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8 THE GAMECOCK ♦ Monday, September 8, 2003 | ^ —m—^ GAME SCHEDULE nn,Tm. I I I \ | ■ T I 1 L 1 MEN'S GOLF at Cleveland Golf Kiawah Island Invitational at CONTACT US I_" m I U/ I Kiawah Island, Monday and Tuesday I ■ I I \ I i WOMEN’S GOLF at The TOBY Cup in Tokyo, Japan, Tuesday Story ideas? Questions? Comments? I 1 / ■ I 111 VOLLEYBALL at Clemson, 7 p.m. Tuesday E-mailusatgamecocksports@hotmail.com _i_ 1 V. i WOMEN’S SOCCER at Texas A&M, 8:30 p.m. Friday FOOTBALL Turman carries Gamecocks past Cavaliers PHOTO BY JOHNNY HAYNES/THE GAMECOCK USC’s Daccus Turman rushed for a career-high 123 yards in Saturday’s victory over Virginia, which put the Gamecocks in the AP poll for the first time since losing to Virginia a year ago. BY BRAD SENKIW THE GAMECOCK It might not have been the Demetris Summers show or a Kenny Irons marathon, but USC punished the' Virginia defense on the ground on Saturday, plowing its way to a victory and a No. 25 ranking in the Associated Press poll. The man behind all the big plays and yards was none other than sophomore Daccus Turman. The young bruiser out of Washington, Ga., didn't finesse his way around the field or blow by the defenders en-route to an 18 car ry, 123-yard and one touchdown performance. Instead, Turman watched his offensive line push the Cavaliers backward, opening up holes for him to run through. "Daccus Turman is a great running back," USC quarterback Dondrial Pinkins said. "They call him D-train, and today he ran like a train. No one can stop him." V irginia never had to worry about Turman stretching its defense ana taKing one tne aistance, out Virginia couldn't find a way to keep this guy from bashing into its secondary. USC head coach Lou Holtz said Turman's style of running isn't impressive, but that "he moves the chains." Turman's previous career high came against LSU last sea son when he picked up 49 yards. He gained that in the fourth quar ter alone against the Cavaliers. Turman was also the first Gamecock to pass the 100-yard rushing mark since Corey Jenkins gained 101 yards against Georgia almost one year ago. The second half proved crucial for the Gamecocks as they came out of the locker room up by three. Offensive coordinator Skip Holtz challenged the running game, and the players responded. Turman quickly became the featured back, racking up 80 yards on 13 attempts beginning in the third quarter. Turman also scored his first touchdown of the season after Moe Thompson recovered a fumble on the Virginia 11-yard line. Turman then rushed down to the 6-yard line before running through Virginia's defense and rolling into the end zone from six yards out with 2:07 left in the third quarter. It gave the Gamecocks some breathing room with a 17-7 lead Even more impressive, Turman only played in one drive during the fourth quarter. Ironically, it might have been his most outstanding perfor mance. Looking to put the game away and run the clock at the 14:47 mark, Turman pounded the ball six out of the next nine plays. He took it four straight times, moving the Gamecocks from their own 37-yard line to Virginia's 37-yard line. He picked up two first downs in that stretch with a pair of 12-yard gains. The drive resulted in Finkins slamming the ball into the end zone for a touchdown, but Turman played his role in the marathon drive. Although the running game as a whole played well, the Gamecocks were pleased to have a strong runner such as Turman, who wasn't highly recruited. After breaking Herschel Walker's high school rushing records in Georgia, Holtz saw something tough in Turman. "I looked at him on film, and he's not going to go 70 yards, but f there's something about him," Holtz said. "You don't break Herschel's records when you're not getting a lot of big runs. That means you're durable and you fall forward on it." Holtz also said how pleased he was for his team playing un selfishly. Turman fits right into that mold and doesn’t think he was responsible for the domina tion he and his team displayed. "I think I play unselfish," Turman said. "All the backs ran well, and the offensive line played great, and we're just giving them the praise for the holes they gave us." Comments on this story?E-mail f gamecocksports@hotmail.com nlSC 31, VIRGINIA 7 ^ . USC’s big plays and solid execution upset No. 15 Virginia BY WES WOLFE TDK (lAJIKCOCK The USC football team surprised ev eryone Saturday afternoon when they dominated No. 15 Virginia 31-7. The story of the day was the 99-yard touchdown pass from Gamecock quar terback Dondrial Pinkins to wide re ceiver Troy Williamson. The offensive line also dominated up front and pro vided some running room the Gamecocks, which led to 261 rushing yards. The long-pass play was the longest play from scrimmage in the history of Carolina football. The previous record was set by a 97-yard pass from Todd Ellis to Richard Brooks in a 1988 game against East Carolina. The play also tied a Southeastern Conference • record, which was set by a pass from Florida quarterback Chris Collingsworth to Derrick Gaffney against Rice in 1977. USC improved to 2-0 on the year, handing Virginia (1-1) its first lost of the season. "I'm so proud of this team and the way they bounced back and the way they did things," USC