Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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8 the GAMECOCK ♦ Friday, October 25, 2002 GAME SCHEDULE ^ ^ ^ _^ m ___^__ WOMEN'S TENNIS at the Rolex Regional in Winston-Salem, N.C., CONTACT US ■ „ Friday-Sunday MEN’S TENNIS at the ITA Fall Regional in Chapel Hill, N.C., Friday Story ideas? Questions? Comments? VOLLEYBALL vs. Georgia, 7 p.m. Friday E-mail us at gamecocksports@hotmail.com WOMEN’S SOCCER at Auburn, 8:30 p.m. Friday I Seniors to lead Gamecocks into SEC showdowns Volleyball team to take on Georgia, No. 3 Florida this weekend at home BY MATT ROTHENBERG THE GAMECOCK „ Many senior classes have come and gone in the USC volleyball program, but only a select few can say they have beaten Florida, perennially one of the top teams in the nation. Sunday, six seniors will lead their squad into battle against the third-ranked Gators, attempting to break a 16-match losing streak that dates back to 1994. But first, the 21st-ranked Gamecocks (16-3, 9-0 SEC) must face Georgia on Friday night in what should be as tough a test as the Florida match. USC head coach Kim Christopher is not altering her team’s preparation for its upcom ing contests. we re trying to approacn it the same way that we have the other matches,” she said. “Georgia has always been a very tough match for us, so it’s impor tant that we just concentrate on Georgia, prepare for Georgia, try to take care of business on Friday night and then prepare for Florida.” Carolina has fared better late ly against UGA (14-9,4-4). USC has won five of its last six matches against the Bulldogs, including a pair of sweeps last season. Senior Megan Hosp is ready to face Georgia, and she’s confident about her team’s chances on Sunday against Florida. “First, we’ve got to look at .Georgia; they’re a team that al ways gives us a struggle, and then we can look at Florida,” she said. “When we get to the actual match, it’s all about being ag gressive; we have the talent, we have the size, we have the physical abilities. It’s all Hosp about just playing that game that day. And if we do that, we’ll be fine.” Fellow senior Cally Plummer doesn’t think there’s anything that sets the Florida match above the rest. “We’re just really looking for ward to it as another opportunity to get us closer to one of our sea son’s goals, which is an SEC cham pionship,” Plummer said. “We’re just trying to look at it as another match, of course with a little high er implications and probably a lit tle more adrenaline. But we de cided from last year that one match is not going to make or break our season.” With great sup port from the un derclassmen and this year’s senior Plummer class of Hosp, Plummer, Berna Dwyer, Sam Alban, Nadia Sefferovich and Yajaira Cadet, the Gamecocks are unbeaten in the “They’re a pretty amazing bunch that we’ll miss tremendously.” KIM CHRISTOPHER use VOLLEYBALL HEAD COACH, ABOUT HER SENIOR CLASS SEC thus far, tying the program’s record for its best start. Dwyer considers the hot start in the SEC to be among the team’s greatest achievements. Plummer, though, points to the team’s tough loss to Nebraska in the 2000 NCAA Tournament. The Cornhuskers were No. 1 at the time and eventually won the na tional title. Plummer thinks that taking Nebraska to five games helped the Gamecocks arrive on the national scene. me j\ieDrasKa maicn — u re ally just helped propel us to see that we’re in the nation’s top-20 teams,” Plummer said. “The top 10 — that’s ultimately where we want to end up.” Christopher takes pride in hav ing been able to coach such a tal ented group of seniors. “When I talk about the group, I think about the amazing person ality that they have as one collec tive unit, their work ethic that they bring to our program, the character that they bring to our program,” she said. “They’re a pretty amazing bunch that we’ll miss tremendously.” Among the attitudes the seniors hope to pass along to the younger players are a sense of pride and a strong work ethic, both of which have been well shown by the out going Gamecocks. “I think just the work ethic — we just want to make sure it car ries over because I think more than anything ... we’ve just worked hard for it,” Plummer said. Going into the Georgia match, which takes place at 7 p.m. at the Volleyball Competition Facility, Hosp noted the difficulty of pass ing the torch. “It’s kind of hard because, all four years, we’ve taken the role of being leaders,” Hosp said. “And it’s hard giving the role down to other