On Oct. 13, the unranked South Carolina Gamecocks swept the Florida Gators in Gainesville, marking Florida’s fifth loss of the season. Just over one month later, history repeated itself, this time in Columbia.
UF and USC met again on Tuesday, where No. 18 Florida (21-6, 11-4 SEC) and South Carolina (16-10, 7-8 SEC) started off neck-and-neck in a tense match. In the end, the Gamecocks came away with a 3-2 victory, marking the first time they had defeated the Gators twice in a single season since 1986.
While South Carolina took an early lead in the first set, kills from UF redshirt senior outside hitter Isabel Martin, freshman middle blocker Alec Rothe and sophomore outside hitter Kennedy Martin cut the Gamecocks’ lead to 16-14 in the first set..
After three consecutive points from the Gators, USC called a timeout.
When play resumed, Florida made an attack error and South Carolina followed with a kill, prompting a timeout by UF head coach Mary Wise. An ace from the Gamecocks caused Wise to take another timeout as they neared the set victory, leading 21-15.
A service and attack error by South Carolina following the timeout briefly put Florida back in the set. However, the Gamecocks responded to the threat with two kills in addition to three Florida errors, giving them a 25-20 set win.
The Gamecocks and Gators ran the score up to 7-7 in the second set. Florida eventually took the lead after four consecutive attack errors by the Gamecocks.
Rothe and UF freshman middle blocker Jaela Auguste worked in a pair of kills, putting Florida ahead 18-12.
After a block from Rothe, South Carolina went on a three-point run to close the gap. After making two consecutive attack errors, the Gamecocks called a timeout, trailing 21-17.
Kennedy Martin recorded a kill and the Gamecocks committed an attack error that eventually awarded Florida a victory in the second set, 25-22.
McKissock started the third frame with an ace, followed by a kill from Rothe to give Florida a 5-3 lead. Service errors and kills from both teams brought the score 11-11.
Florida pulled ahead 18-16 after kills from Auguste, Thomas, Isabel Martin and Kennedy Martin, prompting a South Carolina timeout.
From there, the Gators and Gamecocks went back and forth before a pair of UF attack errors gave South Carolina a win in the set.
Following a tightly contested start to the fourth set, Florida tied the score at 16-16 after a block from Thomas, leading to another South Carolina before the Gamecocks worked in two kills.
In a back-and-forth battle of errors and kills, Florida emerged with the fourth set win 25-22 after a service error by South Carolina.
In another competitive fifth set, Wise called a timeout after an attack error by Rothe that put the Gamecocks ahead 12-11. A Gamecock kill off the timeout was followed by an attack error from each team.
Florida would eventually lose the fifth set, and in turn the match, on a service error by Kennedy Martin, giving South Carolina a 15-13 win.
The Gators will compete in their final regular season match against Georgia in Athens Saturday at 1 p.m.
Contact Shaine Davison at sdavison@alligator.org. Follow her on X @shainedavison.
