Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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w GAME SCHEDULE CONTACT US WOMEN’S SOCCER vs. Auburn, 7 p.m. Story ideas? Questions? Comments? mnnambamni1 Sanday E-mail us at gamecocksports@hotmail.com vanH vc LEyBALL ys- 01e Mlss-7 P-m and vs. Mississippi State, 1 p.m. Sunday — MEN’S SOCCER at Clemson, 2 p.m. Saturday —- - -——___ Volleyball to take on Rebels, ulld< gs PHOTO BY MARK SCHILLING/THE GAMECOCK USC’s Lynae Vanden Hull attempts to get the ball past two Duke defenders earlier this season. The Gamecocks will play Ole Miss on Friday and Mississippi State on Sunday, both at home. as Tennessee won 3-1. Prior to Sunday’s contest against the Gamecocks, Mississippi will face.Kentucky on Friday night. The Bulldogs are currently on a 10-game losing streak against use. Both the Lady Rebels and the Bulldogs struggled against Tennessee, especially against the SEC defensive player of the week, freshman Sarah Blum. Blum post ed seven blocks in each of the two matches and averaged 1.75 blocks per game. She also contributed 10 digs over the two matches and av eraged 1.25 digs per game. The Gamecocks hope to contin- . ue their dominance over the state of Mississippi this weekend. They have winning streaks of 13 games against Ole Miss and 11 games against Mississippi State. Last weekend, the Gamecocks came away with a split, defeating LSU 3-0 and falling to Arkansas 3-0. Lynae Vanden Hull led USC against LSU with 17 kills, and Niece Curry posted six blocks to lead the Gamecocks in that cate gory. The Gamecocks matched their season high in block assists with 20 and tied their second-high est mark for total blocks this sea son with 13. The 13 blocks are the most in a three-game match this season for Carolina. Against Arkansas, the Gamecocks were simply out played, hitting .078 while the Lady ‘Backs hit .432. Arkansas out blocked Carolina 10-1 and out killed the Gamecocks 46-36.. Vanden Hull leads the team in kills with 152, while Nicole Miller has dominated on defense with 166 digs on the season. •Sara Kincaid of Arkansas was named SEC player of the week in part for her performance against the Gamecocks. She led Arkansas to a 3-0 start in SEC play, hitting .394 for the week as well as aver aging 5.18 kills per game and 1.82 blocks per game in three matches. Kincaid has tallied double-digit kills in all 14 of Arkansas’ matches and is averaging 17.57 kills per match this year. - USC plays Ole Miss on Friday at 7 p.m. and Mississippi State on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. Following this weekend’s action, the Gamecocks take on Kentucky next Wednesday at 7 p.m. All of the games will be ’ played at the Volleyball Com petition Facility on Blossom Street. • Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail!com BRIEFLY Equestrian to face Georgia in Athens The USC equestrian team is in Athens, Ga. to take on the Georgia Bulldogs today. ^ Carolina goes into today’s con ■ test after winning the South Carolina Intercollegiate Horse Show Association competition, held in Irmo on Sept. 27. Today’s competition will fea ture a new format, which in cludes four events. The teams will do equitation over fences, on the flats, western equitation, and hdrsemanship and reining. Both teams will field five riders for each event, riding on the same set of horses. The team scores will be decided after the lowest score from each team are dropped. Last weekend, Georgia beat Berry College in a scrimmage 710-603. Today’s competition starts at 2 p.m. Men’s golf team to compete in tourney The USC men’s golf team will head down to Georgia to com pete in the Carpet Capital Collegiate tournament today through Sunday in Rocky Face, Ga. Georgia Tech'will play host the 54-hole tournament, which will be take place at The Farm. The 18-team field will consist of such teams as Auburn, Clemson, Florida, Georgia Tech, Georgia, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Tennessee, Vanderbilt and Wake Forest. Carolina, coming off a third place finish at the Mason Rudolph Championship, will seek to improve on last sea son’s 13th-place finish at the Carpet Capital Collegiate tour nament. Junior Martin Rominger, sophomore Eirik Johansen, red shirt sophomore Matt Robinson, junior Alex Hamilton and red shirt sophomore West Streib will compete for the Gamecocks this weekend. Men’s soccer looks to rebound »against in state rival Clemson BY STEPHEN DEMEDIS THE GAMECOCK After dropping its first two ' games of the season, the No. 25 USC men’s soccer team (7-2) re turns to the East Coast with its