The Volley Dogs closed out their SEC schedule at the Ramsey Center, fighting off Kentucky 3-2 Friday and falling to No. 18 South Carolina 3-1 Sunday.

Georgia is 18-13 overall and 8-8 in the SEC, the most wins in the conference for Georgia since 1998.

The Lady Dogs finished SEC play in a tie for fifth in the conference with Tennessee. Georgia holds the tiebreaker over the Lady Volunteers and will be the fifth seed and face LSU this weekend in the SEC tournament in Fayetteville, Ark.

Georgia came out strong Sunday against the Lady Gamecocks, winning the first game 30-28 before an announced crowd of 439.

But, South Carolina rallied (20-15, 14-2) blocking 16 balls to Georgia’s four. South Carolina won the final three games of the match 30-22, 30-19 and 30-21 to win.

“We wanted to play aggressively, but we weren’t covering each other,” said Georgia head coach Mary Buczek.

Julia Petruschke had 17 kills and 10 digs to lead Georgia. Luresa Forsythe had 10 digs and Margot Wallace assisted 49 times.

Friday’s match with Ken-tucky was thrilling for all 411 in attendance.

After winning the first two games 30-23 and 30-26, the Lady Bulldogs hoped to put the Lady Wildcats away and get the sweep.

But, Kentucky (13-14, 6-9) wouldn’t go away easily, winning games three and four 30-28 and 30-18 before Georgia won the fifth game 16-14 to win the match.

“I thought we came out a little bit tight in the first game and then played out of it and got in our rhythm,” Buczek said.

Forsythe and Rashinda Reed led Georgia defensively. Forsythe finished with 14 digs with Reed having four blocked assists. Petruschke was strong offensively with 24 kills and 11 digs.