Team sets win record for fall season
Going into Saturday’s meet at No. 2 Auburn, coach Boo Major and her team were hoping to put together a complete performance. After losses against Georgia and at Texas A&M exposed consistency issues, the Gamecocks needed a win against the Tigers to avoid falling to 0-3 in the SEC.
The team responded with arguably its best performance of the season in a 12-6 win over Auburn, their first regular season win in Alabama since the 2009 season.
“We felt like the way to become more consistent was to practice a little harder and get mentally tougher,” Major said. “They did, and I think it all paid off.”
The Tigers jumped out to an early 1-0 lead, but redshirt sophomore Samantha Smith came out and defeated her opponent 71-70 to knot things up. Auburn would lead again at 2-1 but then the Gamecocks took over for good from there, winning the next five points.
“I feel like the pressure motivates me to do better,” said Smith, who has already matched her regular season win total from last season with 11.
The Rhode Island native said more practice and a new strength coach have made her into a better rider and the redshirt year helped ease her into the system.
After the team took an unexpected loss to Texas A&M in its previous match, Major talked about the team coming together and not letting the mistakes happen again.
In addition, despite a two meet losing streak, the team still brought a lot of confidence into Auburn.
“They came in very prepared,” Major said. “They prepared themselves. I think the coaches did a great job preparing them for things that might happen. I really think they just had a different attitude going into this meet: confidence, but confidence that they could win because of how much work they put in beforehand.”
Major said that there were a few hiccups in the exhibition rides before the meet that made her nervous, but was confident that the team would respond.
After struggling against the Aggies, the horsemanship team responded with a 4-1 win against the Tigers.
“They were very confident, kind of mad I would even say, that they let Texas A&M get away from them,” Major said. “It was kind of like, ‘I’ve had enough, I’m not going to take it anymore.’ They really got in there and all rode beautifully.”
There was a particular instance where the Gamecocks’ Katie Kopf and Auburn’s Hannah Loseke had trouble with the horse they were riding. However, Loseke had trouble throughout her ride while Kopf “rode through it extremely well.” As a result, South Carolina picked up the 71.5-62.5 victory that helped the Gamecocks get going.
“On the Western side of things, that (score) is huge,” Major said. “That’s probably the equivalent of beating someone in Hunt Seat by about 25 points. It made me breathe a little easier when Katie got in there and knocked it out of the park with that difficult horse.”
With the victory, the Gamecocks are now 5-2, 1-2 SEC on the year, and the five wins in the fall season is a record for South Carolina. However, Major said that the team can’t be content with the success, especially with South Dakota State looming on the horizon.
“The one thing we can’t do is say, ‘OK, we had a great season; we’re done,’” Major said.