eyes set on a victory over in-state rival Clemson (4-4-2) on the road at Riggs Field. The Gamecocks took their per fect record across the country to play in the Husky Classic in Seattle this past weekend, where they were shut out by both i Portland and Washington. ^ In both games, the team out shot its opponents but failed to net a goal. As a result of the losses, the team nearly dropped out of the na tional rankings. Clemson also is coming off a rough stretch, with a tie and a loss while playing host to the Clemson Invitational. In two overtime games, the Tigers tied Air Force 3-3 and then lost to Coastal Carolina 2-1. Clemson’s other losses this year came from Virginia Common wealth, Saint Louis and N.C. State. This is Clemson’s third Solid Orange game. Solid Orange is a program for building student sup port for the entire Clemson ath ) letics program. Clemson’s first Solid Orange game was a l-o vic ^ tory over the USC women’s soccer B team. * Carolina looks to have the up per hand coming into this week end’s match. The Gamecocks have scored 20 goals over the season and allowed a mere seven. Clemson, on the other hand, has scored 13 goals while allowing 12. Historically, the Tigers have the advantage, leading the series 19-10-1, including last year’s 2-1 victory over the Gamecocks. The last time the matchup ended in a Carolina victory was 1995. Since that game, Clemson has gone 7-0-1 PHOTO BY MARK SCHILLING/THE GAMECOCK USC’s Ryan Deter goes for a header in a game earlier this season. The Gamecocks play the Tigers on Sunday at Ctemson. against the Gamecocks. Offensively, Clemson will rely on senior midfielder Paul Souders for its scoring spark. Souders leads the team with two goals. This year, Carolina will look to freshman Ayo Akinsete and sophomore Ryan Deter to get the scoring attack going again. Akinsete leads the team in scor ing with six goals and two assists, and Deter has netted five, despite playing injured most of the season. The Gamecocks’ defense has been the team’s strongest point so far this season, accumulating five shutouts in nine games. Freshman goalie Brad Guzan has been strong in goal for the team, posting a save average of .079. Sophomore defenders Lawson Vaughn and Josh Alcala will play major roles not only in stopping the Clemson attack, but also mak ing runs up the sidelines to aid the offense. After getting off to the second best start in team history, drop ping two losses was a setback for the team. • “Anytime you play a rival like Clemson, you know it is going to be a good game, especially on the road,” Alcala said. “But we need to stay focused. We need a win to get back on track.” After returning from Clemson, the team will benefit from a home stand during which it will take on Elon and Wake Forest. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocfaports@hotmai l. com Women’s soccer to play two SEC games at home BY WES WOLFE THE GAMECOCK The USC women’s soccer team (7-3-1) looks to continue its five game winning streak at home tonight against defending SEC Champion Auburn (7-1-1) and Sunday against Alabama (7-3). Auburn comes into tonight’s game with a three-game winning streak. The Tigers’ last game came against Rice at home, where Auburn won 2-0. The Tigers also have a 3-0 record on the road this season. Last year, USC and Auburn played to a 1-1 tie. Auburn has recorded six shutouts this year, thanks to its goalkeeper Megan Rivera, who has recorded 34 saves on the sea son and has a .872 save percent age. The junior from. Miami, Fla., was also named a NSCAA All-American last year and her shutout of Alabama last season earned Auburn its first-ever SEC title. Rivera is currently fifth on the SEC all-time saves list. The Tigers’ other main threat comes from forward Sarah Steinmann, the 2002 SEC player of the year. This season, Steinmann leads Auburn in al most every offensive statistical category. Three of her six goals have been game-winning goals — plus she’s had 33 shots and 19 shots on goal. Backup goalkeeper Laura Snell has connections to South Carolina; she graduated from Spring Valley High School in Wild weekend AUBURN VS. USC, 7 p.m. Friday ALABAMA VS. USC, 1:30 p.m. Sunday 2002. Though she has not seen playing time this season, last sea son Snell posted a shutout against then-No. 17 West Virginia and assisted Rivera in a shutout of Middle Tennessee. The only team that the Gamecocks and the Tigers have both played this season is Dartmouth. Carolina beat Dartmouth 3-1 in Columbia, while Auburn defeated the Big Green 2-1 at the Dartmouth Tournament in New Hampshire. Alabama comes