Aug. 24, 2005

Columbia, S.C. –

Nancy Somera, USC volleyball coach

“We are moving closer to being more match ready. I am pretty pleased with where we are at this point. We scrimmaged last weekend and we are not at full strength right now, but with moving some players around and having people fill in at other spots, I like what we saw. In practice, we have been focusing on our movement, our ball control and our defense. It looks pretty good. Walking away from the scrimmage, I am pleased with where we are, but we still have a lot of work to do. I think we will definitely be match ready when we open up Sept. 2 against Pitt.”

“We are very athletic. It is one of the most athletic teams I have ever coached. Prior to Oregon State, I coached at Southern Cal, and we had perennial Elite Eight, Sweet 16 teams. This team is extremely athletic.”

Stan Rosenthal, USC cross country coach

“We were very disappointed last year because we finished at the bottom of the SEC. We will be a lot better this season. We had a time trial last week on a very hilly course and we had 10 runners come in under 20 minutes. Last season we had three. We are still young this season. We beat Clemson two out of three times last season. We lost to them in our home meet but hopefully we can change that this year. We are very good academically. We have two McNair scholars and the team average GPA was 3.58. We expect the academics to continue. Our athletic goal is to get our program to where our academic standards and track and field programs are.”

Shelley Smith, USC women’s soccer coach

“This is a special year for us. This is our fifth year so the seniors this season are from our first recruiting class. It is great to see how far they have come. Our goal this year is to get a NCAA bid and we are more prepared than ever to do that. We played two exhibition games, and we had good performances in both of those. In the Davidson game, we had a freshmen and sophomore score goals. Two-thirds of the team are underclassmen so we are a very young team. The freshman are really contributing and they have done well. In the other exhibition match we beat No. 9 Duke so we have to beat more Top 10 teams. In the SEC, women’s soccer is the best in the nation. We open the conference schedule against Auburn and Alabama. We are happy to start with them because they are both very good. Ashley Kirk was SEC Freshman of the Year last season so we expect her to contribute even more this year.”

Don Gibb, USC swimming coach

“It is a real treat to get a chance to brag on our program. We are very excited about both our men’s and women’s programs for this season. Three-fourths of our team is freshman and sophomore but the future looks bright for Gamecock swimming. The kids we have coming in are better than those going out the door. Swimming in the SEC is the best and we want to be competitive with those programs that are at the top. Georgia, Auburn, and Florida finished the season one, two, and three in the country while Auburn, and Florida finished in the top five on the men’s side. The women’s team average GPA is 3.4 since 1999 and that is great because we take full advantage of our 20 hour a week. The men’s team average is 3.0 since 1999.”

Todd Sherritt, USC diving coach

“We produced two All-Americans and finished second in the SEC in women’s diving, while the men finished fifth. Last season, we went undefeated in dual meets. Allison Brennan returns this season after being injured last year. She just got back from Turkey where she finished fourth in the World Championships. Our goal for her is to win both boards. If you come out to a meet you will see exactly what you see on television because the divers we have here are all very good. Tracey Richardson is another diver who is returning. She is a former Olympian who won the SEC Championship in 2003. Lyndsey Havens is a diver who will help add depth. We have two men who will immediately step in and help us out. Corry Christian, was a state champion and also a raw athlete who will be a diamond in the rough. David Ovelson is from Canada and he has a lot of international experience.”

Mark Berson, USC men’s soccer coach

“We’ve had a very good preseason. Our guys have worked real hard. I’m very pleased with the fitness level the guys came back with. I think we have a very solid group.”

“We’ve had a couple of disappointing injuries. Sebastian Lindholm, our leading scorer last year, re-injured an ACL over the summer. He was hurt the Tuesday night before our NCAA (Tournament) opening game last year. He had that re-constructed and worked very, very hard all last spring and then this summer, re-injured it and had to have it re-repaired at home. He’ll be out this year.”

“Our No. 3 leading scorer Ryan Deter injured his foot. He has had to sit out for eight weeks, and I think we’re about three weeks from him coming back. We’ll certainly miss him in the opening part of the season and we look forward to getting him back in the lineup.”

“We lost a great goalkeeper in Brad Guzan. He has been starting at 19 years of age in the MLS. We’re going to be a little short back there. Right now, the leading candidate for the job is Mike Gustavson, a freshman from South Aiken High School. We could have, in our opening match this season, a freshman with no collegiate experience starting and replacing arguably the best goalkeeper in the country. Clearly, we have a little work to make up there, but Mike and the other goalkeepers are working very hard.”

“We head into Conference USA, and that’s a very exciting proposition for this soccer team. I cannot tell you how pleased and excited we are to enter Conference USA as an affiliate member. Kentucky, interestingly enough from the SEC, Florida International, and South Carolina have joined as affiliate only members. There are 10 teams in the league. Last year, the Big Ten had six teams in the NCAA Tournament, the ACC had six teams in the NCAA Tournament and Conference USA, as it is configured right now, had six teams in the NCAA Tournament. By any stretch, on RPI or anything, this is one of the elite power conferences in college soccer. We’re really, really pleased to be on board and participating. “I’ve had a lot of questions about why we’re opening with Clemson. Basically, the adding of teams in the ACC, they really only had the first two weekends of the year to play us. They really weren’t interested in playing us midweek, and we’re not interested in playing them midweek between our conference games. It looks like from here on our, the first two weekend will be where that game is going to fall.”