COLUMBIA, S.C. (EETV) – On Sunday, the South Carolina Gamecocks gave Auburn their fourth conference loss in a row as the Lady Tigers struggled to find a rhythm.
The last three times these teams have met, the matches have gone into five sets. Tom Mendoza’s Gamecocks sat at 11-6 before this matchup, and they came off an impressive win against Oklahoma. On the flip side, Auburn traveled to Columbia on a three-game losing streak.
Jasmine Okeoma got the start for this match, and she made her impact early. She had a block to interrupt South Carolina’s 5-1 lead in the first set. However, Auburn struggled to make a scoring run of any kind.
Riley Whitesides had back-to-back kills, putting the Tigers down by six. It was Chelsey McCurdy who cut the Gamecocks’ lead to two with a kill and a stop at the net. The match was all tied up after two attacking errors for South Carolina.
After four unanswered points, it was a missed serve that gave the Tigers a break. Unfortunately, they couldn’t make anything of that, and the Gamecocks finished out the set on another 4-1 run. South Carolina made a statement at home, taking the first set 25-19.
In the second point of the second set, Madison Scheer joined an exclusive club of Auburn volleyball players with 1,000 career kills.
This set was back and forth from the start, with neither team pulling away by more than two points. It wasn’t until the 12th point of the set that the Gamecocks were able to separate themselves.
The fight never left the Tigers, even as they struggled to stop South Carolina’s front row. A late challenge from Auburn gets overturned and keeps the set alive.
Down four and with no points to give the Gamecocks, the Tigers rallied and kept Madison Scheer on the serving line. Her ace and two blocks from Bel Zimmerman and Jasmine Okeoma brought them within one point.
Although Riley Whitesides was struggling at the net in the latter half of this set, she pulled through for the Gamecocks and had the final two kills to finish the second set, 26-24.
Winning yet another challenge, this one earlier in the set, Coach Brent Crouch challenged a net violation. The early momentum gained by the Tigers in the third set was crushed after two errors from veterans Chelsey McCurdy and Bella Bell.
Two consecutive blocks from Bel Zimmerman were just the kickstart the Tigers’ offense needed. Six different Tigers assisted on blocks in this set.
Inconsistency for the Gamecocks started to show, and the Tigers capitalized, going on a 6-0 scoring run. Regardless of Auburn’s two service errors in the final points of the game, they claimed a dominant third set, winning 25-16.
No stranger to a fourth set, the Tigers knew what was at stake. After the first four points of this set came as a result of errors from both teams, Lauren Dreves was eager to clean up their play. She contributed three crucial kills to put space between the Tigers and the Gamecocks.
She was able to follow up this performance by adding three more kills later in this set. However, there was no answer for the duo of Alayna Johnson and Riley Whitesides who had five consecutive kills between the two of them.
That was the final push that South Carolina needed to take the lead back. In a must-win situation, the Tigers closed out the fourth set with four errors. This led South Carolina to win both the match and the set, 25-20.
Auburn won the battle at the net but failed to minimize errors at the serving line again. Auburn had an impressive 15 blocks, opposed to South Carolina’s eight. Jasmine Okeoma led both teams with eight blocks. However, the Gamecocks had two more aces and three fewer service errors than the Tigers.
In search of a win to close out October, the Lady Tigers will welcome fans to Neville Arena for a Trick or Treat Takeover on October 30. They are set to host Ole Miss in another Southeastern Conference thriller. The game can also be viewed on SEC Network at 6:30 p.m.
