Gamecocks Face No. 17 WKU in Round One of NCAA Tournament

ATLANTA, GA. – South Carolina volleyball kicks off its postseason on Friday, Dec. 3 when it faces 17th-ranked Western Kentucky (27-1) in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The Gamecocks (14-14) are in their third tournament in the last three years and have reached the second round in each of their previous three postseason berths. First serve with the Hilltoppers is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. and will be on the ESPN+ online streaming service. Andy Demetra and Kele Eveland will be on the call.

NCAA TOURNAMENT NOTABLES

• This is the program’s 10th trip to the NCAA tournament in its 49-year history and third time going under fourth-year head coach Tom Mendoza.
• Also counting his two seasons at High Point, Mendoza now has taken his respective teams to five NCAA tournament in his six total seasons as a head coach.
• Of the 19 women on the 2021 roster, seven were on the roster when the team last made the tournament in 2019. Of the seven, four played in either of the two games.
• South Carolina is 6-9 all-time in the tournament, going no further than the second round.
• The Gamecocks have won their first round match in three consecutive postseason trips, most recently a five-set win over then 10th-ranked Colorado State in the 2019 Seattle Regional.
• The Southeastern Conference will be well-represented in the tournament, with six teams making the field of 64 and two teams – Kentucky and Florida – hosting the first weekend. Along with the Gamecocks, Wildcats and Gators, Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Tennessee each had its name called on Selection Sunday.

2021 TEAM NOTABLES

• The Gamecocks faced one of the nation’s toughest schedules, battling nine teams in the current NCAA tournament – including five games total against schools earning a top-16 seed – and nine matches against AVCA top-25-ranked teams during the regular season.
• The nine games against ranked teams are the most in program history, with at least one more to come with the current No. 17 team in the country Western Kentucky up in the first round. The previous high was eight, done in 1995, 2003 and 2010.
• Kyla Manning ended the regular season with a team-high 350 kills. That is tied for the 10th-most in a single season in the rally-scoring era and are the most for a Gamecock outside hitter since Juliette Thévenin’s 466 kills in 2013.
• Manning also led the team with eight double-doubles and finished third on the team in digs.
• Two Gamecocks played in every single set for the team – both freshmen. Lauren McCutcheon started all 28 matches along with playing all 100 sets, setter Claire Wilson largely would rotate in at setter but did make six starts during the season and did not miss a single set.
• All five of South Carolina’s freshmen saw time on the court this season, and four will likely play a major role in the team’s postseason action: Oby Anadi, Morgan Carter, McCutcheon and Wilson.
• Carter holds the team lead in digs, her 291 through the regular season is the second highest total for a Gamecock freshman in the rally-scoring era, behind only Aubrey Ezell’s 309 in 2015.
• On defense, Ellie Ruprich collected 110 total blocks to lead the team for the second year in a row. She is just the third Gamecock in the 2000s to lead the team in blocks as a freshman and a sophomore, joining Darian Dozier (2012/13) and Mikayla Robinson (2017/18).

SCOUTING THE HILLTOPPERS
Western Kentucky has some eye-popping numbers that paved the way to a 27-1 overall record and the No. 17 spot in the final AVCA coaches top-25 poll of the regular season. The Hilltoppers have the number one offense in the country in terms of efficiency, with a season hitting percentage of .342. For comparison, South Carolina hit over .342 once over its 28-game regular season. Senior middle Lauren Matthews leads the way with the nation’s best hitting percentage – .480 – while also ranking 15th in the country with 4.54 kills per set. Junior pin Paige Briggs and fifth-year right side Kayland Jackson each have over 200 kills this season, ranking second and third, respectively, behind Matthews.

On defense, WKU is equally impressive. Through 28 games, the Toppers rank sixth in the nation for opponent hitting percentage, at .138, and only four opponents all season hit over .200 in a match. The defensive success starts behind the service line; the team’s 1.79 aces per set ranks 26th in the country and four different individuals have 25 aces or more. At the net, Matthews leads a group of blockers who average 2.59 blocks per set, 23rd-best in the nation. Matthews individually accounts for 1.29 blocks per set, good for 26th-most in the NCAA. The “weakest” statistic for the team is digs, at just 13.35 per set, but the WKU offense has been so efficient that opponents are barely over 10 digs per set for the season.