to town riding a three-game winning streak and a win over the other Gamecocks: a 7-2 victory at Jacksonville State. Carolina won last year’s match with the Crimson Tide 2 1 in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Alabama, unlike Auburn, has had only limited success on the road, posting a .500 mark over six games. Bama’s last away game was a 5-1 win over Sam Houston State. The Crimson Tide goes on the road tonight against a highly touted Florida team before com ing to Columbia on Sunday. Alabama will seek to repeat this past season’s SEC success when it began SEC play by upsetting Georgia 4-1 in Athens. Carolina’s focus defensively will be looking to stop Alabama forward Libby Probst, who leads the Crimson Tide with three game-winning goals and in over all goals scored. She also has 28 shots and 17 shots-on-goal, gar nering a .607 shots-on-goal percentage. Probst, forward Dawn Nash and midfielder Katie Holtzapfel are the only Alabama players to start every game this season. So far, the Crimson Tide has shown discipline this year by not receiving a yellow card all season. Carolina has reason to be hopeful going into this weekend’s games with de fender Sarah Lentz. Lentz was named to the Soccer Buzz Elite Team of the Week for her perfor mances in the Gamecocks’ past three victories. Lentz She also was named to the All-Tournament Team for the UGA/Nike Tournament last week. USC is undefeated in Sunday games at home, which bodes poorly for Alabama. Carolina has also won the last several matches against Bama, a streak stretch ing back to 1997. USC will go up against Auburn tonight at 7 p.m. and will ■ play Alabama pn Sunday at 1 p.m., both at Stone Stadium. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com --I SPORTS CHALLENGE THE CHALLENGE: Brad Wes Charles Adam Michael Peter The Gamecock’s readers and Senkiw Wolfe Tomlinson Beam LaForgia Farr staff test their sports knowledge Sports Asst. Sports Editor in Managing News Reader of with predictions of the Editor Editor Chief Editor Editor the Week weekend’s games. (Rankings (29-21) (30-20) (34-16) (36-14) (34-16) (23-25) are from The Associated Press.) Ole Miss at 24 Florida Florida Florida Florida Florida Florida Florida 7 Tennessee at Auburn Tenn. Tenn. Tenn. Tenn. Tenn._Tenn. Alabama at 11 Georgia_Georgia Alabama Georgia Georgia Georgia Georgia_ 10 So. Cal. at Arizona St. So. Cal. So. Cal. Ariz. St._So. Cal. So. Cal. So. Cal. 9 Michigan at 22 Iowa Michigan Michigan Michigan Iowa Michigan Michigan 15 Kansas St. at 13 Texas TexasTexasTexas Texas Texas _Texas Texas A&M at Texas Tech Texas Tech Texas Tech A&M Texas Tech A&MA&M N.C. State at Georgia Tech N.C. State GT_ N.C. State N.C. State N.C. State GT Wisconsin at Penn State Wise. Penn St. Wise. Wise. Wise. _ Wise. Clemson at Maryland Maryland Maryland Clemson Maryland Maryland Maryland 31-21 24-17 14-9 28-14 28-7 24-17 SPORTS CHALLENGE'S SIXTH-WEEK OUTLOOK: Managing Editor Adam Beam and Editor in Chief Charles Tomlinson tied this week with an outstanding 8-2 record. The Mix’s Meg Moore represented well for the staff with a 7-3 record, while Brad Senkiw finished at 6-4. Wes Wolfe and Andy Ferris, the readerof the week, ended with mediocre 5-5 records. Beam is gaining confidence with a 13-game lead over last place, but Tomlinson continues to be his toughest competitor. Be sure to get those picks in every Thursday by 2 p.m. WANT TO BE READER OF THE WEEK? E-mail your selections next week 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. —-?-£-4— BY JOEL WALLACE THE GAMECOCK For the second week in a row, the USC volleyball team will face a pair of SEC West opponents. The Gamecocks (7:7,1-1 SEC) will play host to Ole Miss (2-13, 1-1) on Friday and take the court once again Sunday against Mississippi State (1-11,0-2). Ole Miss is led with 165 kills by junior Elena Garcia, who averages 3.51 kills and 3.66 digs per game overall and ranks among the SEC leaders. The Lady Rebels are ranked sec ond in the league in digs at 15.44 per game and third in kills at 15.33 per game. Freshman setter Jennifer McGowan leads the Lady Rebels in assists, ranking third in the league with 12.33 assists per game. After opening SEC play with a nail-biting 3-2 win at home over ri val Mississippi State, Ole Miss lost 3-1 at Tennessee last Friday. Following Friday’s match, the Lady Rebels will travel to Kentucky to face the Wildcats. Mississippi State took its shot at Tennessee four days after its de feat at the hands of Ole Miss. The Bulldogs had four players reach double figures in kills, but it was not enough to stop the Volunteers,