Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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"DAD T1 Q GAME SCHEDULE Paffe 7 I I V 1m I l WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL vs. LSU, 7 p.m. Friday A/r5 , AT , * -,nA/1 I 1/11 I LI WOMEN’S SWIMMING vs. Clemson, 5 p.m. Friday Monday, November 1,2004 V / I \_1_ MEN’S SWIMMING vs. Clemson, 5 p.m. Friday CHARLIE DAVENPORT/THE GAMECOCK USC goalkeeper Lindsay Thorstenson vents her frustrations after the Gamecocks’ 2-1 double-overtime loss to the No. 18 Gators. Crucial loss sums up season ■ Womens soccer loses 2-1 in double overtime to Gators By MIQUELJACOBS THE GAMECOCK In this weekend’s highly anticipated match between the USC women’s soccer team and the No. 18 Florida Gators, the Gamecocks stayed true to the theme of the season. Despite outplaying the Gators (13-3-3, 7-2-2 SEC) for the majority of the match, Carolina dropped the game 2-1 in double overtime in. another heartbreaking defeat in the final game of the season. Friday’s festivities began with Carolina honoring the senior trio of Ashley Williams, Sarah Lentz and Ashley Gosnell. Gosnell made her mark during her freshman season, leading USC in goals that year en route to a successful career. Williams leaves South Carolina as the seventh all-time scorer and co-captain Lentz departs at 12th on the list, without missing a game over her four-year career. “Tonight they played their hearts out,” USC head coach Shelley Smith said about the trio. “They’ve contributed greatly throughout their career and we’re definitely going to miss them.” They will definitely be missed, but the play of the underclassmen in Friday’s batde points to a bright future. Freshman midfielder Courtney Cobbs dominated the first 10 minutes of the match. In an effort to prevent scoring opportunities and slow the Gamecock offense, the Gators decided to apply experienced pressure on Cobbs, substituting freshman Ashley Harris for junior Jamie Garside. The move was enough to hinder the aggressiveness of Carolina, and Florida capitalized. Though Carolina out-shot the Gators 6-3 and dominated in the first half, Florida was able to convert on one of its few attacks into the Carolina side of the field. A cross by Florida midfielder Ashley Kellgreen into the box found Gator midfielder Lindsey Affolter, who knocked the ball in the air to All American Stephanie Freeman. A perfecdy placed header at 36:14 pushed the Gators to a 1-0 lead, which would not be relinquished until the second half. The second half began as normal for the Gamecocks with the team attacking the opposition fiercely. This time the quick attack proved successful as Cobbs drove a pass from Amanda Thurber from the center circle to 8 yards out, knocking in her third goal of the season at 48:16 to tie the match at 1-1. “Courtney came forward on the play very well and had an excellent finish on her shot,” Smith said. “For a young player in her first year she has really learned and we hope she continues to take what she has learned and use it on the field in her next few years.” Both teams recorded near hits for the remainder of the half as Florida missed a free kick from 18 yards out in the 64th minute, countered by a shot by Williams that was hooked outside the net at the 80:00 mark, a one-on-one opportunity with the goalkeeper that would have been Williams’ second game winner against the Gators in three ♦ Please see WOMEN, page 8 You can only take so much suffering ■ Tennessee game just another disappointing loss for Carolina fans I’m not sure I can take football games anymore. They’re killing me. I won’t even be 20 years old until January, but I still feel I’ve seen this hannpn wav rnrt many times for one lifetime. I think every time I saw a missed holding call I lost a year off the end of my life. Every time I heard the JAKE Tennessee band BROOM ^ SECOND-YEAR year c^e encl POLITICAL of my life. 1 am almost positive STUDENT , . K , that 1 had a mini-stroke when they didn’t call roughing the kicker on that punt in the end zone. I’m glad the student section isn’t in the upper deck, or else I might have launched myself over the edge after the third quarter. I was going to write about something else, but I can’t even concentrate right now. In a way I saw this coming. Our first mistake was allowing this to be a day game. I have ■already dedicated one column to how much I hate day games, so 1 won’t spend much more time on that, but when will we realize day games are evil? They just are. Nothing good happens in a day game. We wake up early, we don’t get to tailgate, we roast in