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Game Result
South Carolina 3 , Liberty 1
Houston, TX
South Carolina opened up play in the Rice Invitational in Houston with a fairly comfortable win over Liberty. The Gamecocks cruised to a 25-15 win in set one, got a closer win in set two, then let set three get away from them, dropping it 25-22 for the first set they'd lost this season. Carolina rebounded, taking set four 25-18 and leading it from the first point to the end. Brittany McLean set a new career high with 18 kills over the first four sets.

The Gamecocks and Flames traded points through the match's first six points, but then USC took over, going on a 6-0 run, highlighted by five outstanding serves from sophomore Jess Vastine. That put the Gamecocks up 9-3, another run keyed by Vastine clinched the game. She had a kill to make it 18-12, then three more good serves to push the lead to 21-12. A service ace by Courtney Koehler and a kill by Mikayla Robinson accounted for the final two points in the 25-15 win.

Set two was closer, as it was tied 10-10 before a kill by Claire Edwards and three solid serves from the hometown junior made it 14-10. Liberty would bounce back, eventually tying the set at 20, but a 3-0 run that featured kills by McLean and Robinson all but clinched it, and McLean had a kill for the final point.

In the third set the Gamecocks struggled - they made only seven errors on attack in the first two sets combined but had eight in the third set alone. USC actually led 5-2 following a service ace by Aubrey Ezell, but then fell behind 10-5. Carolina fought back to tie the game at 19 on a kill by Courtney Koehler and then took a 21-20 lead on a kill by McLean but the Flames took five of the last six points and their first set.

USC stormed out to a 4-0 lead in the fourth and ultimately final set. Starting off with Jess Vastine serving, kills by McLean and Mikayla Shields and a block by Edwards built the early lead. USC later pushed the lead to 8-3 on a service ace by Koehler and would never lead by less than three. Liberty had a late run to cut it to 19-16, but Carolina then rattled off five straight points, finishing with another service ace by Ezell. A kill by Vastine accounted for the match's final point.

Special congratulations go out to Aubrey Ezell, whose four aces put her over 150 for her career. According to GamecocksOnline, she is now the only Division I player with 2000+ assists, 1000+ digs and 150+ aces in their career. Besides McLean's career high in kills, Jess Vastine set a new career high with 14 digs and Claire Edwards hit a new mark with three aces.
USC Stats
AttackSet Serve Block Def Rec
PlayerSPKETAPctAESASEBSBABEDIGBHEREPts
Brittany McLean 4 18 6 36 0.333 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 18.0
Claire Edwards 4 9 3 17 0.353 0 0 3 4 1 3 1 0 0 0 14.5
Jess Vastine 4 8 2 24 0.250 1 0 2 0 0 1 0 14 0 0 10.5
Mikayla Shields 4 8 8 28 0.000 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 13 1 0 9.0
Mikayla Robinson 4 5 2 12 0.250 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 6.0
Aubrey Ezell 4 1 0 1 1.000 2 0 4 2 0 0 0 13 0 3 5.0
Courtney Koehler 4 1 0 8 0.125 41 3 2 2 0 0 0 3 2 0 3.0
Addie Bryant 4 0 0 1 0.000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0.0
Savannah Murray 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
Lauren Bowers 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0.0
Liberty Stats
AttackSet Serve Block Def Rec
PlayerSPKETAPctAESASEBSBABEDIGBHEREPts
Victoria Baptista 4 13 4 29 0.310 0 0 1 3 2 2 0 12 1 1 17.0
Amelia Johnson 4 10 3 24 0.292 0 0 0 2 0 3 0 1 0 1 11.5
Jenna Culhan 4 9 1 27 0.296 2 0 0 3 1 2 1 1 0 0 11.0
Kainah Williams 4 4 3 12 0.083 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 0 0 6.5
Anna Gragg 4 1 0 13 0.077 0 0 0 3 1 3 0 1 0 1 3.5
Casey Goodwin 3 2 4 9 -0.222 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 2 0 0 2.0
Payton Carter 3 1 0 1 1.000 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 6 0 2 2.0
Hannah Morris 4 1 0 3 0.333 23 2 0 0 0 1 0 7 1 0 1.5
Margaret Latchford 4 0 0 0 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 12 0 4 1.0
Kaitlyn Young 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.0
Kailey Macy 1 0 0 1 0.000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
Amaya Williams 3 0 0 1 0.000 10 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0.0