Volleyball Hosts No. 5 Kentucky for Two-Game Home Series

COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina volleyball will host No. 5 Kentucky Nov. 4-5 in the Carolina Volleyball Center, kicking off the final third of SEC play and the final six games of the 2021 season. The Gamecocks (12-10, 4-8 SEC) are looking for their first win over the Wildcats (16-3, 9-0 SEC) since 2010. Both matches will air on the SEC Network+ online stream.

For fans, Friday night’s match will offer two ticket promotions. The first is to collect donations for the holiday season; fans can donate canned goods for free admission to the match. For $1 admission, fans can also present their ticket to Saturday’s football game against Florida.

SCOUTING THE WILDCATS
Kentucky followed up a historic national championship last spring with a fall campaign that has it ranked fifth nationally with a 16-3 overall record and perfect 9-0 mark in conference play. Despite losing star setter Madison Lilley, libero Gabby Curry (3.65 digs/set) and Avery Skinner (3.81 kills/set, .350 hitting percentage) from last season, the Wildcats remain the undisputed class of the conference. Freshman Emma Grome has taken the reins at setter and ranks seventh nationally for assists per set while guiding an offense that is hitting .280 as a group – good for ninth-highest in the country. Madi Skinner and Alli Stumler offer perhaps the best one-two punch on the pins that the conference has to offer, as the pair combine for 7.25 kills per set and account for 56 percent of the team’s total attacks. On defense, Azhani Tealer moved from the right pin to the middle and has blossomed in the new role, coming into the week with 39 more blocks than any other member of the team (with 91). Taking over for Curry in the libero role has been freshman Eleanor Beavin, who averages 3.37 digs per set and also has just eight receiving errors in 310 chances in serve reception.

WEEK NINE NOTABLES (OLE MISS)

• With her five solo blocks in the opening match of the series, Ellie Ruprich passed 20 solo blocks for the season. She is just the fifth Gamecock in the rally-scoring era with 20, joining Mikayla Robinson in 2018 and 2019 and Belita Salters and Megan Laughlin in 2007.
• In the career record book, Ruprich’s new total of 37 solo blocks already puts the sophomore ninth in the rally-scoring era.
• Ruprich finished the night with 12 total blocks. The last Gamecock to reach double-digit blocks was also Ruprich, who accomplished the feat in her second career game last season at Georgia (10/18/20). Her total Friday is a career high and her five solo blocks are tied for the most in a five-set match in the rally-scoring era.
• Kyla Manning finished with the team lead in kills on Oct. 29, with a season-high 21, it is her 14th time in 21 games leading the offense on the attack.
• Robinson’s 14 kills marks her ninth match with double-digit kills so far this season.
• Morgan Carter returned to the court and gave the defense a boost off the bench. The freshman entered in the fourth set at the libero and finished the match with a team-high 15 digs in just the two sets of action.
• Claire Wilson reached 50 assists in the Friday match, she is the first Gamecock setter since Aug. 31, 2019 (Courtney Koehler, 55 vs. Cleveland St.) to reach the mark.
• Robinson exited the Saturday match with an injury late in the first set of the match and did not return.
• The Ole Miss offense dominated the Oct. 30 match, finishing with a 51-26 advantage in kills while hitting .389. That is the highest percentage by a Gamecock opponent this season and highest overall since Kentucky hit .418 on Nov. 15, 2019.
• South Carolina’s 26 total kills on Saturday is the lowest this season and lowest since Oct. 27, 2017 against Florida.

ROBINSON TO MISS REMAINDER OF 2021 SEASON
Senior Mikayla Robinson will miss the remainder of the 2021 season with an injury suffered Oct. 30 at Ole Miss, head coach Tom Mendoza announced on Monday, Nov. 1. The injury marks an end to a prolific, record-setting career, with Robinson serving as a focal point in one of the most successful periods in South Carolina’s 49-year history.

The list of personal accolades is long for Robinson, who followed in her father Marcus’ footsteps to become a standout student-athlete in Columbia. The middle blocker stands as one of just four women in program history to eclipse 1,000 kills and 400 total blocks, and in the modern-scoring era (since 2001) she is also in the top-10 in eight different career statistical categories. Most notably among them, she is number one for career blocks (496), games played (136) and is one of two Gamecocks ever to play in 500 sets for a career.

That production on offense and defense helped power a complete turnaround for the Gamecocks, who went from a 12-18 record in her freshman season to NCAA tournament appearances and first-round wins in 2018 and 2019. No other group in program history has posted back-to-back seasons with 20 or more wins overall along with a postseason tournament win.

