Volleyball Announces 2021 Fall Schedule

COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina volleyball returns to a traditional schedule format for the 2021 fall season, and head coach Tom Mendoza introduced a challenging field for the Gamecocks with the release of the full slate of games on Friday. Along with a new look to the conference schedule, South Carolina welcomes back a non-conference season that will feature five teams that made the 2020-21 NCAA tournament and two others that were featured in the 2019 tournament.
 
The opening weekend of the season holds perhaps the most talented field in the country for a non-conference tournament, the Carolina Classic pits the Gamecocks against Washington State, Rice and Pittsburgh inside the Carolina Volleyball Center for a two-day event. 
 
The season kicks off on Friday, Aug. 27 against the Cougars of Washington State with a 3 p.m. match. The Cougars have made five consecutive NCAA tournaments and return three all-region honorees from last season: Magda Jehlářová (2.10 kills and 1.29 blocks per set), Hannah Pukis (9.31 assists and 2.74 digs per set) and Pia Timmer (team-high 173 kills). A Saturday day-night double feature starts with a 10 a.m. match against Rice before the weekend closes with a 7 p.m. match with Pitt. Rice received an at-large bid to last season’s tournament, but withdrew because of COVID-19 protocols. The Owls seek to remain one of the top programs nationally this fall and are led by all-american pin hitter Nicole Lennon – who ranks second in the country for career kills among active players. Pitt is coming off making the NCAA tournament regional final for the first time in program history and may have an even better team this fall, returning all-americans Kayla Lund and Chinaza Ndee for a fifth year and also adding strong transfers from Missouri and Penn State.
 
“I don’t know what other tournaments might be going on that opening weekend, but it will be hard to find a more competitive tournament nationally,” Mendoza said. “Every match is going to be high level with a chance to pick up top-25 wins. We’re going to be tested right away and I hope this gets our team really excited to attack preseason practice knowing that this weekend is going to kick everything off.”
 
The schedule does not get easier from there, though, as the following week brings the Palmetto Showdown tournament to the CVC. South Carolina plays twice against UCF and also brings in rival Clemson for matches on Thursday, Sept. 2 and Friday, Sept. 3. The Knights bring in one of the top players in the country with senior McKenna Melville, who averaged 4.55 kills and 2.97 digs per set on the way to earning her conference’s player of the year honors. South Carolina plays UCF at 7 p.m. on Thursday night and 7:30 p.m. Friday night. The annual match against Clemson – paused last season – resumes with a 1 p.m. showdown with the Tigers on Sept. 3.
 
The non-conference schedule wraps up with a pair of road weekends, first down at Kennesaw State. Along with a 7 p.m. match against the host Owls on Sept. 9, the team faces Santa Clara at 4 p.m. on Sept. 10. The final weekend of preseason matches starts with a match on Sept. 17 against Winthrop up in Rock Hill with a 4 p.m. match against High Point the following day back home in the CVC.
 
“Every year the scheduling process gets more and more difficult, but I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out,” Mendoza said. “Our goal is to not just give our team the chance to make the NCAA tournament, but put us in a position to be a top-16 team and have a chance to host tournament games in our own gym and bring high-level volleyball to Columbia. Obviously, we’ll have to go out and earn that every match, but we have a group that is really excited for this challenge.”
 
The SEC slate begins on Wednesday, Sept. 22 at home with a match against Georgia and the first week wraps up on the road with a match at Texas A&M on Sunday, Sept. 26. The following week shows the first look at the new schedule format for conference play. This fall, the teams will borrow from the 2020-21 schedule look with six series that feature back-to-back match days and six standalone matches. 
 
The six opponents the Gamecocks will have a series with this season are Missouri (Road, Sept. 30-Oct. 1), Tennessee (Home, Oct. 8-9), Alabama (Home, Oct. 23-24), Ole Miss (Road, Oct. 29-30), Kentucky (Home, Nov. 4-5) and Florida (Road, Nov. 20-21). Three of South Carolina’s six series come against the SEC’s national tournament participants from 2020-21, including national champion Kentucky.
 
“A positive that we were able to draw out of last season was trying some things that we may not have in a normal year and I think what we came up this year is the best of both worlds,” Mendoza said. “What we wanted to do with the back-to-back matches is prepare our teams for the NCAA tournament where that’s the format. I think you saw how that may have helped Kentucky make its run last year and I think that will really put our conference teams in the best position for success in the postseason.”
 
Outside of mirroring the national tournament format, Mendoza said that the new SEC schedule will help cut down on travel demands and provide more rest and recovery time for the conference’s student-athletes.
 
Season tickets are on sale now – $25 for adults and $10 for youth ages 17 and under, good for admission to all regular season matches in the fall (TICKET LINK). The VIP season ticket package also returns, at $75, allowing fans to select a reserved seat for the season, attend pregame chalk talks with the coaching staff and a free bottled drink at every match. VIP members can select their seasons during the Garnet and Black scrimmage, scheduled for 2 p.m. on Aug. 14. 
 
For Mendoza and the team, a return to a packed house at the Carolina Volleyball Center will be a moment to savor this fall.
 
“I put the atmosphere of the CVC up against anywhere else in the conference and the country,” he said, “and we’ve been able to provide a lot of excitement over the last few years. For all our fans who had to just watch us from afar last year, I think they’re really going to enjoy being able to see this team in person and I know that all the newcomers from last year and now this year are excited to add to the energy the gym has on game days.”