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11 - GAME SCHEDULE CONTACT TIS MEN’S SOCCER vs. Charlotte, 7 p.m. Wednesday MEN'S TENNIS in S.C. Fall Invitational (Columbia), Friday-Saturday Story ideas? Questions? Comments? SWIMMING at College of Charleston, 5 p.m. Friday E-mail us at gamecocksports@hotmail.com • WOMEN'S SOCCER vs. Georgia, 7 p:m. Friday . .-’•I’. USC defense stands tall, stops UK on late drive BY CHRIS DUNCAN THE ASSOCIATED I’ltESS LEXINGTON, KY. - USC quar terback Corey Jenkins couldn’t think of many things he did right in the first half against Kentucky on Saturday night. In the second half, he and the Gamecocks could do little wrong, coming back from a 10-0 halftime deficit to beat the Wildcats 16-12. “In the first half, I don’t know what was wrong with me. I came into the locker room and kind of sat by myself for a while,” said Jenkins, who finished 7-of-15 for 199 yards and also rushed for 49 yards. “I said, ‘OK, it’s showtime in the second half. I got it going, and the guys fed off me.” The Gamecocks (5-2, 3-1 SEC) drove 62 yards for a field goal in the opening minutes of the third quarter. The defense then did its part, holding Kentucky to minus-6 yards on its first four possessions of the second half. Jenkins did much of the rest, en gineering two touchdown drives. On the first play of the fourth quarter, Michael Ages took a short pass from Jenkins and raced 57 yards to the Kentucky 30. Three plays later, Jenkins fum bled inside the 5 on a scramble. The ball rolled into the end zone, where offensive tackle Watts Sanderson recovered for the tying touchdown. Jenkins went 3-for-3 and had a 5-yard run on Carolina’s next pos session. Ryan Brewer finished the drive with a 6-yard touchdown run with 7:54 left that put the Gamecocks ahead for good. “Kentucky had a very nice game plan and had us stymied in the first half,” USC head coach Lou Holtz PHOTO BY CANDI HAUGLUM/THE GAMECOCK Deandre Eiland, right, picks off a pass against Temple earlier this season. Eiland and the USC secondary did a tremendous job against the vaunted Kentucky offense, limiting the Wildcats to only 209 passing yards. said. "We came out in the second half and just executed. The biggest thing was we kept our poise. ’’ Carolina won its fourth straight and beat Kentucky for the third consecutive time. Jared Lorenzen went 22-of-37 for 194 yards and Artose Pinner rushed for 117 yards to lead Kentucky (4-2,0-2), which has lost two in a row after starting 4-0. “We killed ourselves tonight. We basically just blew it,” said Lorenzen, who connected on his first 11 passes. Trailing 16-10 after Brewer’s touchdown run, the Wildcats drove to the Carolina 7 with under three minutes left. Lorenzen threw two incomplete passes, and Pinner had a 1-yard run to bring up fourth-and-goal. Lorenzen tried to hit Aaron Boone in the end zone, bufBoone fell down and the ball sailed over his head to end the threat with 1:28 remaining. “We really wanted to excel in goal-line defense,” Holtz said. “That’s something we worked real ly hard on during the week of prac tice. To see it work out and bring us a great team win is wonderful.” The Gamecocks couldn’t get a ♦ KENTUCKY, SEE PAGE 12 GAME 7 ^ TOC, 16 yt K» 12 THE GAMECOCK'S GAME BALL CB Dunta Robinson The junior from Athens, Ga., had five tackles and an j INT (his team leading fourth of the year). His tight coverage frustrated UK quarterback Jared Lorenzen, who was often left with no one to pass to. “Our defense came together and played big when it counted.” LANGSTON MOORE use NOSE TACKLE THE PLAY USC quarterback Corey Jenkins put a scare into the hearts of Carolina fans when he fumbled inside the Kentucky 5-yard line, but right tackle Watts Sanderson saved the day, recovering the ball in the end zone for a game-tying touchdown in the fourth quarter. THE STAT 16 On average Saturday, USC started from its own 16-yard line. But despite the consistently terrible field position, the Gamecocks put together scoring drives when it mattered most Bulldogs have inside track to SEC East title KYLE ALMOND gamecocksports®hotmail.com Second-place Carolina waiting for UGA to slip. It was a sweet weekend for col lege football, at least from where USC stands. Clemson goes down to Vlrginia. The Gamecocks pull out a tough win in Kentucky. And Florida and Tennessee, long the dominant teams in the SEC Eastern Division, suffer their sec ond conference defeats. It’s still early, of course, to crown a champion. But two SEC losses by the middle of October is severely damaging to a team’s ti tle hopes. “We aren’t out of this thing,” Gators head coach Ron Zook said after his team was whipped 38-7 by LSU in the Swamp. That’s true. But now, the Gators and the Vols have to win the rest of their SEC games and get help from the two teams above them — USC and Georgia — to book a spot in the SEC title game. It’s all but