QUOTABLE: TOM MENDOZA
On Mikayla Robinson’s injury
We are all heartbroken for Robby. Seeing her grow from a shy kid into a mature leader has been a joy to watch and she should be incredibly proud of her legacy in this program. She is one of the most impactful people to wear a South Carolina volleyball uniform and I am very grateful for the opportunity to coach her.

YOUTH MOVEMENT
Of the nine individuals who have played in at least 75 percent of the games this season, eight are in either their first or second seasons with the program and six are freshmen or sophomores. That stands in stark contrast to veteran Mikayla Robinson, who used her bonus season of eligibilty due to COVID to amass 136 career games and 500 sets played. She ranks 2nd in sets played and 3rd in games played in the program’s 49-year history. With her absence now due to injury, the next closest member of the team when it comes to experience is senior Lauren Bowers, who has 198 sets played in 72 games.

WILSON TAKES THE REINS OF THE GAMECOCK OFFENSE
Freshman Claire Wilson served as the lone setter for three of the last four matches, breaking away from the two-setter offense with Mallory Dixon that the team used for the first 18 games of the season. Wilson performed well, averaging 11.64 assists per set in the three games while the Gamecocks hit .259. The Nashville, Tenn. native is the first true freshman to start as the team’s lone setter since 2015 when Aubrey Ezell took on the role.

“We felt comfortable with Claire, running the 5-1 offense, I thought our offense looked better as the match went on Saturday and they picked up Sunday where they left off,” head coach Tom Mendoza said after the Alabama series on Oct. 24. “I think anytime you’re in that situation where you’re running a 5-1 (offense) for the first time at the college level, it’s all what you’re saying to the team, how you respond after you lose a point and how you keep your team motivated. “

“I think for her that’s the big thing, as much as working on her serv or working on her setting or connection to hitters, it’s that leadership and having that voice on the court. I think it’s going to be a good thing for her… I think she’s going to get better at it as she gets more and more opportunities.”

TRENDING TOPICS
Over the last five matches…

• The offense has enjoyed a lot of diversity, with Four different hitters have at least 40 kills during this stretch, led by 62 for Kyla Manning. The issue has been efficiency; in the last five games, the team is hitting .220.
• Freshman Lauren McCutcheon and sophomore Riley Whitesides have seen their hitting percentage dip lately. McCutcheon was hitting .297 entering this stretch but is hitting just .197 over the last five; Whitesides was at .197 but is down to .101 in the last five.
• Mikayla Robinson‘s production will be missed, as she hit .356 with 42 kills and 14 total blocks in the last five games.
• The team is losing the serve game, giving up more aces to opponents (27 to 19) while also committing more errors behind the line.
• Opponents are hitting .264 thanks to a slump from the team’s back-line defense. The group is averaging just 10.89 digs per set to pull down the team’s season average to 12.21, which ranks last in the SEC and 316th in the country.

IT JUST MEANS MORE PRODUCTION
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 SEC games played. The Beverly Hills, Mich. native may have had a slow start to 2021, but is heating up as SEC play hits the home stretch. In 12 conference games, Ruprich has 57 total blocks (15 solo). She also has increased her offensive numbers, hitting .315 in SEC play with 67 kills. 

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.

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 science fields and into engineering and education.

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 of the season. 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 133-70 (.655) and four of them are currently in the top 50 of the RPI rankings. South Carolina has a 4-1 record against the teams currently ranked in the RPI top-50.

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 17 of the 20 games she has played in to date this season, Carter also ranks third on the team with 336 serve receptions and has a .938 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 64-42 mark with the Gamecocks and previously went 47-18 in two seasons at High Point.

MCCUTCHEON CONTINUES FAMILY LEGACY IN THE GARNET AND BLACK
Freshman Lauren McCutcheon will be the next generation of Gamecock from her family as she begins her first season at South Carolina. The Simpsonville, S.C. native is the daughter of Jason Pomar and Kendra Stout; Jason played baseball and football at South Carolina, while Kendra played softball at Carolina. Her mother ranks fourth in program history for games played (259) and led the Gamecocks to the SEC championship and Women’s College World Series in 1997. Her father pitched for the Gamecocks, making 87 appearances over four seasons – tied for sixth in program history – and played for the football team during the 1996 season. Lauren brings an equally impressive resume to the team, having won the 2020-21 Gatorade South Carolina Volleyball Player of the Year award while playing high school ball at J.L. Mann Academy.

She joins two other children of prominent Gamecocks on the current roster. Mikayla Robinson is the daughter of Marcus Robinson, a former wide receiver for the football team who was selected by the Chicago Bears in the 1997 draft and played professionally in the NFL. Kyla Manning is the daughter of Barry Manning, who played in 121 games for the Gamecock men’s basketball team from 1989-92.