people, but we realize that we need to do that. “A goal of ours was to raise the bar of the program, and I think that we’ve done that,” she said. “Hopefully, their roles will be eas ier just to step in as leaders, and the rest of the team can be follow ers. “We take so much pride in the fact that we’ve built this program up. That’s the legacy we want to leave. We want other girls to feel like this is something they want to do for each other, and for the school and for the fans of South Carolina. So, I think not only do we owe it to ourselves, but to ev eryone who supports us.” Comments on this story? E-mail gamecockspops@hotmail.com PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE GAMECOCK Sam Alban spikes the ball while fellow senior Berna Dwyer looks on. Alban and Dwyer are one third of an outstanding senior class that has led the Gamecocks to a perfect 9-0 conference record. That unbeaten streak will be tested this weekend against Georgia and No. 3 Florida. It’s time for fans to quit running onto the field MATT ROTHENBERG GAMECOCKSPORTS@HOTMAIL.COM No one wins when crazy people interfere with a game in progress. It happened again last weekend. All I want to know is when this craziness will begin to cease. I’m not talking about the latest sniper hit, although I do hope that those guys arrested are indeed the culprits. I am, however, referring to the recent spate of fans inter 1 fering with the field of play at a . sporting event. This issue has long been a bane of many stadium and arena secu rity personnel, but I think this in terference is really getting out of hand now. Why do people crave the proverbial 15 minutes of fame? I mean, first it was that whacked father-son pair in Chicago that double-teamed the Kansas City Royals’ first-base coach. Then it’s a streaker, wear ing nothing but a pair of red socks, who climbs the glass at a Flames hockey game in Calgary. On Sunday, a New orieans-area man dodged police and security to try to sign his name on a jersey of a 49ers’ offensive lineman during their game against the Saints. Supposedly, he was acting on a wager he made with a friend of his. Interestingly enough, this man — 50-year-old Otis Henry — was ignored during the several minutes he was on the sidelines. Yet, after he ran onto the field, he was apprehended by police and booked with trespassing. Maybe it’s just me, but I thought Terrell Owens was the only one allowed on a football field while possessing a writing uten sil. There are just so many other ways fans can be a part of the game, and you don’t have to run on the field, either. Fans do their part by wearing team apparel, sporting club colors, decking their home or office in team stuff, or even getting a tattoo of their team’s logo. Cheering for your team at games and buying all sorts of items is good. Jumping onto the ice at a hockey game is stupid, dangerous and pointless. It’s even worse when you’re just wearing socks. Support your team by using them when you play NCAA Football 2003; don’t play the fool when sev eral thousand people laugh at your crazy ass getting arrested. It s not lmpossiDie to Keep peo ple from running on the ice, court or grass. But there’s only so much security you can provide before the stadium or arena begins to look like the most unfriendly place to be. The only real way to provide tight wraps is to have one security person for each fan in attendance. Financially, it’s not the best op tion, and realistically, it would look odd, to say the least. There are the inevitable situa tions, though. One is the classic rushing of the field at college foot ball games, as was recently the case in Stillwater, Okla., when the Oklahoma State Cowboys beat Nebraska for the first time in about 40 years. Also, fans have been known to rush the court at college basketball games. I’m jjrjl for those celebrations be cause iiey’re mass parties and no real amount of security will be ef fective, unless maybe the person nel have big guns. People can’t be rushing major league football and baseball fields. Considering how fanatical some fans can be, you never know whether one of these situations is going to turn for the worse. Security needs to be beefed up, but enough so that it can handle the out-of-control people. Somehow I doubt we’ve seen the last of the folks venting their frustrations or fulfilling a bet by jumping on the field of play. But if anything, let’s not give these peo ple the ego stroke they want. If we do, we won’t stop the madness. Now, for our periodical Rothy