COLUMBIA, S.C. – A crucial week for South Carolina volleyball will come in the friendly confines of the Carolina Volleyball Center, as the Gamecocks host LSU Wednesday night and Alabama on Saturday and Sunday afternoon. The team is aiming to break up a three-game losing streak, its longest of the year, and improve on an 11-6 overall record and 3-4 mark in SEC play. Wednesday’s match against the Tigers (7-11, 3-6 SEC) has an 8 p.m. first serve and will be on the SEC Network, Saturday’s opener against Alabama (9-9, 1-5 SEC) has a 3 p.m. first serve and Sunday’s finale with the Tide has a noon first serve. Sunday against Alabama will be on the SEC Network, Saturday is on the SEC Network+.
For fans, Wednesday will be a double points game for students and fans can take advantage of the Work Perk promotion and receive $3 admission to the match when they bring in a business card when purchasing their ticket. Sunday, fans can wear their Halloween costume to the match (please, no masks or weapons will be allowed in) and it will be a camper reunion day. Any participant of a team camp going back to 2019 can receive free admission to the match and accompanying adults can get a ticket for $3.
MISSISSIPPI ST. MATCH NOTABLES
- Mississippi State snapped a five-game losing streak to South Carolina with a four-set win. The Gamecocks got off to a slow start and were on the wrong end of two deuce-set scores, falling 25-23, 26-24, 18-25, 25-22.
- South Carolina had an 11-3 advantage in blocks and 4-2 advantage in service aces for the match, but allowed 14 more kills to the Bulldog offense.
- The Gamecock defense now has double-digit blocks in six games – four of those six are against SEC opponents.
- Wednesday night was Kyla Manning‘s sixth game of the year with 15 or more kills. The senior led the team with 16.
- Manning also finished with 51 attacks, the most by any Gamecock so far this season.
- Mikayla Robinson reached double-digit kills for the seventh time this season, she also finished with a .471 hitting percentage.
- Freshman setter Claire Wilson took her first collegiate serves and recorded an ace that added to her two kills, four digs and 13 assists.
SCOUTING THE TIGERS
The Tigers have perhaps one of the best roster of hitters in the SEC and returned its entire lineup from the 2020-21 season, but have seen mixed results so far this fall, coming into Wednesday with a 7-11 overall record and 3-6 mark in conference play. LSU was picked to finish third in the preseason coaches poll, with seniors Taylor Bannister and Kylie Deberg making the preseason all-conference team, and also added Oklahoma transfer Sanaa Dotson (3.35 kills per set in 2020-21). The three have continued to produce, with Deberg continuing to harass SEC defenses as she’d done for years at Missouri, entering Wednesday ranked 30th in the nation with 4.21 kills per set.
For as vaunted as its offense is, LSU has found its most success from the defensive side of the net this fall. The team ranks 14th in the country with 2.71 blocks per set and libero Raigen Cianciulli is 27th nationally with her average of 4.97 digs per set. The defense’s one weak point has been behind the service line; LSU ranks dead last in the country for aces per set, with just 69 total over its 70 sets played.
SCOUTING THE CRIMSON TIDE
Alabama picked up its first SEC win of the season on Oct. 13, defeating Missouri on the road in five sets. The Tide have struggled to find efficiency on offense so far in 2021, hitting dead last in the SEC with a mark of .182 as a team. Help is on the way, though, as Abby Marjama returned after a three-game absence and played in the win at Missouri. Despite her time away, the senior pin still ranks second on the team in points and leads the SEC in aces per set, owning a dominant serve that ranks her 31st in the country with 31 total aces and just 20 errors. Another key contributor Alabama is looking to get back in the lineup is libero Dru Kuck. She left the lineup on Sept. 25 but still has almost 100 more digs than any other member of the team and ranks third in the SEC with 4.74 digs per set.
In the six conference matches so far the team has four hitters with 40 or more kills, led by junior Kennedy Muckelroy’s 54, but all four of them are hitting under .200. On defense, the back line has been strong, averaging 14.20 digs per set and just 24 receiving errors in 25 sets played. The net defense has struggled, though, averaging just 1.12 blocks per set while allowing opponents to hit .261 in the six conference games.
TRENDING TOPICS
Over the last five matches…
- In two of the last three games, South Carolina finished with a higher hitting percentage than its opponent but still lost. Including this stretch, the team has out-hit the opposition 64 times under coach Tom Mendoza and has lost only five times.
- The offense has enjoyed a lot of diversity. Four different hitters have at least 40 kills during this stretch, led by 73 for Kyla Manning (4.06 per set).
- Riley Whitesides has been incredibly efficient, hitting a team-high .344 while also averaging 2.65 kills per set since the start of the Missouri series.
- Ellie Ruprich has buoyed the team’s blocking numbers, her 24 blocks (five solo) over the last five games accounts for almost half of the team’s 49 total blocks.
- The team is enjoying a strong run in the serve game, averaging 1.61 per set in this stretch. Four different individuals have five or more aces through the last five games, led by Lauren McCutcheon‘s seven
- The team’s back-line defense has slumped, averaging just 11.83 digs per set to pull down the team’s season average to 12.62, which ranks last in the SEC and 305th in the country.