GAMECOCK TRIO HONORED BY THE SEC
The Southeastern Conference announced its 2021 volleyball postseason awards Sunday, Nov. 28, with three members of the South Carolina Gamecocks making the two teams. Kyla Manning and Mikayla Robinson made the 18-woman All-SEC team and Lauren McCutcheon is part of the seven-woman All-Freshman team. This is the first time since 2002 that the Gamecocks received three or more postseason honors from the conference’s coaches.

Manning fit a prolific career into just two seasons and 50 games played at South Carolina. The graduate student led the team with 350 kills this season, tied for 10th-most in a season in the rally-scoring era, while taking almost 300 more swings than any other hitter on the team. She compiled over 600 kills, 375 digs, 75 blocks and 45 service aces as a Gamecock. 

Robinson missed the team’s final six games of the season due to injury, but still garnered enough respect from the conference’s coaches to earn her fourth appearance on the postseason team. She is the fifth member of the program to be a four-time honoree since South Carolina joined the SEC in 1991, the last being Cally Plummer and Berna Dwyer in 2002. Robinson is one of four women in program history to finish a career with at least 1,000 kills and 400 blocks and in the all-time career record book, she ranks ninth in kills, fourth in hitting percentage, third in blocks and third in games played.

McCutcheon is one of only two Gamecocks to play in every set this season, earning the start in all 28 matches played. She was an elite two-way player, finishing third on the team in kills (215), second in digs (220), third in blocks (64) and first in service aces (27). The Upstate native is the eighth freshman in program history to make the conference’s All-Freshman team, joining Robinson and Riley Whitesides as former honorees on the current roster.

QUOTABLE: TOM MENDOZA
On the team’s postseason honorees
We couldn’t be happier for all three, it’s getting harder every year to earn SEC recognition as the conference keeps getting stronger top to bottom. Kyla and Mikayla are two of the elite players in their positions not just in the conference but across the country. They’ve set a great standard for the program and for their younger teammates. They should both be incredibly proud of what they have achieved in a South Carolina uniform.

We’ve gotten incredible contributions from our freshman class and Lauren has been at the forefront of that all season. She’s a joy to get to coach and she’s very deserving of the recognition. She makes our team better in a lot of ways and we are very excited that we get to work with her for three more years.

YOUTH MOVEMENT
Of the nine individuals who have played in at least 20 games this season, eight are in either their first or second seasons with the program. 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 199 sets played in 73 games.

TRENDING TOPICS
Over the last five matches…

• Opponents have enjoyed sizable margins in kills per set (15.53 to 11.73), hitting percentage (.296 to .186) and digs per set (16.87 to 12.67). It has not helped that three of the last five games have come against the top two offenses in the SEC (Kentucky and Florida).
• Kyla Manning has been the team’s rock, averaging 4.00 kills per set with more than a third of the team’s kill total in this span (60 of 176).
• Similarly on the defensive side, Ellie Ruprich has been a stellar blocker in the final five games of the regular season. Her 23 total blocks (five solo) account for the majority of the team’s 39.5 blocks in this span.
• The team has seen an uptick in unforced errors; combining serving errors, blocking errors, setting errors and unblocked attack errors, the Gamecocks are averaging 5.67 unforced errors per set in the last five games.

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 reaches its final week. In SEC play, Ruprich had 84 total blocks, including a single-season program record of 20 solo blocks that surpassed Mikayla Robinson’s 2019 record. She also has increased her offensive numbers, hitting .277 in SEC play with 92 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 five times, including three this season alone after reaching 10 in three sets at Auburn on Nov. 10. 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
After taking down the No. 18- and No. 23-ranked teams in the country in the opening weekend of the season, South Carolina volleyball came in at No. 24 in the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) ranks on Aug. 30, 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 counted only the four conferences competing that fall.

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.

Individually, Kyla Manning was named as one of just seven women on the CoSIDA Academic All-District 4 team on Nov. 18. The graduate student is pursuing her masters degree in Biomedical Sciences and currently carries a postgraduate GPA of 3.77. She is the fourth Gamecock in program history to make the all-district team two or more times; the last to do it was Sarah Cline (2007, 2008 and 2009 honoree). Manning is now in the running to make CoSIDA’s Academic All-America team, something only three other Gamecocks have accomplished: Lori Rowe (1986) Katie Gerst (1994) and Cline (2009).

