Mississippi State
South Carolina
South Carolina Tops State In Straight Sets
October 03, 2008 | Volleyball
? Official Statistics
STARKVILLE, Miss. - South Carolina held off a gallant third-set surge by Mississippi State Friday night to preserve a straight-sets win over the Bulldogs at the Newell-Grissom Building. USC (12-2, 4-1 SEC), sporting a No. 35 national ranking, claimed 25-19 and 25-13 decisions in the first two sets and then turned back State (6-9, 1-3 SEC) 25-23 in the match-clinching third set. Ivana Kujundzic and Belita Salters proved to be an effective one-two punch for the Gamecocks. Kujundzic piled up a match-high 15 kills and hit at a sizzling .464 clip while Salters totaled nine kills with a match-high five total blocks. "We played well at times and played with good effort tonight, but we didn't have any answers for those two talented players," said MSU head coach Tina Seals. "I was proud of the way we competed to the end and made a nice run in the third set." Mississippi State got 10 kills from junior outside hitter Ioana Demian and seven each from freshmen Mandy Mellencamp and Faith Steinwedell. Mellencamp hit at a season-best .545 clip and paced MSU at the net with two blocks. Junior setter Dorey Gray finished with 22 assists and a match-high 15 digs for her fourth double-double of the campaign. South Carolina led MSU in kills (42-34), digs (49-38) and total team blocks (7.0 to 2.0). USC pulled away from a 15-15 deadlock en route to a 25-19 win in the opening set, then rode a seven-kill performance by Kujundzic to a convincing 25-13 win in set two. Back-to-back service aces by Dorey Gray gave the Bulldogs an 11-10 lead in the third set. State stayed close, pulling to within a point at 24-23 on a USC hitting error before Kujundzic ended the match with her 15th kill of the evening. The Bulldogs hit a match-best .281 and got three-kill efforts in the setf from Steinwedell and Gray, but five service errors proved costly in the closely-contested final set.. The Bulldogs continue their weekend home stand Sunday at 1:30 p.m., hosting 10th-ranked Florida (11-1, 5-0 SEC), a 3-1 winner over Alabama Friday night in Tuscaloosa.
? Official Statistics (PDF)
