The South Carolina volleyball team swept Alabama on Friday but got swept by the Crimson Tide on Saturday in its weekend series.
Game one
An aggressive offense led the Gamecocks to its second win on the road this year, beating Alabama on Friday.
Prior to the first serve, the Gamecocks held a 1-8 record for games on the road this season.
Sophomore Lauren McCutcheon and junior Kiune Fletcher powered the team offensively, with 14 and 13 kills, respectively.
“(McCutcheon has) done a great job over the last month especially,” Head Coach Tom Mendoza said.
Alabama took an early lead in the first set, but the South Carolina offense was able to make a quick comeback. Alabama led 4-0 when McCutcheon scored the first point of the night for the Gamecocks. Fletcher immediately followed with back-to-back kills of her own. The duo accounted for 13 of the team's points in the first set alone.
South Carolina won the first set, 30-28.
The second set was neck-and-neck, with neither team leading by a greater margin than four points.
South Carolina continued its wins in the third set, beating Alabama 25-19. Again, McCutcheon and Fletcher were responsible for over a third of the team's offense, scoring a combined-eight kills in the set.
Game two
The story of the game on Saturday was reversed, as Alabama swept South Carolina in three sets.
The offense for the Gamecocks was lacking in the loss, Mendoza said. South Carolina was only able to provide 31 kills to Alabama's 43.
“Offensively, we were below where we needed to be,” Mendoza said. “For all of our attackers, we need to find a way to be more consistent if we are going to put ourselves in a position to be successful nationally and within the SEC.”
On the defensive side of the ball, graduate student and libero Jenna Hampton led the Gamecocks by a large margin with 15 digs.
“Unfortunately, she’s one of the few that played the way she needed to play tonight,” Mendoza said. “We kind of wasted a good effort from Jenna and wasted a good effort from our block.”
Hampton reached 400 digs in a single season in the first set of Saturday’s game. She is only the 15th Gamecock to do so.
The Gamecocks had been off to an early lead following the first serve. South Carolina had a 4-0 lead, but Alabama quickly made it a close set, scoring from kills and service errors from the Gamecocks. The Crimson Tide edged out the Gamecocks, 27-25.
Alabama held a more consistent lead in the second set, finishing 25-22 over the Gamecocks. The Crimson Tide was aggressive offensively and scored six of their points on first ball kills.
The Gamecocks put up its biggest fight in the third set. The set saw a total of 17 ties and eight lead changes, with Alabama eventually winning the set, 28-26, and the match, 3-0.
McCutcheon, who had a combined three kills in the first two sets, matched that total with another three kills in the third set. She gave up almost as many points to the Tide, as she was credited with two attack errors in what would be the final set of the match.
What’s next
The Gamecocks will head back to Columbia and play Auburn in their final home game of the season on Nov. 23 at 2 p.m.