SERVING UP A CHALLENGE
With so much of the game decided behind the service line, the Gamecocks will turn to a productive trio to keep the pressure on the opposition this fall. Last season, South Carolina had three individuals record 20 or more aces over the course of the team’s 22 matches. Camilla Covas led the way with 27 in 74 sets, followed closely by Mallory Dixon (26 in 84 sets) and Kyla Manning (24 in 84 sets). They combined for 71 percent of the team’s ace total last season; the last time the Gamecocks had three or more individuals averaging 0.25 aces per set or more in a single season was in 2005.

Some new names have joined the team’s arsenal of servers for the 2021 season, helping lead the team to an average of 1.34 aces per set through the first 22 games. At the top is freshman Lauren McCutcheon, who ranks ninth in the SEC with 0.31 aces per set with 25 aces and just 20 errors on serve. Also stepping up is Riley Whitesides, who already has surpassed her freshman year total and has 14 aces, and freshman libero Morgan Carter. Like her classmate McCutcheon, Carter has been effective (14 aces) but also efficient, committing only 19 errors so far this season. 

SERVICE (RECEPTION) WITH A SMILE
Despite a lineup that featured four new starters and a new libero, South Carolina still saw some promising numbers in the serve reception game in the 2020-21 season. As a team, the Gamecocks allowed 1.24 aces per set to their opponents in 2020-21, compared to 1.51 in 2019 and 1.34 in 2018. The team returns its top four passers from last season, a group that accounted for over 90 percent of the team’s total serve receptions. Highlighting the quartet is Kyla Manning, who was aced just five times total in 343 chances in 84 sets played. 

So far this season, the Gamecock passers have allowed 89 aces to opponents through 80 sets played (1.24 average) despite adding two freshmen to the passing rotation. Morgan Carter has a .939 reception percentage over 336 chances as a first-year libero, and fellow freshman Lauren McCutcheon has a .949 percentage over a team-high 429 receptions. Manning’s numbers have remained solid, her .966 reception percentage leads all passers and her 410 total receptions ranks second. The serve game has been crucial and a major point of emphasis in coach Tom Mendoza‘s three seasons as head coach; the Gamecocks are just 17-30 when allowing more aces to opponents.

WILLIAMS JOINS 2021 HALL OF FAME CLASS
On Aug. 20, it was announced that ten new members have been elected to the University of South Carolina Athletics Hall of Fame, including former volleyball head coach Kim Williams. Williams coached from 1993-2004 and helped put the program back on the map. She took her teams to the NCAA Tournament on six occasions while winning a school-record 236 matches. She posted a .630 winning percentage and recorded eight 20-win seasons. Highlighting her win total is a program-record 104 wins against SEC opponents; for comparison, the program overall has 218 wins in SEC play since joining the conference back in 1991. She was named the SEC Coach of the Year in 1997 and mentored 16 All-SEC team members, many of them collecting multiple honors. 

Since the University of South Carolina Athletics Hall of Fame was created in 1967, 197 members have been selected by the University of South Carolina Association of Lettermen. The volleyball program already has four former players enshrined in the hall of fame – all four (Ashley Edlund, Heather Larkin, Cally Plummer and Shonda Cole) played for Williams during their time in Columbia.

SOPHOMORE CLASS TAKING NEXT STEP IN 2021
Despite a debut season filled with personal and global adversity, the 2020 freshmen class proved to be a key group in the team’s success all season long. Riley Whitesides and Ellie Ruprich started in the season opener and were mainstays in the lineup all year; Whitesides finished second on the team with 261 kills while playing in every single set over the 22 conference matches, earning SEC Freshman of the Week honors three times over the course of the season. Her 261 kills in SEC play is the most by a Gamecock freshman in a single conference season during the modern scoring era. Ruprich dominated at the net, leading the team with 84 blocks. That ranks third on South Carolina’s single-season conference-only record book and is the fourth-highest total by a Gamecock freshman in the rally-scoring era.

Not to be overshadowed, Caitlin Crawford and Kiune Fletcher saw their roles evolve as the season went on. Crawford came in as a serving specialist and ended with six aces and 30 digs while playing in 19 of the team’s 22 matches. Fletcher joined the team late after finding difficulty traveling from her home country of Trinidad and Tobago during the COVID-19 pandemic. After playing in just eight sets in the fall, she ended up seeing the court in nine spring matches.