the sun, and we lose. Oh, and guess what? The Arkansas game, yeah, you guessed it: day game. Somebody please duct tape me to my bed Saturday morning, because I can’t take this. Other than the fact that it was a day game, 1 think this hurts so much because I convinced myself we were going to win. I always do, no matter what. Deep down I knew Tennessee probably had the better team, but by the end of the week I had talked myself into believing we’d win. We could have been playing Jesus and the 12 disciples and by the end of the week I would have bet the house that we would find a way to win. I can just hear myself: “You know — Thaddeus has looked weak on • his man coverage: I think we can exploit that.” This next game is huge. I said the same thing last week, but I really mean it this time. We can either learn something from this loss and come back and beat Arkansas, or we can do what we have the last two years: Chalk this one up to bad officiating, bad play calling, bad luck and say wait until next year. I don’t know about you, but I’m sick of waiting until next year. Even though I’ve been to probably 100 games and we’ve come up short 60 or 70 times, I’ll always be there. I’ll always believe that this week is the week we finally win the big game, because I don’t have a choice. This isn’t something temporary; I’m a Gamecock fan for life. Even though tight now I hate football, by Tuesday I’ll be counting down the hours until our next game. I know where I’ll be next Saturday. Same time, same place but hopefully different results. I know I’ll be there, will you? DUMPING THE DEVILS No. 25 USC knocks off No. 13 Duke KATIE KIRKLAND/THE GAMECOCK USC freshman Sebastian Lindholm dribbles around a defender. The striker from Sweden scored the lone goal in Carolina’s 1-0 victory over Duke. Lindholm is tied for the team lead with four goals. By BRIAN DAVIS THE GAMECOCK The men’s soccer team defeated the No. 13 Duke Blue Devils Sunday 1-0 on a goal by freshman striker Sebastian Lindholm in the 62nd minute. After an exchange of crisp passes between junior defender Josh Alcala and sophomore forward Ayo Akinsete, Akinsete shot the ball toward the left side of the net where Duke senior goalkeeper Justin Trowbridge barely deflected the ball with his right arm. It fell into Lindholm’s range at the left side of the 6-yard box where he stuck the ball past Trowbridge and into the right corner of the goal. Lindholm’s goal is his fourth on the season, placing him atop the team in goals along with Akinsete, four, and points, 11. 1 ne oamecocKs placed tremendous pressure on the Blue Devils throughout the contest including several close misses and a goal by junior forward Ryan Deter that was called back on a debatable offsides call. With just over eight minutes remaining in the first half, freshman midfielder J.D. Moon entered the eighteen yard box on the right side with the ball at his foot and sent it to Deter on the opposite end of the box. Deter knocked it into the back left side of the net but as Deter struck it, the referee whistled Deter for offsides, one of eight offsides calls on the Gamecocks in the match. Carolina had many opportunities throughout the contest with five shots in the first half, trailing Duke by one, but then out-shooting them 9-8 in the second half to suffocate the Blue Devils’ effort. “I think that this was a tremendous win. Duke has an excellent team. I thought we played exceptional today. We not only got the goal but a lot of chances,” Carolina coach Mark Berson said, complimenting his young but highly talented squad. Duke freshman forward Spencer Wadsworth provided some trouble for the Gamecocks with a few close chances to tie the contest. In the 5-1 st minute of the match, Wadsworth hit a shot from the right side of the field that hit the left goal post and into Carolina control. Wadsworth’s, and the Blue Devils’ last chance to even the match came in the 87th minute when Wadsworth received “I thought we played exceptional today. We not only got the goal but a lot of chances.” MARK BERSON use HEAD COACH the ball to the left of the Gamecocks’ net with junior defender Greg Reece shadowing him. The two exchanged some physical contact and Wadsworth was penalized a yellow card for his role in the confrontation. The Gamecocks defense was solid throughout the contest, assisting sophomore goalkeeper Brad Guzan in earning his fourth shutout of the season against of the premier teams in the nation. Guzan had four saves in the contest and maintained control over the defensive who erased many Duke drives. At one point, the Blue Devils were 11-0 on the season and the No. 1 team in the country but are now 13-4-0 and have lost four of their last six games, all by a single goal. The Gamecocks’ victory was an incredible boost to the end of the season after having lost four of their previous five games. 