impossible to win the division with three losses. The Georgia Bulldogs are sit ting pretty at 3-0 in the SEC, and the East is theirs to lose. Since they have the head-to-head tiebreaker over Carolina via their 14-9 win last month, the ’Dawgs will have to lose twice for any oth er team to have a chance. “We control our destiny now,” Georgia wide receiver Terrence Edwards said after the Bulldogs defeated Tennessee 18-13 on Saturday. Since the SEC split into two di visions, back in 1992, no team oth er than Florida or Tennessee has won the East. The Gamecocks, despite their loss to Georgia, are still in decent shape to be the team that breaks that streak. Carolina hasn’t played the prettiest ball, but it has found a way to win lately. And while the four games ahead are much tougher than the past four, they’re all winnable. This weekend’s game at LSU could be USC’s toughest remain ing conference game. The Tigers are riding high after pummeling the Gators, and they’ll get to play in front of a raucous home crowd. But Matt Mauck’s injury, in ad dition to a vulnerable run de fense, makes LSU a good matchup for the Gamecocks. Carolina normally stumbles when it reaches its “Orange Crush” of Florida and Tennessee. (What team doesn’t?) But if there’s any year to play those two powerhouses, it’s this year. The Gators are missing that swagger and are actually beginning to doubt themselves. The Vols are limited offensively with quarter back Casey Clausen injured. Arkansas beat USC last season, but it was considered an upset at the time. With the Hogs coming to Columbia this time, the Gamecocks could easily exact some revenge. So, as far as their SEC schedule goes, the Gamecocks could win ♦ ALMOND, SEEPAGE 12 SEC Standings EASTERN CONF. OVERALL Georgia 3-06-0 use 3-1 5-2 Florida 2-2^ 4-3 Tennessee1-2 4-2 Kentucky 0-2 4-2 Vanderbilt 0-3 1-5 WESTERN CONF. OVERALL LSU 2-0 5-1 Ole Miss 2-0 5-1 Auburn 2-1 4-2 Alabama 1-1 4-2 Arkansas 1-2 3-2 Mississippi St. 0-3 2-4 Sarah Morgan, left, and the use volleyball team fell behind to Tennessee In Sunday’s match, but Carolina came back to win in five games. USC is unbeaten in SEC play, with a 7-0 record, and It will face Alabama on Friday night. f PHOTO BY CANDI f hauglum/the GAMECOCK I Volleyball survives scare Lady Volunteers take Gamecocks to five games BY MATT ROTHENBERG THE GAMECOCK Tennessee became an annoying pest Sunday afternoon, taking the USC volleyball team away from its game and nearly handing the Gamecocks their first home loss of the season. But Carolina managed to exter minate another victim at home, finishing off the Lady Vols in five games — 30-27, 27-30, 28-30, 30-22 and 15-10. Tennessee (12-6, 2-4 SEC) capi talized on numerous errors by the Gamecocks and forced USC out of its offensive stride, but the hearty crowd of 623 at the Volleyball Competition Facility gave a much needed assist to the home team. USC head coach Kim Christopher credits the crowd as being one of the decking factors in her squad’s victory. “I think that it was good that we were at home,” she said. “I don’t know if we would have won on the road. The crowd just would not let us lose. They were awesome. They were really, truly the seventh man out there. “I give the credit to them be cause they were up and giving us energy and the confidence. We were playing a little flat and Tennessee was playing well, and the crowd just wouldn’t let us lose.” After a tight first game that Carolina won, the Lady Vols pulled ahead late in the second game. Janelle Hester put away four kills, and UT capitalized on several USC errors. Hester again led the rally for Tennessee in the third game, putting the Gamecocks (14-3,7-0) on the brink of defeat. She had another four kills in the comeback, and ball handling errors by Carolina, in cluding three by senior Sam Alban, doomed the home team. Christopher noted that after a road trip, Tennessee was taking advantage of a USC tean^showing the effects of travel. “We had a grueling road run, and I just think you could see ath letically, physically, we were just a little flat, a little slow,” she said. “I don’t want to take anything away from Tennessee; I thought they had a good scouting report, and they came up with the big plays in games two and three. They beat us in game two, and they were winning the rallies. We weren’t performing and were help ing them by making some critical hitting errors.” Alban would quickly redeem herself, hitting .571 in the fourth frame with-four kills and two block assists. USC then rolled over the Lady Vols, thanks to the crowd’s encouragement and a shift in momentum. Alban was named SEC Player of the Week after a 21-kill perfor mance against UT and an 11-kill day in a win against Kentucky ear lier in the week. She explained what had happened between the third and fourth games to bring the team’s emotion back up. 1 ♦ VOLLEYBALL, SEE PAGE 12