awards: MOST SEEMINGLY OUT OF PLACE NAMING RIGHTS: The RBC Center in Raleigh, N.C. Does anyone know what RBC stands for? Give up? It stands for the Royal Bank of Canada, which, for some reason, tnrougn a smaller DanK it owns, has branches in the Southeast. Why not call it the Waffle House Center? Come on, this is Raleigh, not Edmonton! What’s next? The Carolina Center becomes the Tim Hortons Arena? Actually, come to think of it, maybe they’d sell their donuts there. I’d like that. THE “BAD NEWS NEVER CEASES” AWARD: Give this one to the New York Knicks. Not only do they con tinue to have difficulties with Latrell Sprewell, but also Antonio McDyess is done for the season with a broken kneecap. This team doesn’t have a real center. Now it needs a power for ward, too. The news just doesn’t get any better for this franchise. Rothenber)’ is a fourth-year sport management student. His column appears every Friday in Gamecock Sports. BRIEFLY Penn nominated for Naismith Award USC senior Jocelyn Penn was named one of 30 preseason nominees for the 2002-03 Naismith College Women’s Basketball Player of the Year award. She is one of 10 SEC players to be nominated for the award. The first-team All-SEC for ward enters her senior year with 1,223 points and 561 re bounds in her career. She is one of 16 Gamecocks to ever score 1,000 points and grab 500 boards. The Conyers, Ga., native is also fifth on the USC all-time steals list with 247, and she needs only 51 more to take over first place. Named as the 2002 South Carolina Amateur Athlete of the Year, Penn has never been held scoreless or without a rebound in her 87 game career. Soccer stumbles against Charleston The USC men’s soccer team, ranked No. 10 in the country, fell to the College of Charleston on Wednesday 1-0 in Charleston. In the 59th minute, Charleston’s Troy Lesesne con nected with Ricardo Granados to score the only goal of the match. Carolina (9-4-1) outshot the Cougars 12-7 but couldn’t come up with the equalizer. Charleston improved to 7-5-1 with the upset victory. The Gamecocks return home to play host to No. 14 Furman on Sunday at 2 p.m. The first 300 fans will receive a free Adidas scarf. Women’s soccer to wrap up SEC play The USC women’s soccer team (10-5-1,3-3-1 SEC) enters its final weekend of SEC com petition Friday in Alabama. The Gamecocks play Auburn on Friday at 8:30 p.m., and they will conclude the trip Sunday at 2 p.m. against Alabama. Carolina owns a 5-2 record on the road this season, and with one more victory, it will set the program’s new single-season record for road wins. USC is 2-2-1 in the series with the Tigers, winning 1-0 in its ' last visit to Auburn in 1999. The Gamecocks are 2-1 in the school’s series versus Alabama, including a 3-1 win in Columbia in 2000. SPORTS CHALLENGE THE CHALLENGE: Kyle Matt Chris Mary Shawn Kevin The Gamecock’s readers and Almond Rothenberg Foy Hartney Rourk Keefe staff test their sports knowledge Sports Asst. Sports Defending Editor in Page Reader of with predictions of the Editor Editor Champion Chief designer the Week weekend’s games. (Rankings (48-32) (52-28) (48-32) (50-30) (44-26) (47-33) are from the Associated Press.) 10 LSU at Auburn _LSU LSU_LSU LSU LSU _LSU Alabama at 16 Tennessee Tennessee Tennessee Tennessee Tennessee Tennessee Tennessee 5 Georgia at Kentucky Kentucky Georgia Kentucky Georgia Georgia Georgia Ole Miss at Arkansas_Arkansas Ole Miss Arkansas Arkansas Arkansas Arkansas 1 6 Notre Dame at 11 Florida St. N. Dame_N. Dame N. Dame N. Dame _N. Dame Florida St. 13 Iowa at 8 Michigan Michigan Michigan Michigan Michigan Iowa _ Michigan 18 Penn St. at 4 Ohio St._Penn St. Ohio St. Ohio St. Ohio St. Ohio St._Ohio St Washington at 23 Arizona St. Arizona St. Arizona St. Wash Wash Arizona St. Arizona St Nebraska at Texas A&M A&M_A&M A&M A&M Nebraska A&M 12 N.C. State at Clemson* Clemson N.C. State Did not Clemson N.C. State Clemson 31-28 28-24 pick 28-17 21-14 21-20 LAST WEEK’S WINNER: Matt Rothenberg (7-3) - Rothenberg regains sole possession of first place after Hartney goes 5-5. The assistant sports editor now has a two-game lead on her and a four-game lead over Almond and Foy, who both went 6-4. Reader of the week Jason Stewart also went 6-4. No reader has won this season. WANT TO BE READER OF THE WEEK? E-mail your selections next A'eek to gamecocksports@hotmail.com. If you're picked and have the best record, you’ll win a free Gamecock T-shirt and be able to talk all the trash you want * predictions made before the kickoff of Thursday’s game