ROBINSON COLLECTS TWO MAJOR MILESTONES
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.

MCCUTCHEON CONTINUES CAROLINA FAMILY LEGACY
Freshman Lauren McCutcheon is 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. 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.

McCutcheon 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.

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 with the postseason upon us, the nine non-conference teams finished with an impressive combined record of 174-81 (.682) with four teams over 20 wins and just two with a record under .500.Four non-conference opponents made the field of 64 teams, including the number three overall seed in Pittsburgh. South Carolina has a 4-1 record against the non-conference teams currently in the postseason.

CARTER STEPS INTO UNIQUE ROLE
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 19 of the 26 games she has played in to date this season, Carter also ranks third on the team with 373 serve receptions and has a .941 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.”

SERVING UP A CHALLENGE
With so much of the game decided behind the service line, the Gamecocks 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 1.28 aces per set. At the top is freshman Lauren McCutcheon, who averages 0.27 aces per set with 27 aces and just 22 errors on serve. Also stepping up is Riley Whitesides, who already has surpassed her freshman year total and has 16 aces, and freshman libero Morgan Carter. Like her classmate McCutcheon, Carter has been effective (17 aces) but also efficient, committing only 23 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 in 2020-21. 

So far this season, the Gamecock passers have allowed 127 aces to opponents through 10 sets played (1.27 average) despite adding two freshmen to the passing rotation. Morgan Carter has a .941 reception percentage over 373 chances as a first-year libero, and fellow freshman Lauren McCutcheon has a .945 percentage over a team-high 620 receptions. Manning’s numbers remain solid, her .965 reception percentage leads all passers and her 515 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 18-34 when allowing more aces to opponents.

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 were mainstays in the lineup all year; Whitesides finished second on the team with 261 kills while playing in every 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 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.

This fall, Whitesides ranks second on the team in kills and set a new personal best in service aces (with 16). Ruprich is leading the team again in blocks, currently with 110, and is hitting .261 with 1.39 kills per set. Kiune Fletcher has worked her way into the rotation as a blocking specialist with a vastly improved offensive game over her 59 sets played, and Caitlin Crawford continues to be a go-to serving option off the bench, playing in 13 matches with 60 serve attempts and five aces.

COMPARING WINS AND LOSSES…

• Serving tough is a key factor in team victories; the Gamecocks are averaging 1.65 aces per set in their 14 wins, compared to 0.92 for opponents. Five different individuals have double-digit aces in wins: Lauren McCutcheon (19), Morgan Carter (14), Mallory Dixon (14), Riley Whitesides (13) and Kyla Manning (11).
• In losses, the serving numbers almost completely flip. Opponents have not only been effective on serve, but efficient, with 80 aces (1.63 per set) and 101 total errors. South Carolina has only 44 aces in losses (0.90 per set) with 94 errors.
• McCutcheon’s offense contributes heavily in the team’s success. The freshman pin hits .307 with 2.20 kills per set in 14 wins but just .187 with 2.10 kills in losses.
• The efficiency of Mikayla Robinson was a direct link to the team’s success; in the 12 wins she was active, 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 3.44 digs per set and has a .978 serve reception percentage in wins, but only 3.00 digs per set in losses with a .905 success rate in serve reception.
• The team averages just 11.33 digs per set in losses, allowing opponents to hit .301 with over three kills per set more than the Gamecocks.

ROBINSON TO MISS 2021 POSTSEASON
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 Robbie. 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.

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

• Consistency is conference play has been key. The team is 39-37 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 38-16 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 17-7 record on that day of the week.
• Start fast! The Gamecocks are 55-8 when winning the first set but are 11-36 when losing it.
• In five-set matches, the team holds an 17-7 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 49-11 when matching or surpassing opponents in aces.
• Finding success away from home is trending up. Under Mendoza, the Gamecocks are 28-28 in road or neutral matches. In the five seasons prior to that, they were 30-46 (.395). 

ALL TIME RECORDS

• South Carolina holds an 863-674 (.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 222-297 (.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 228-127 (.649) overall and 119-109 (.530) in SEC matches. The CVC’s 200th win came on Nov. 16, 2018 against Ole Miss.
• Tom Mendoza was introduced as 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 113-64 and a record of 66-46 at South Carolina. He has led his teams to the NCAA tournament in four of his six years as a head coach.