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Shark-bitten surfer not ready to give up sport THE ASSOCIATED PRESS KILAUEA, HAWAII - She was ly ing on her surfboard, taking a break after catching some early morning waves, when the gray blur emerged near her left arm as it dangled in the Pacific. Bethany Hamilton was sud denly being jerked back and forth. •|“I looked down at the red wa r,” she recalled. “Right away I knew it was a shark and I knew my arm was gone.” The 13-year-old lost more than half her blood and all but four inch es of her arm, though those who witnessed the attack say Bethany never screamed or panicked. “There’s no need for that,” she told The Associated Press nearly three weeks after the Halloween attack, in one of the first in a series of interviews and TV appearances. “I wasn’t that scared. I didn’t think I was going to die or anything.” Before the attack, Bethany was a top amateur surfer who was ex pected to turn pro. Now she is un sure whether she will ever surf competitively again. But she said will not give up her passion. ^HTall and lean with blond hair and a tan, Bethany has accepted her misfortune with remarkable serenity. “There’s no time machine,” she said. “I can’t change it. That was God’s plan for my life and I’m go ing to go with it.” For all the nightmarish drama the shark attack conveys, Bethany recounts it with nonchalance: She arose around 5 a.m. on Oct. 31, heading out to do what she loves — surfing with her best friend, Alana Blanchard. After about a half-hour of action, she took a break, dan gling her arm in the ocean when the 15-foot tiger shark attacked. Blanchard’s father, Holt, surf ing nearby, used a surf leash as a tourniquet. Fellow surfers towed her in on a surfboard. She blacked out briefly, then woke up ashore. When she reached Wilcox Memorial' Hospital, another amazing part of the story unfold ed: The girl’s father, Tom Hamilton, had been lying on the operating table, moments away from knee surgery, when a doc tor burst through the doors, say ing the room was needed for a shark attack victim. When he heard it was a 13-year-old, Tom Hamilton’s heart sank. He knew it was either his daughter or her best friend. Bethany spent nearly a week in the hospital and has remained largely in seclusion since then. When her bandages were re moved — and her stump was re vealed — one of her brothers turned white. Her mother nearly collapsed. And her grandmother went outside and wept. On Thursday, her stitches were to come out and she awaited word on when she could return to the water. “If I was like a person that just quit surfing after this, I wouldn’t be a real surfer,” she said. “I’m def initely going to get back in the wa ter.” Bethany hopes to be fitted with prosthetics allowing her to con tinue not only to surf but also to play the guitar. She plans to try snowboarding for the, first time this winter, and she is aiming for a career in photography. Around Bethany’s neck hangs a glittering gold surfboard — a get well gift from a family friend. It has a diamond in the center and a bite taken out of the top, just like her own board, with its 16-inch gash. Bethany said the attack is “pret ty much all I think about,” but that “If you don’t get over it, then you’ll just be sad and cry.” Volleyball CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10 in the SEC regular season, out side hitter Jennifer Bibber, out side hitter Erin Heffner and set ter Erin Price, have each sur passed the 1,000-kill career mark this season. If Carolina is to win, it will have to stop the Alabama trio’s attack and watch for Bibber, Heffner and •ice’s service aces. The three tk among the best in aces in the SEC and have put Alabama in first place in the conference in that cat egory. Whoever wins the Alabama USC match will play the winner of the match between No. 2 Arkansas and No. 7 LSU. The Lady ‘Backs (22-5,15-1) and the Tigers (11-18, 6-10) have tan gled twice this season, with Arkansas winning both matches. Arkansas has seemed almost un stoppable this year, winning 17 of its last 18 matches. The only loss in that stretch was to Florida, which only has one loss on the year and is undefeated in the SEC. LSU comes into the match on •e business end of a four-match sing streak. It will be up to out side hitter Regan Hood to put up the offense to counter the Lady’Backs. Hood has more kills than Kincaid with 463, but has 80 more errors than her counterpart from Arkansas. The other end of the bracket features matches between the No. 1 seed Florida versus the No. 8 seed Kentucky and the No. 4 seed Tennessee versus the No. 5 seed Georgia. Florida, who is ranked third in the nation, is the odds-on favorite to win the tournament. The statis tics are simply staggering when it comes to the Gator volleyball team. Florida finished the year with a 130-consecutive-match win streak in the SEC regular season against the same Kentucky team that it faces today. The Gators have also won their last 27 match es and have won 82 straight games, shutting out 25 consecu tive opponents. The win against UK earlier this week marked Florida’s ninth-straight unde feated regular season in the SEC. Still, Florida head coach Mary Wise isn’t taking any chances. “Everybody goes in 0-0, and it’s not a matter of playing great for two and a half months; it’s a mat ter of playing great for three days,” Wise said. “That’s why ev eryone goes into it with newfound energy.” The Wildcats (14-15, 6-10) couldn’t get it done against Florida on Sunday, and they’ll be hard-pressed to do it this after noon. Middle blocker Sissy Canfield will do her best to lead UK as she has done for the rest of the season, leading the team with a .335 hitting average. The Florida-Kentucky winner will play either Tennessee or Georgia in the tournament semi finals. Tennessee (20-8,10-6) has won four of its last five matches and managed to get a higher seed over the Bulldogs (17-12,10-6). UT won the fourth seed by beating Georgia 3-0, while Georgia only beat Tennessee 3-2 earlier this season. Georgia will try and tip the bal ance this time by utilizing middle blocker Alexandra Oquendo. She has been exceptional this season, hitting 339 kills with only 109 er rors to lead Georgia in hitting with a .349 average. Florida and Kentucky start the action today at 1 p.m. at the Volleyball Competition Facility. Tennessee and Georgia follow at 3 p.m., while Alabama-USC starts at 6 p.m. and Arkansas-LSU close out the day with their match at 8 p.m. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com Football CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10 of sophomore quarterback Charlie Whitehurst, who already has a win over the Gamecocks. Whitehurst is having a solid sea son, completing 62 percent of his passes thus far and ranking 14th in the nation in total offense. Even though he’s not from South Carolina originally, Whitehurst knows the importance of this weekend’s game. “People don’t care how many games you win or how many games you lose, as long as you win the South Carolina game, Whitehurst said. Whitehurst has a dangerous bunch of targets in Derrick Hamilton and Kevin Youngblood, who rank fourth and fifth respect tively for receiving in the ACC. The Tiger running game has im proved from earlier in the season, much in part to the rush-by-com mittee scheme Clemson has start ed using. The tandem of Duane Coleman, Chad Jasmin and Yusef Kelly has boosted Clemson’s rushing yards, averaging 149.5 yards per game in the last six games. Collectively, the offensive unit for the Tigers ranks third in the ACC with 411.4 yards per game. I The Clemson defensive unit has also improved, ranking third in the ACC in total defense. The Tigers have held six of eight ACC r opponents to below their total yards and scoring averages this season. The Clemson defense is led by defensive back Justin Miller, one of the best in the coun try, and its two leading tacklers, linebackers Leroy Hill and John Leake. All the talking and bragging will end after Saturday night’s game, which starft at 7 p.m. The game will be televised national ly on ESPN2. Interestingly, Clemson has won just seven night games since 1995. For 60 minutes, all the records will be . forgotten, all border-crossing friendships will be cut off and the war will finally begin. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com BRIEFLY Student-athletes honored for grades USC has 45 student-athletes on the 395-member SEC Freshman Academic Honor Roll, announced Wednesday. Carolina’s number of 45 is the second-highest total of any school in the conference. The student-athletes were named to the list based on grades from the 2002-2003 school year. The top five USC student athletes, according to GPA, are women’s soccer player Kimberly Criss, who has a 4.0 in business; softball player Ashley Smith, who has a 4.0 in civil engineering; women’s soccer player Amanda Thurber, who has a 4.0 in ex ercise science; women’s golfer Erica Battle, who has a 3.94 in I management; and men’s track and field thrower Jacob Minskey, who has a 3.9 in chemistry. Team Gamecocks to collect toys Members of Team Gamecocks, the public-service program of USC athletics, will be collecting toys at the men’s basketball game tonight for the Children of the Carolinas children’s home and Prevent Child Abuse, S.C. The toy collection is in cele bration of the Colonial Center’s one-year anniversary. Fans are asked to bring an unwrapped toy or gift along with the $5 admission fee to the game. Johansen selected . to play in classic USC men’s golfer Eirik Johansen was selected as one of 29 collegiate men’s golfers to ! attend the 29th Annual Western Refining College All-America Golf Classic. The Classic will be held at the El Paso Country Club in El Paso, Texas. Johansen, who led Carolina in the fall with a 72.3 stroke av- ' erage, becomes the first Gamecock player to participate in the Classic since Kyle Thompson was invited in 2000. The Classic begins on Nov. 23 with a putting contest and a long-drive competition, while the tournament will be gin with two rounds on Nov. 24 and the final round on Nov. 25. -: SPORTS CHALLENGE THE CHALLENGE: Brad Wes Charles Adam Michael Jake The Gamecock’s readers and Senkiw Wolfe Tomlinson Beam LaForgla Corbett 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 (71-49) (66-54) (70-50) (80-40) (78-42) (66-54) are from The Associated Press.) Alabama at Auburn Auburn Alabama Alabama Alabama Alabama Alabama 3lsu at 15 Ole Miss LSU _ Ole Miss LSU _Ole Miss Ole Miss LSU 4 Ohio State at 5 Michigan Michigan Michigan Michigan Michigan Ohio State Michigan Missouri at 19 Kansas State Missouri Kansas St._Kansas St Missouri Kansas St. Kansas St 17 Iowa at Wisconsin_Iowa_Wisconsin Iowa_Iowa Wisconsin Wisconsin Oregon State at Oregon _Oregon St. Oregon_Oregon_Oregon St. Oregon _ Oregon St. California at Stanford_California California California California Stanford California 10 TCU at Southern Miss TCU TCU TCU TCU TCU So. Miss. Duke at North Carolina UNC_UNC_UNC Duke UNC Duke Clemson at USC USC USC . USC USC USC USC 20-19 31-27 24-17 35-21 28-18 28-0 SPORTS CHALLENGE’S 12TH-WEEK OUTLOOK: Head Designer Shawn Rourkwentan astounding 9-1 last week, placing the selected staff member only two games behind Managing Editor Adam Beam, who fell apart by going 6 4. With the final week upon us, Beam and News Editor Michael LaForgia will battle it out for the top spot while everyone else plays for third with Brad Senkiw, who finished 7-3 last week. This week's reader, Jake Corbett, should have a contest with Assistant Sports Editor Wes Wolfe for the last spot in the standings. Both are hoping to have a chance to catch Editor in Chief Charles Tomlinson. Thank you to all the readers who sent in picks each week. Be sure to check out the basketball sports challenge next semester. Friday Saturday Sunday ^ 2003 SEC (1inorida-Volleyball ip.m. .i Tournament (8) Kentucky ^ 3 P.M. ® SEMIFINAL (4) Tennessee 4 JS 3 p.m. _1__ (5) Georgia _ i P i FINALS ^ ‘ _ ^2[Arkansas__ SEC TOURNAMENT m CHAMPION 8 p.m. ___ (7) LSU W 5 P.M. SEMIFINAL _ _ (3) Alabama ‘ -yjr | (6)USC ---L--—------1