JUST GETTING WARMED UP
Sophomore Ellie Ruprich had a memorable debut for the Gamecocks in a marathon 2020-21 season. She led the team with 84 blocks – the fourth most of any freshman in the country – and also hit .287 with 113 kills in 22 games played. The Beverly Hills, Mich. native may have had a slow start to 2021, but is heating up as SEC play hits a fever pitch. Through seven conference games, Ruprich has 37 total blocks (8 solo) and ranks fifth overall in the SEC with 1.42 blocks per set. She also has increased her offensive numbers, hitting .312 in SEC play with 40 kills in the seven games.
ACES UP THEIR SLEEVES
The Gamecocks had 10 service aces in each of its games in the series at Missouri; the last time the team had back-to-back games with double-digit aces was Sept. 1 and Sept. 4 in 2018, against Houston Baptist and Charlotte, respectively. The team had not seen this happen against SEC opponents since 2002, when sets went to 30 points instead of 25. Over the last two seasons, the team has reached double-digit aces in SEC matches four times. For reference, South Carolina racked up 10 or more aces against conference foes four times in TOTAL from 2007-18.
GAMECOCKS MAKE STATEMENT IN WEEK ONE
Fresh off a weekend where it recorded the nation’s only two wins over top-25 opponents by an unranked team, South Carolina volleyball joined the national polls on Aug. 30. The Gamecocks came in at No. 24 in the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) ranks, the first time the team made the top-25 since 2002. South Carolina last came in ranked in the national top-25 on Dec. 2, 2002, earning the No. 24 spot in a season where it finished with a 23-7 record and made the second round of the NCAA tournament. The team did earn a spot in the AVCA’s top-15 poll in November of last season, but the poll accounted for only the four conferences competing that fall.
Individually, Mikayla Robinson and Lauren McCutcheon were recognized by the SEC for the contributions through the weekend. Robinson earned the conference’s Offensive Player and overall Player of the Week honors, and McCutcheon was tapped as Freshman of the Week.
ROBINSON COLLECTS TWO MILESTONES IN WEEK ONE
Along with earning the seventh weekly SEC award of her career, Mikayla Robinson also collected two major career milestones over the course of the opening weekend. Against Washington State, she broke the program record for career blocks in the rally-scoring era (now with 436), surpassing Darian Dozier (2012-15). Against Rice, she also recorded her 1,000th career kill, making her the 16th member of the program to reach the milestone. She is one of just four Gamecocks in the program’s 49-season history to have both 1,000 kills and 400 blocks in a career, the last coming in 1997 by future South Carolina hall of fame middle Heather Larkin.
TRACKING THE NON-CONFERENCE FIELD
South Carolina put together a challenging schedule of non-conference opponents to start off the 2021 season, with a group that featured five teams that made the 2020-21 NCAA tournament and two others that made the 2019 tournament. Now in the heart of conference play, the nine non-conference teams have a combined record of 110-57 (.659) and five of them are currently in the top 50 of the RPI rankings.
CARTER STEPS INTO UNIQUE POSITION
Since the introduction of the libero position to NCAA volleyball in 2002, South Carolina has turned to a freshman to carry the role. Morgan Carter earned the job in the summer and has held her own as the season reaches its midpoint. Along with leading the team in digs for 14 of the 17 games to date this season, Carter also ranks third on the team with 261 serve receptions and has a .946 reception percentage.
The last true freshman to be the team’s main libero for a season was Dinelia Concepcion in 2005, but even then the team rotated the role among multiple players.
“Morgan brings that great combination of skill and calm to the position,” head coach Tom Mendoza said when announcing her signing last November. “She’s going to translate well to the college game, her ability to make plays look easy is exciting because that means that as the game speeds up she’s going to be able to handle that. I see a lot of good young liberos that are diving all over the place and Morgan has that athleticism but she also has the ability to make plays look easy and we’re really excited about that. She can make an impact right away, but we’re also excited for her long-term potential.”
FASTEST TO 50
Head coach Tom Mendoza earned his 50th win at South Carolina on Feb. 27 against No. 25 Missouri. He is the fastest Gamecock coach to reach 50 wins (based on the available records), including a faster start than the two winningest coaches in program history – Kim Williams (226 wins) and Bonnie Kenny (171). Mendoza won No. 50 in his 78th game with the team, compared to 82 for Kenny and 86 for Williams. The quick success stems from the team’s quick turnaround in SEC play; South Carolina has double-digit conference wins in each of Mendoza’s three seasons, the only other time that has happened in Gamecock history was from 2000-02 in Coach Williams’ eighth, ninth and tenth seasons in Columbia.
Mendoza reached another milestone at the start of year four at South Carolina, winning his 100th career match as a head coach thanks to the upset of No. 18 Washington State on Aug. 27. He has a 63-38 mark with the Gamecocks and previously went 47-18 in two seasons at High Point.
STATUS QUO IN THE CLASSROOM
While the 2020-21 schedule was far from normal on the court, the Gamecocks were business as usual when it came to academics. The group finished the semester with a combined 3.55 GPA in the fall and 3.44 GPA in the spring. South Carolina is going on 12 consecutive seasons on the AVCA’s Team Academic Award list and have put double-digit student-athletes on the SEC’s Fall Academic Honor Roll for six years in a row. This all comes on top of an ambitious course load that spans the world-renowned business school and sports…
Volleyball Kicks off Busy Week With Wednesday Night Showdown vs LSU