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GAME SCHEDULE 1 WOMEN’S BASKETBALL vs. UNLV in the WBCA Classic, 8 p.m. rage 11 FOOTBALL vs. Clemson, Noon Monday, November 15, 2004 MEN’S SWIMMING vs. Virginia, 1 p.m. NICK ESARES/THE GAMECOCK Michael Sambursky lines up a shot earlier this season. Sambursky and the rest of the Gamecocks will wait attentively to find out if they will be invited to the NCAA tourney. USC ends regular season with a blast ■ Mens soccer upsets No. 21 Florida International By MATTHEW NAGY THE GAMECOCK It was a great way to end the regular season, as the USC men’s soccer team (12-6-1) took the lead with only five minutes of play and never looked back. In the end it was a 3-1 win against No. 21 Florida International (11-6-0) and it was Ryan Deter who led the way for the Gamecocks. “I’m just tremendously proud of this team. They’ve played so well here in big games, and must-win situations,” head coach Mark Berson said. Carolina was able to respond after a tough game against Coastal Carolina last weekend. Sebastian Lindholm received a clever pass from Ryan Deter to score the game’s first goal. Deter was able to block a Panther defender’s outlet pass and carry the ball down the left side of the box. Lindholm was ready and waiting on the right side just outside of the 6-yard box when Deter swung a quick pass over. The standout from Sweden was able to finish for USC, pounding the ball into the lower right corner of the net for his seventh goal of the season. The goal moves the forward from Sweden into the top-10 scoring list of Gamecock freshmen. Along with his seven goals, Lindholm has also had four assists on the year. But the afternoon belonged to Ryan Deter, who was involved in all three goals scored gaining an assist, scoring the second, and getting fouled inside the 18-yard box drawing a penalty kick. * “His fighting power is what creates a lot of opportunities because he pressures balls, he goes after balls that might be a half chance and he makes something good out of it,” Berson said. Deter, who has been playing with a broken right hand, was able to get the second goal of the game five minutes into the second half when Jose Ramos sailed a perfect cross from the middle of the field to a waiting Mike Sambursky on the right hand edge of the 18-yard box. Sambursky played the ball through the feet of the defenders, leading right to Deter. When Sambursky and Deter arrived at the ball at the same time inside the box, it was Deter who knocked the ball through to put USC up 2-0. Seven minutes later, Deter again was in the mix on the offensive side of the pitch, drawing a foul from the Golden Panthers inside of the box. Knowing that he could put the game away for good, captain Eric Szeszycki lined up to take his fifth penalty kick of the season. The junior from Round Rock, Texas struck the ball perfectly into the top right corner to remain a perfect 5 5 on penalty kicks this season. The defense, which looked sloppy at times, was able to contain FIU’s attack-oriented offense. “They are one of the best attacking teams anywhere, so we knew that they were going to get some chances,” Berson said. The Gamecocks held off the Golden Panthers for 70 minutes before Fernando Plentz finally broke loose for FIU. The goal was too little to late however, and Carolina was able to hang on to a 3-1 lead in large pan because of the play of Deter and the defense. Carolina is now 6-0 this season when scoring three goals or more, and remains undefeated all time against the Golden Panthers. The win was the Gamecocks’ fourth against a ranked team this season, and Carolina should lock up an NCAA tournament birth with the victory. The Gamecocks, who have daned in and out of the major soccer polls and ranked as high as No. 8 this year, may be looking forward to hosting regional matches in the first and second round at the Graveyard. The tournament selections will be ’broadcast live on ESPN News Monday at 4:30 p.m. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecockspoits@givm.se. edu Carolina drops season opener ■ Washington wins 65-53 in comeback against Gamecocks By BRIAN DAVIS THE GAMECOCK The USC women’s basketball team dropped their first game of the season Sunday to the Washington Huskies 65-53 at Bank of America Arena in Seattle. “I was impressed with Washington. They’ll only continue to get better,” USC head coach Susan Walvius said. “They did a great job on defense and on the boards against us today.” The Gamecocks led for most of the first half and until the final 10 minutes, when the Huskies went on a run and took the lead at 39 38 at the 9:19 mark in the second half. The Huskies would never relinquish the lead. Down 37-30 with more than 12 and a half minutes remaining, the Huskies went on a 21-0 run to claim a commanding lead at 51-38 with just under six minutes remaining. Following two commanding exhibition games, the Huskies were led by Kayla Burt, Breanna Watson and Dominique Banks, who each contributed 12 points in the rallying effort. The Huskies shot 33 percent to the Gamecocks’ 34 percent, but took 11 more shots in the game. USC was 5 for 20 from beyond the three-point line, while the Huskies shot 10 for 25. This boost was helpful in the Huskies’ late run, converting three of them in this seven-minute stretch. Th^* major flaw in the Gamecock effort was 30 turnovers for the team, a problem -rh?r hoc nlam.