CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- The South Carolina volleyball team faced a difficult task Thursday night.
The Gamecocks, who beat rival North Carolina 3-1 at home on Saturday, had to defeat the Tar Heels for the second time in less than a week in order to advance past the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
This time the venue was different, and this time South Carolina wasn't quite up to the challenge.
The Tar Heels, charged by a rowdy Carmichael Auditorium crowd, defeated South Carolina 30-25, 30-32, 30-25, 30-21.
"Tonight their crowd was really good," USC coach Kim Christopher said. "It was an advantage for them to be hosting."
The Tar Heels will play Pepperdine today at 7:30 p.m. The Waves (22-3) were 3-0 winners over Georgia Southern on Thursday.
The Gamecocks nearly upset Nebraska, which went on to win the national title, in the second round of last season's tournament. But they will not have a chance to repeat that effort this season.
In the first game, USC lost Cally Plummer to an injured ankle. Plummer remained on the bench as the Tar Heels used hot hitting from Laura Greene to take a 1-0 lead.
Plummer returned for the second game, but the Gamecocks weren't at full strength for long. Nadia Sefferovich got tangled up with a Tar Heel under the net with her team up 12-7, and she limped off for the rest of the game.
"I've coached more than 400 matches and never had this situation before quite like that," Christopher said. "I don't want take anything from North Carolina -- it just shows how heated the rivalry is."
South Carolina held on to win the second game, but UNC was able to push the score to 32-30 after trailing 28-24.
Although the Tar Heels failed to win the game, that run seemed to give them momentum for the rest of the match.
"I thought it would have been very easy for them to win that game up 28-24," UNC coach Joe Sagula said. "The fact that we battled back gave us more energy."
The Tar Heels trailed in the third game before ripping off a 9-0 run, the biggest of the match. UNC pushed ahead behind the serving of Carolina deRoeck and was aided by four USC hitting errors in that span. UNC then jumped out 15-9 in the fourth game and closed by winning five of the last six points.
The Gamecocks got a match-high 20 kills from freshman Niece Curry, and 19 kills and a match-high 25 digs from Plummer.
It just wasn't enough to keep their season alive.
"We met before the match and talked about it," Christopher said. "Our expectations were really high this season, and I don't think we met them in terms of wins and losses. But each one of us has grown in character.
"I would put this team up against any that I've coached."
