University of South Carolina Libraries
THE GAMECOCK ♦ Friday, November 2, 2001 GAME SCHEDULE VOLLEYBALL at Georgia, 7 p.m. Friday WOMEN’S SOCCER vs. UNC-G, 7 p.m. Friday FOOTBALL vs. Wofford, 1 p.m. Saturday MEN’S SOCCER vs. Drury, 2 p.m. Sunday VOLLEYBALL at Florida, 2 p.m. Sunday Hopes high for Gamecocks ■ w BBS Wofford at (JSC Time: 1 p.m. Saturday Place: Wiliams Brice Stadium TV: none Radio: 560 AM WVOC Wofford game is preparation for end of season Clemson match BY PRESTON BAINES THE GAMECOCK The 17th-ranked Carolina foot ball team is preparing for its SEC East showdown with the fourth ranked Florida Gators and the end of the season matchup with rival Clemson to finish out the “orange crush.” This season, though, there is an opponent between them. The Division I-AA Wofford Terriers (3-4,2-3 Southern Conference) vis it Williams-Brice Stadium at 1 p.m. Saturday to take on USC (6 2,5-2 SEC). The game was sched uled after the Sept. 15 game with Bowling Green was canceled be cause of the Sept. 11 terrorist at tacks. Wofford head coach Mike Ayers comes into the game as the Terriers’ all-time leader in victo ries. Wofford finished last season at No. 24 in the Division I-AA poll and was ranked in this year’s pre season poll. This won’t be the first time this season the Terriers have played in-state before a crowd of more than 80,000. Earlier this year, Wofford fell at Clemson 38-14 while rushing for more than 200 yards against the Tigers. Wofford led 14-7 in the second quarter in Death Valley. USC offense vs. Wofford defense RUSHING: Expect the Gamecocks to come out and run it, then run it Some more. Carolina ranks second in the SEC in rushing yards per game and was one of the very few teams to have success running against Tennessee. Carolina has gone to a lot of op tions on the ground this year and has three different players that average over five yards per car ■ry: juniors Derek Watson, Skip Holtz discusses strategy with the Gamecock offense, photo by aaron hark Andrew Pinnock and quarter back Corey Jenkins. Wofford strong safety Matt Nelson is quite a run-stopper with 73 tackles in seven games. Linebackers Robert Mathis and Hondre McNeil also lead the rush defense for the Terriers. Wofford has been impressive against the rush this year, only allowing 3.1 yards per carry. Look for USC to control the line of scrimmage against an un dermanned Wofford defensive line. ADVANTAGE: USC PASSING: Most of the yardage Wofford’s stingy defense allows is in the air. Carolina will be missing fresh man receiver Andrea Gause, who is suspended indefinitely. Carolina should have an ad vantage against the Terrier de fensive backs. Cornerback Roland Harris leads the Terriers with two inter ceptions but is considerably shorter than senior Brian Scott, Carolina’s leading receiver. Senior quarterback Phil Petty ♦ FOOTBALL, SEE PAGE 9 Volleyball winds down season on road Lady Gamecocks to face Bulldogs before showdown with Gators BY CHRIS FOY THE GAMECOCK The No. 19 Lady Gamecock vol leyball team (16-3,9-3) will hit the road this weekend as they wind down their regular SEC season. USC will play at Georgia at 7 p.m. today and then travel to Gainesville on Sunday to face the No. 9 Florida Gators at 2 p.m. USC head coach Kim Christopher is excited about hav ing her team back on the road. “After being at home for a while, it will be nice to head out on the road again,” Christopher said. But the coach remains wary that her team might not be fo cused on its match with the Lady Bulldogs by looking ahead to Florida. “We always have a tough match at Georgia, and I don’t want the team thinking ahead to the Florida match. Georgia is too talented to worry about Sunday.” Last season USC won both of its regular season matches against the Lady Bulldogs before losing to them in the quarterfi nals of the SEC tournament. In Carolina’s last match against them Sept. 23, the Lady Gamecocks walked away with a decisive 3-0 win. Now they will try to repeat the task in Athens. Leading the way for Georgia is outside hitter Stacy Buerger, who has been averaging 4.48 kills per game and has a hitting percent age of .274. Setter Margot Wallace has been notching about 12 as sists per game. Defensively, out side hitter Luresa Forsyth has been tallying 2.86 digs per game. But regardless of how the Gamecocks face off against the Bulldogs on Friday, Christopher knows the team will be poised to take on its longtime rivals in Gainesville on Sunday. “Our ladies have been both ered by the loss to Florida at home since September 21.1 hope we are better prepared to face them on the road now. Florida has proven they are a very good team. I expect it to be as good a match as it was in September. I just hope there will be a different outcome.” The Lady Gamecocks will be trying to accomplish a task that has eluded them for some time. South Carolina hasn’t beaten Florida since 1994. The job will not be easy, as the Lady Gators are riding high on a 15-match winning streak. The star of their team is outside hitter Aury Crus, who has been averaging an im pressive 5.2 kills per game. Crus also leads the defense as she racks in 3.21 digs per game. Setter Kris Bova is the assist leader for Florida with 12.43 per game. For the Lady Gamecocks, rightside hitter Cally Plummer has had another phenomenal sea son. In addition to her team-lead ing 3.56 kills per game, Plummer is also the team’s best server with 34 aces this season. Setter Megan Hosp is also contributing to the potent Gamecock offense, aver aging 11.53 assists per game. Hosp has also helped out defensively, bringing in 2.65 digs per game. Middle blocker Sam Alban has a team-leading 56 blocks this year, while junior outside hitter Nadia Sefferovich is third on the team in digs with 2.23 per game. South Carolina will be at home Nov. 24 for a late-season match against North Carolina. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksportsQiJiotmail.com. Last game of season for Lady Gamecocks Gamecocks take on second place Mississippi State Spartans BY CARLA WYNN THE GAMECOCK The use women’s soccer team (7-7-3,2-6-1) hopes to finish its season on a good note when it takes on the UNC Greensboro Spartans (12-6-0, 8-2-0) at 7:00 p.m. today at Stone Stadium. This will be the last game of the season for the Lady Gamecocks, whose SEC tourna ment hopes were thwarted after Sunday’s 2-1 overtime loss to Mississippi State. The Lady Spartans, the 2000 Southern Conference champi ons, are coming off a 3-0 victory over Davidson on Wednesday. The win extended their season best winning streak to six and keeps them in second place in their conference. Spartan head coach Eddie Radwanski says he has an expe rienced team, with nine starters returning this season. Leading the Spartans offen sively is senior forward Kate Dylag, this week’s Southern Conference Player of the Week. Dylag has scored 32 points this season on 13 goals and six assists. Seven of those goals have occurred in the past three matches, setting a new three match record at UNCG. “Kate is a tremendous offen sive threat,” Radwanski said. “She can be difficult for other teams to handle.” The Lady Gamecocks will also be on the lookout for Spartan freshman Jaime Ableman, who has racked up 22 points on eight goals and six as sists this season. Ableman and Dylag are two of five Spartan players who have at least 12 points this season. The USC defense will be counting on juiyor goalkeeper Elise Matthews, who has start ed in 11 of the 14 games she’s played in this season. Matthews has 59 saves and three shutouts. Matthews con tributed to both conference wins this season, shutting out both Arkansas and Mississippi. Redshirt junior Carolyn Ortega has started in six of her 10 games this season and regis tered 12 saves and two shutouts. Sophomore Becca Epstein leads the Gamecock offense with 13 points on four goals and five assists. Freshman Ashley Gosnell has also been an offensive key this yea,; with 10 points on five ♦ W. SOCCER, SEE PAGE 9 MEN’S SOCCER I____I Goalkeeper #0 Michael Bachmeyer. photo courtesy media guide Goalkeeper dominates game BY KYLE ALMOND TIIK UAMECOCK When Henry Ring graduated this past season, Michael Bachmeyer finally got the chance he had waited three years for —. the chance to be USC’s full-time starting goalkeeper. Since coming to USC in 1998, he had played behind Ring, an All-American considered one of Carolina’s best keepers ever.. Now, one could make a case that Bachmeyer, a redshirt ju nior from Charlotte, N.C., is do ing an even better job than his predecessor did. With nine wins, five shutouts and a miniscule 0.86 goals against-average, Bachmeyer has been a solid force guarding the net for the No. 19 Gamecocks. Forget filling Ring’s shoes. Bachmeyer is making a name for himself. “At first, I sort of felt like I had to live up to what he did,” Bachmeyer said of Ring. “But then I figured, I can only do what I can do. Henry’s gone, and I have to make my own pres ence felt.” Bachmeyer definitely made his presence felt this past week end, notching a pair of shutouts over Cal State Fullerton and UCLA. In the scoreless tie against UCLA, he had 15 saves. “I don’t know who voted on the tournament’s Most Valuable Defensive Player, but they l ♦ M. SOCCER, SEE PAGE 9 Officials in SEC fail to do theirjob PRESTON BAINES PBAINES@GAMECOCKS.COM Officials should be repremanded for continuous bad calls. So the Gamecocks dropped another game to a team in orange, and Gamecock fans everywhere are upset. Not at some failure by the team, and not at a coaching decision. Once again, fans are upset at the officiating. As has been the case in many games over the past few seasons, teams are wondering whether they should have won games. Besides the many questionable calls at last Saturday’s game in Knoxville, other teams’ fans were upset after games. At the world’s largest cocktail party in Jacksonville, Fla., Florida head coach Steve Spurrier was very displeased with the officiating in the game against the Georgia Bulldogs. Florida won fairly easily against the Dawgs but was still frustrated with the calls. Spurrier said officials were “out for the Gators.” The funny thing is that Florida has probably gotten more calls than just about every school in the t/uuiiu ji auu capcuauj U1C in the past ten years. It’s sort of like the Duke basketball officiating rule — if in doubt, give it to Duke. As many Gamecock fans know, it’s not a new problem. Many fans feel the officials were the main reason for the loss at Clemson last year. SEC officials also cost Georgia its game at rival Georgia Tech two years ago in Atlanta with a fumble call. The UGA running back was obviously already in the end zone for the victory. Tech came back and won that game. Last year, the officials cost Tennessee against Florida. They missed a call when a Gator receiver didn’t hold onto a ball in the end zone. It was called a touchdown anyway, and the Gators won. What was the common thing between all of these incidents? The SEC “heads” knew of the criticism, reviewed the tape and didn’t see anything wrong with the calls. Here’s a solution: How about doing something about it? The director of SEC officiating, Bobby Gaston, will not do anything about it. Teams get penalized for ill mnmrr nffpioc onH rnarhPS J —-r-o get fined for complaining about officials. How about listening to those complaints? Officials must get some kind of reprimand for continually making obvious bad calls. If this doesn’t happen, then there is no way the officiating will improve. I’ve heard the slogan “coaches don’t win or lose games, players do.” Well, what about the officials? Imagine if something happens next week in a game that could decide the SEC East championship. What if the game comes down to one play, the Gator’s Earnest Graham runs to the sidelines and... the Gator right guard holds Rashad Faison at the point of contact, it’s blatant and no yellow hankie comes out? The Gators win the championship. Believe it or not, this is something that could happen since the SEC hasn’t put out a warning or told the officials they screwed tip. ♦ BAINES, SEE PAGE 9