BATON ROUGE, LA. – Offensive Records fell left and right as South Carolina (14-9, 5-7 SEC) overcame a first-set loss to defeat LSU (13-11, 5-8) in five sets on the road Wednesday night. The Gamecocks hit .343 with setter Sarah Jordan breaking the rally-scoring era record for assists (66), helped by a career night from Riley Whitesides and her 30 kills.
1st SET: The Gamecocks took advantage of a high-error LSU offense to push away in the early going, after trading points it would be a 7-0 Carolina run that made it 13-8 and forced an early Tiger timeout. Five of the seven points in the run came from unforced errors by the home side. LSU was able to right the ship and clawed back ahead at 18-16 after six unanswered points to get the Gamecocks to call their first timeout. The Tigers were able to maintain the lead and had the match’s first two set point opportunities, coming at 24-22, but the Gamecocks answered with a kill from Campbell Paris and an attack error to knot the set up at 24, the tenth tie. LSU would respond with the next two points, though, for the 26-24 win.
2nd SET: Serving errors slowed South Carolina in the second, negating an otherwise strong offensive performance by the Gamecocks. Six missed serves accounted for more than a third of LSU’s point total as the two teams traded off through the first 30 combined points. The Gamecocks locked in down the stretch, though, scoring seven of the final eight points for a 25-18 win. For the set, South Carolina out-hit LSU .444 to .059. The momentum shifted after a reviewed call flipped what would have been an 18-all tie into a 19-17 lead for the Gamecocks, who pulled away behind a strong effort from Tireh Smith. The right-side pin had two kills and a block during that final eight-point stretch. Unforced errors continued to stymie LSU, the Tigers had six attacks go out along with a pair of blocks for Carolina.
3rd SET: The two teams fought hard to gain the momentum and set advantage, there would be six lead changes and 12 ties before the first timeout of the set, a 15-14 advantage for South Carolina. LSU punched back with a 3-0 run to take an 18-16 lead, inducing the first called timeout of the set for the Gamecocks. South Carolina was able to side out after the break, but the Tigers extended the lead out to 22-17 behind a 4-0 scoring run. The home side closed out the set by a 25-23 margin, brushing off a late 4-0 scoring rally for the Gamecocks.
4th SET: Pressed into service at the last…