CLEMSON, S.C. – South Carolina volleyball closed its non-conference schedule in style Friday night, taking down Clemson in straight sets to pick up a point in the Palmetto Series, presented by the South Carolina Education Lottery. Riley Whitesides led the team with 18 kills, including big swings in sets one and three to lock in the win, 34-32, 25-16, 25-23. The Gamecocks move to 9-2 entering SEC play and have won eight of the last nine meetings with the Tigers (6-3).
1st SET: The match opened with a game fit for the rivalry, as the Gamecocks came out on top by a 34-32 score. There would be nine ties and six lead changes AFTER the set reached the standard 25 points and the set would take almost a full hour to decide. The two teams combined for 10 different set-point opportunities, four for Clemson six for the Gamecocks, with the sixth and final chance ending with back-to-back Tiger errors.
The Gamecocks seemed to be rolling after a strong offensive showing on Tuesday night at home against East Carolina, starting the set with kills on five of their first six total attacks before facing some adversity. Holding an 11-8 lead, Carolina saw its starting setter, Sarah Jordan, exit with an injury. The team was forced to adjust its offense and burn substitutions that would be valuable later on in the set. The offense leaned heavily on Alayna Johnson, who took 15 of the team’s first 26 swings and 23 total in the game. Despite the injury taking the offense out of its comfort zone, the Gamecocks were able to keep some distance on the Tigers, who cut the lead down to 16-15 before a service error and ace from Riley Whitesides pushed the lead back out to 19-15.
Clemson pushed again late, pulling within one after an ace to make it 23-22. Whitesides’ second kill of the opener brought set point at 24-22, but the Tigers used a 3-0 run to flip the scoreboard and give the home side their first set point. Whitesides would be clutch late, getting kills to deny Clemson set point chances at 30-29 and 31-30. Out of the 32-all score, the Tigers served long and then went long on an attack for the final margin.
2nd SET: With more than a full set of action to adjust to the new offensive system, the Gamecocks had a strong start in set two and rode it to a 25-16 win. The team built a 15-10 lead early with 10 kills on its first 16 swings with a number of hitters contributing to the attack. Clemson was only able to score two points in a row four different times but could…