South Carolina beach volleyball was back in action at noon on Sunday to host the Arizona State Sun Devils at Wheeler Beach, and the team came away 3-2, earning its 10th straight win.
In the first wave of matches, junior Katie Smith and graduate student Lydia Dimke won their first set 21-12, followed by a 21-10 victory. Their victory put the first point on the board for the Gamecocks, bringing their lead to 1-0.
Sophomore Jess Vastine and freshman Abby Carroll fell to Arizona State after two losses, allowing the Sun Devils to put their first point on the board. Going into the second wave of matches, the Gamecocks and the Sun Devils were tied 1-1.
Two back-to-back victories by senior Shannon Williams and graduate student Cadie Bates earned the Gamecocks a 2-1 lead over Arizona State. The fourth match of the day was finished with a win from juniors Carly Schnieder and Franky Harrison. The duo won the first set, 21-13, lost the second set, 21-19, and came back for a win in their third set with a score of 15-12, making the score 3-1 for the Gamecocks.
Freshman Jordan Smith and graduate student Lauryn Gillis lost their first set against the Sun Devils with a score of 21-9. The second set saw improvement, as they claimed victory with a score of 21-16. Despite the victory, the pair was not able to hold out for another set. The duo fell to Arizona State in the third and final set by a score of 15-12.
Even though Smith and Gillis lost momentum from their second set, Arizona's win over them was not enough to capture an overall victory. With the point Arizona State scored to claim victory over Smith and Gillis in the final match, the overall score was still 3-2 in favor of the Gamecocks.
Smith had mixed feelings about the result of her match.
"I think we had moments of greatness, and then when we really struggled, so I just think there's a lot to work on," Smith said.
When asked what specific points she and Gillis were going to work on before their next game, Smith said that the duo needs to work on keeping the ball low and in control.
"There was a lot of points where we struggled with ball control," Smith said. "I think that was the main thing and just to stay aggressive."
South Carolina head coach Moritz Moritz noted the difference in competition between the Sun Devils and the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers, who the Gamecocks defeated last Wednesday.
"First and foremost, this step up in competition, to come from Coastal to Arizona State, who, maybe not indicative of their record, is a really, really good team," Moritz said. "We knew coming into today that the level of competition that we were facing, and really the level of our execution, needed to be a lot more crisp, and we saw it at times, and we kind of waxed and waned a little bit, but we definitely were able to finish, which is giant step for this team."
The Gamecocks have won 10 of their 11 last games, making their record 13-6 overall. However, Moritz said he thinks there are major areas in which his team can improve before its next game.
"I'm looking for when we're actually going to be firing all five cylinders at the same time, and we haven't had that yet this season," Moritz said. "But we're definitely getting into a point where we're fine-tuning a lot of things and that's what we're looking for."
Moritz also acknowledged the importance of capitalizing on the strengths the team already has as well as constantly restructuring the pairings so that each person remains comfortable with all of her teammates.
"We know that we're really reliable in our ones and our twos," Moritz said. "We know that Cadie Bates and Shannon are always gonna bring up their A-game, and Lydia and Katie and the twos are always gonna be top-notch, and then we actually had to make some adjustments, but I think it's fighting through that adversity that we need to continue to get kind of comfortable with for us to get better."
The Gamecocks will travel to Baton Rouge next weekend to face four teams over the course of the weekend in the LSU Beach Invitational.