^rl 1 KT' r^r/r Washington scored 37 points off turnovers, while USC had 24. This is especially telling because the Gamecocks also forced 23 turnovers on the Huskies but could not capitalize as often. USC was led by sophomore guard Lauren Simms, who totaled 12 points and two rebounds, but fouled out with 3:30 remaining in the second half. On the boards, the Gamecocks were led by redshirt freshman Melanie Johnson, who led the team with eight rebounds while freshman center Ilona Burgrova and .junior forward Olga Gritsaeva each claimed “I like our talent but one thing we have to learn is that a lot of times, games are decided by runs.” SUSAN WALVIUS USC HEAD COACH five. “I like our talent but one thing we have to learn is that a lot of times, games are decided by runs," Walvius said. “We turned the ball over a lot and at times it looked like we panicked. You can’t turn the ball over 30 times against-- a team like Washington and expect to win on the road.” The Huskies next game is Monday night against the No. 14 Minnesota Gophers, who topped UNLV by eight points Sunday afternoon. The 0-1 Gamecocks will square ofF with UNLV Monday night in their final game at the WBCA/BTI Classic. USC, which has no seniors, will return home Friday at' 7 p.m. in an exhibition^ game against Everyone’s Internet. —-^-* CHARLIE DAVENPORT/THE GAMECOCK Nicole Miller serves the ball in USC’s last home game. Miller and the Gamecocks have qualified for the eighth and final spot in this year’s SEC Tournament after fighting for position late in the season. Gators clinch 14th strai By STEPHEN FASTENAU STAFF WRITER USC dropped its 22nd straight meeting with Florida as the No. 7 Gators clinched a share of their 14th SEC title in as many years with a 3-0 win Friday. Florida (23-3, 15-1) won its 145th consecutive regular season match, a streak which ended Sunday when the Gators fell to the No. 15 Tennessee Volunteers. The Gamecocks fell to 12-12 overall and 5-10 in the SEC. “We had some good moments tonight bur we would continuously got ourselves into tough situations during some rotations and that was 1 - 11^-1-L lot of errors tonight, and you can’t allow those against a team like Florida.” Shonda Cole had 13 kills for USC while Florida junior Jane Collymore also had 13. Gator senior Sherri Williams added 10 kills. The Gators led in every major statistical category. Florida had 13 more kills, 11 more digs, and five more aces than USC while out-hitting its opponent .312 to .067. Florida jumped out to an early 8 0 lead in the first game. After a USC rally brought the team within two at 8-6, the Gators pushed khe lead to 16-6 on their way to taking the game 30-18. game. Florida had 15 kills to 14 foi USC and the Gamecocks had more assists than the Gators. USC committed 10 errors to just foui for Florida. It was the Gamecocks whc mounted an early charge in the second game. USC had an early 8-4 lead and at one point led 11-5 before Florida came back with a 7-0 run to take ovei the lead at 12-11. The game then went back and forth with the Gators eventually gaining the upper hand by taking advantage of more USC errors and winning 30-22. j The Gamecocks had added 10 more errors in the game while hitting It’s time to start the trash talking ■ The Clemson game this week has USC fans in a frenzy Since it is Clemson week and I am already giddy, this week’s column will be a couple of short thing* I discovered recently that I thought were sufficiendy [entertaining. Besides, like I said, this is Clemson week, so shouldn’t you be talking trash to somebody? AKE excited. I can’t BROOM help it. You should be, too. SECOND-YEAR T POLITICAL SCIENCE looking STUDENT around on Ebay the other day, trying to find an autographed copy of Tommy Bowden “Coaching For Dummies,” when I happened upon a gem of an auction. Apparendy the University of Iowa is getting a new scoreboard/giant TV screen for its football stadium next year and is selling the old one on Ebay. Seriously, it is a giant scoreboard with a giant Sony instant replay screen attached. It appears to be about the same size as the one in Williams-Brice — huginormous. (The copy editors love it when I make up words.) Who needs this? The starting bid is $10,000. That counts me out. Is there any location other than a football stadium that requires a giant scoreboard and video screen? It has a huge Iowa logo in the center, so it isn’t like another school is going to buy it and just pretend the logo isn’t there. I can’t wait to see Master P on MTV Cribs playing PlayStation on the big screen. 1 can just hear him now: “You ain’t a playa ‘till you got a jumbo tron.” Ebay is ridiculous. Speaking of ridiculous, NASCAR is soon going to start advertising hard liquor, possibly even on the hoods of the cars. Mike Helton, the president of NASCAR, recently told The Washington Post that racing fans “view alcohol as part of everyday life and no longer draw a distinction between beer and distilled spirits.” So let me get this straight: NASCAR would rather it be called the Nextel Cup than the Winston Cup because Winston is a tobacco company, but they will have no problem with a Wild Turkey car circling the track? If the people in charge at NASCAR are trying to shed this redneck backwoods image of theirs, this is not the way to do it. The more I think about it, the less this makes sense. NASCAR, as far as I know, is the only sport where it is illegal to participate if you are under the influence of alcohol—even if you are of age. I’m pretty sure you won’t get arrested if you’re bowling drunk, but if you get behind the wheel of a car going 117 miles per hour — chances are somebody’s not finishing the race. But still NASCAR wants to be the only “sport,” and I use that term loosely, to have hard liquor companies as contributing sponsors. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to call the fine folks at NASCAR stupid. Wait—yes. Yes, I am. ght title and final game in the fashion of a team on an NCAA-record conference winning streak. Florida began with a 5-1 lead and went on to a 30-18 win. USC was able to pull within four at 13 17 but the Gators ran off eight straight points to put the game away. Senior Michelle Chatman had four service aces in the run for the Gators. Errors played the biggest role in the Gamecocks’ loss. USC had 28 attack errors, double the number of Florida errors. USC never hit above .100 during the match.