Already this season, Whitesides ranks third on the team in kills and already set a new personal best in service aces (with 14). Ruprich is leading the team again in blocks, currently with 83, and is hitting .280 with 1.43 kills per set. Fletcher has worked her way into the rotation as a blocking specialist with a vastly improved offensive game, and Crawford continues to be a go-to serving option, playing in 13 matches with 60 serve attempts and five aces.

COMPARING WINS AND LOSSES…

• Unforced errors are on the uptick in losses; the team has as many blocks in losses as its opponents (78), but South Carolina has 85 unforced attacking errors (2.78 per set) in losses.
• Serving tough is a key factor in team victories; the Gamecocks are averaging 1.63 aces per set in their 12 wins, compared to 0.93 for opponents. Four different individuals have double-digit aces in wins: Lauren McCutcheon (18), Riley Whitesides (12), Morgan Carter (12) and Kyla Manning (10).
• In losses, the serving numbers almost completely flip. Opponents have not only been effective on serve, but efficient, with 59 aces (1.59 per set) and 80 total errors. South Carolina has only 37 aces in losses (1.00 per set) with 75 errors.
• The efficiency of Mikayla Robinson was a direct link to the team’s success; in the 12 wins, she hit .405 with 2.63 kills per set. In losses, those numbers dropped to .302 and 2.20, respectively.
• On defense, Morgan Carter‘s success relates closely with the team’s success. The freshman libero averages 3.85 digs per set and has a .977 serve reception percentage in wins, but only 3.33 digs per set in losses with a .896 success rate in serve reception.
• The team averages just 11.30 digs per set in losses, allowing opponents to hit .295 with over two kills per set more than the Gamecocks.

ALUMNA EARNS NATIONAL TEAM MEDAL
Fresh off a successful pro season in the Athletes Unlimited league, Taylor Bruns (2009-12) earned a call-up to the United States national team for the Pan American Cup (Sept. 13-19). The tournament put Team USA against Mexico, Puerto Rico, Canada, Cuba and the Dominican Republic. The team made the medal round and defeated Canada on Sept. 19 to earn a bronze medal. Since graduating in 2013 with her degree in education, Bruns made a living playing professionally in Finland, Belgium, Sweden and Germany before joining Athletes Unlimited for its premiere season last summer. She ranks seventh in program history for career assists with 2,858.

MENDOZA’S TRENDING TOPICS
In Head Coach Tom Mendoza’s tenure with the team…

• Consistency is conference play has been key. The team is 37-33 in SEC play dating back to 2018. Prior to Mendoza’s arrival, the Gamecocks did not have a winning record in conference play from 2009-2017. The last time the program had a winning SEC record in three consecutive seasons was 2000-2002.
• Home is where the heart is. The Gamecocks are 37-14 at the Carolina VB Center in Mendoza’s three-plus seasons. The team had lost five or more home matches for nine consecutive seasons before 2018.
• September has been the team’s best month, combining for a 25-5 mark. The highlight came in 2018 with a perfect 9-0 record in September, the first Gamecock squad since 1983 to do so.
• South Carolina steps up big on Sundays, with a combined 17-6 record on that day of the week.
• Start fast! The Gamecocks are 54-8 when winning the first set.
• In five-set matches, the team holds an 16-8 record. In the three years prior, the Gamecocks were just 7-8 in five-setters.
• The offense has out-hit opponents 66 times and have lost just six times when recording a higher hitting percentage.
• Aces have been a key to victory; under Mendoza the Gamecocks are 48-10 when matching or surpassing opponents in aces.
• Finding success away from home is trending up. Under Mendoza, the Gamecocks are 27-26 in road or neutral matches. In the five seasons prior to that, they were 30-46 (.395). In 2019 the team’s combined record away from home was 10-9, the first time being over .500 away from home in back-to-back seasons since 2001-02.

ALL TIME RECORDS

• South Carolina holds an 861-670 (.564) all-time record, dating back to 1973. The team’s 800th win came on Aug. 25, 2018 against Clemson.
• The Gamecocks joined the SEC for volleyball in 1991, and have an all-time conference record of 220-293 (.432) in the 31st season as a member. The 200th SEC win came on Nov. 8, 2019 at Mississippi State.
• The team has a 17-14 overall record in the opening game of SEC play.
• In matches in the Carolina Volleyball Center, Carolina is 227-125 (.649) overall and 118-107 (.530) in SEC matches. The CVC’s 200th win came on Nov. 16, 2018 against Ole Miss.
• Tom Mendoza became the program’s 13th head coach on Jan. 3, 2018. This is his sixth season overall as a head coach, with a career record of 111-60 and a record of 64-42 at South Carolina. He has led his teams to the NCAA tournament in four of his six years as a head coach.