control their own destiny because they will just have to win out, and for us to be the East champion, we would have to do the same — not an easy task. If ITlnriHa tvinc rnnImntVintif USC loses to either Tennessee or Florida — but not both — then we would still be in second place in the East because Georgia’s loss would tie them with us, and we would have the advantage because of the tiebreaker. Even if Tennessee wins this weekend, let’s be frank: The Volunteers stand practically no chance of going to the Swamp and beating the Gators. But if South Carolina takes on the Gators with both teams having only one loss between them, then the winner will be your SEC East champion. And while playing Florida is never a simple task, there is ♦ FOY, S/EE PAGE 9