1 think (the win) tells us what we believed already. It is an excellent young team that has the potential of beating anyone on any given day,” Berson said. This win will greatly assist the team in their positioning in postseason play while deflating the Blue Devils’ morale even more and lowering their position. “It wasn’t a matter of us catching them (Duke) flat,” Berson said. “Duke needed this win to position themselves in the NCAA tournament just like we did.” Duke has one game remaining before the ACC Tournament, a matchup at home against a formidable Wake Forest team Friday night. Moving forward, the Gamecocks will participate in the Charleston Tournament beginning at 5 p.m. Friday night against Coastal Carolina and concluding at 2:30 p.m. Sunday against Alabama A&M. On the will and drive of his Carolina team, Berson said, “Well, these guys have been warriors for us all year. It has been there all year and will continue to be there.” Comments on this story? E-moil gamecocksports@gwm.sc. edu Volleyball drops second straight By MATTHEW NAGY THE GAMECOCK The University of Kentucky volleyball team earned a 3-2 (24-30, 20-30, 30-23, 36-34, 15-12) victory against USC on Sunday afternoon in Lexington, Ky. The Wildcats won the first meeting against the Gamecocks on Oct. 1 in Columbia, also coming down to the final set en route to clinching the victory. The loss drops Carolina’s record to 11-10 on the year, and the team stays in fifth place in the SEC East with a record of 4-8. The win on Senior Night for UK put their SEC record at 3-9, now only one game behind the Gamecocks as they look to move out of the basement in the SEC East. In the match, USC won the first two' games before Kentucky was able to rally and win the next two sets to force the game into the fifth set. USC’s Shonda Cole had 19 kills, tying with Kentucky outside hitter Alex Montefalco for the game lead. In the first two sets, USC was able to take advantage of a Kentucky team that made several unforced errors. The sloppy play by the Wildcats led to a combined total of 29 service errors and only 15 aces between the two sides. Carolina had a minimal seven attack errors, while the Wildcats made 21 attack errors throughout the match. Carolina has now lost two straight to Kentucky after winning nine straight before the Oct. 1 match up, with the Wildcats last win coming in 2000. It was the first Kentucky sweep against USC since •1999. The Gamecocks have now lost four straight contests dating back to a win against Auburn on Oct. 17 in Columbia. Following that victory, the Gamecocks dropped two games to ranked opponents when they faced Florida and Tennessee. In the fourth set of the match USC started out hot, but was unable to continue its success throughout the match. The Gamecocks held a 26 16 lead, but could not score the final four points without allowing a Kentucky comeback. The Wildcats were able to battle back and tie the contest at 27 before seven more ties forced the teams into extra-points in the set. It was then that Carolina was 'unable to hold off the Kentucky attack as they dropped the set 36-34. In the final game of the match, Kentucky exploded out to a 5-2 advantage and never looked back in the short game. The Gamecocks were able to briefly take the lead at 7-6 because of three straight kills by Cole and junior outside hitter Sarah Morgan. USC was unable to recover from the early three point deficit and eventually lost the match 15-12. “With the 2-0 lead in the match, I think we got ahead of ourselves and lost focus,” said USC head coach Kim Hudson, adding that “Kentucky came out of the break ready to play and we didn’t adjust.” Carolina will now look to rebound from their current four-game losing skid. Their next match comes on November 5 against LSU. The Gamecocks return for a two game home-stand against the Tigers and Arkansas before heading to Gainesville to free the undefeated Gators. The Gamecocks will have to look towards winning the SEC tournament if they are going to be able to participate in NCAA tournament play this season. Carolina needs to finish the last three games strong to carry the momentum in the upcoming tournament. -1-J Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu CHARLIE DAVENPORT/THE GAMECOCK Lynae Vanden Hull goes up for a ball during Carolina’s loss to Kentucky.