head coach Lou Holtz said. Virginia head coach A1 Groh had an understandably different reaction to the game. "I was confident coming down here that it would be a real tough fight," Groh said. "This was a very challeng ing environment. Unfortunately, from top to bottom, from head coach to some one who didn't play much, we didn't do well." Although Turman's rushing perfor mance helped the Gamecocks to a victo ry, the highlight of the game was Pinkins’ 99-yard pass to Williamson. Backed up on the USC 1-yard line, Pinkins threw a short pass to Williamson who found the seam in the Virginia secondary and broke away, running untouched into the end zone. Once Williamson had the catch, Pinkins was confident of the result. "When I saw the first safety stumble, I knew he was going all the way,” Pinkins said. "I think it gave us a lot of momen tum. Troy made a great play and it picked the offense up." Pinkins was 9 for 24 passing for 162 yards, one touchdown and one intercep tion. Pinkins also had good rushing num bers to add to his passing statistics, rush ing eight times for 43 yards and one touchdown, averaging 5.4 yards a carry. The Carolina defense played strong for its second-straight game, allowing one touchdown in its last eight quar ters. Carolina had two interceptions, with redshirt sophomore linebacker Lance Laury picking off a Virginia pass in the first quarter and senior linebacker Jeremiah Garrison snag ging another pass in the third quarter. Defensive back Ted Crawford led the Gamecocks in tackles with a total of nine. Defensive end Moe Thompson also had an outstanding day, coming up with two sacks, three forced fumbles and one fumble recovery. After the game, Thompson gave his thoughts on the Gamecock's perfor mance. "We just focused a lot more this week," Thompson said. "We worked hard to get ready for their offense. We were tired of being known as the under dogs. "I really love playing the 4-3 defense. I played it in high school, so it was easy for me to adjust." Holtz said he was happy with the way the day ended, not only for his team but for the 80,150 fans in attendance. "I'm proud of our team, but I'm most jg proud for our fans. Our fans can walk w out of that stadium and feel good about playing a nationally ranked team and winning," Holtz said. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com Volleyball falls to Michigan State, defeats UNC in Carolina Classic BY BRAD SENKIW THE (iAMEGOCK The USC volleyball team se cured its second win of the season Sunday when it defeated the 17th ranked North Carolina Tar Heels in the Carolina Classic after los ing to No. 25 Michigan State on Friday. The Gamecocks (2-3) fought off several UNC (2-2) rallies to win 3-1, while Michigan State (4-0) used a strong, powerful squad to beat Carolina 3-1. In the first match with the Spartans, Carolina was out killed 67 to 57 by a team with three players over six feet tall. Niece Curry led both teams with 15 kills while Shonda Cole fin ished with 11. Iris Santos and Nicole Miller recorded 12 digs an,1 10 digs respectively. Michigan State had five players in double digits in kills, led by Michelle Kopka’s 14. After getting destroyed in the first game 30-19, the Gamecocks bounced back to win the second game 30-14. The team recorded 22 kills while Michigan State managed 14 in the game. USC lost the third game 30-17 and tal lied only seven kills before los ing a close fourth game 30-28. Carolina was behind most of the game and couldn’t outlast the physical Spartans. USC head coach Kim Hudson Christopher said she was glad her team got a chance to play a tough team. “We saw some good things out of our young kids,” Christopher said. “It’s a collective effort, and we’re going to have to get better and that’s what we’re here to do.” In Sunday’s match against UNC, the Gamecocks were able to avenge last season’s NCAA Tournament loss to the Tar Heels with a 3-1 victory. USC played with more intensity and an en thused crowd behind them. The team had four players with more than 10 kills, including Curry’s 14 and Sarah Morgan’s 11. Carolina out blocked UNC 13-5 and had 10 serve aces. “We grew a lot today just with toughness,” Christopher said. “I liked what I saw in Sarah Morgan and Katelyn Panzau and Niece Curry, just some real mental toughness during key times. Today was a very good match for us as far as growing pains.” The Gamecocks won the first game 30-27 in a highly contested match. After trailing 13-8 in game two, UNC'Capitalized on several Gamecock errors to rally and win the game 30-25. USC dominated game three with a 30-16 win and pulled out the 30-27 victory over North Carolina with the support ive fans cheering them on. Curry recorded the game-winning kill to hand UNC its second-consecutive defeat. Morgan said that beating this previously troublesome UNC team helped this young squad. “It’s big because we lost two years in a row to them in the NCAAs,” Morgan said. “It’s al ways good to win in our gym and our fans were awesome. I think winning this one really helped our confidence.” Christopher was especially pleased with the fundamentals that Morgan showed over the weekend. Morgan “stepped in ♦ VOLLEYBALL, SEEPAGE 9 PHOTO BY MARK SCHILLING/THE GAMECOCK A y Sarah Morgan attempts a kill over two Michigan State defenders.