COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina rode a hot start to a four-set victory over Auburn (14-6, 4-5 SEC) on Sunday afternoon. The one-two punch of Alayna Johnson and Riley Whitesides combined for 31 of the team’s 55 kills in the match, helping the Gamecocks (12-6, 3-4 SEC) avenge a pair of five-set losses to the Tigers last fall.
1st SET: The Gamecocks were clicking right away, opening the game with a 25-19 win behind a 15-9 advantage in kills and a .367 team hitting percentage. Johnson and Whitesides combined for nine of those 15 kills, but all told there would be six different Gamecocks pitching in at least one kill in the opener. Johnson would spark the team from behind the service line early, scoring two aces in an opening 5-1 run that would be extended out to 14-8 before Auburn mounted its comeback effort. The Tigers scored six unanswered points from there to even the score at 14, but Whitesides took her turn as the difference-maker down the stretch to keep the visitors from completing the comeback. Whitesides and Ellie Ruprich teamed up for a block to side out Auburn and give Carolina an 18-17 lead, then she would help serve the Tigers out of sync on offense for three more points and they would not threaten the lead again.
2nd SET: The offense continued to chug along in set two, but the Auburn attack would rebound in a tighter affair. South Carolina had a game-high 17 kills in the set with four different players accounting for three or more kills, but neither side could gain much ground early before a small service run by Victoria Harris turned an 11-all tie into a 15-11 advantage for Carolina. The team was in control from there but almost let the hard work slip away late after an Auburn replay challenged stalled what was called on the floor as the set-clinching point at 25-19. After the review overturned the point in Auburn’s favor, it would turn the momentum shift into a 5-0 run that would knot the score up again at 24. The Gamecocks turned to Whitesides to avoid the upset, she would convert her fourth and fifth kills of the set into the final two points in a 26-24 win.
3rd SET: Auburn quieted the sold-out crowd of the Carolina Volleyball Center with a dominating effort in the third to extend the match. The Tigers used five team blocks to hold the Gamecocks to just eight kills, while their offense hit .480. The first break came off a 5-1 run that ballooned Auburn’s lead to 13-8, then a second run of six unanswered points pushed the…