Volleyball Kicks off Season at Panther Challenge Tournament

COLUMBIA, S.C. – A highly anticipated 2019 season begins for South Carolina volleyball on Friday, as the Gamecocks head to the Steel City for the Panther Challenge, hosted by the University of Pittsburgh. The two-day tournament pits Carolina against Cincinnati at 10 a.m. ET on Friday, and Cleveland State (10 a.m.) and Pitt (7 p.m.) on Saturday. This season, the Gamecocks return 11 letterwinners from 2018’s roster, a group that won 20 matches and earned the program’s first postseason berth in 16 years.

Live stats will be available for all three matches, and fans can watch the team’s match against Pitt Saturday at 7 p.m. on ACC Network Extra. For updates throughout the weekend, follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

SCOUTING CINCINNATI
The Bearcats made the tournament last season thanks in large part to the efforts of senior Jordan Thompson. She averaged over six kills per set while also hitting well over .300 and earned conference player of the year honors, then spent her summer helping Team USA qualify for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. Though she accounted for almost half of the team’s total kills for the year, there were still five other attackers who went for triple-digit kills in 2018 and three of them are also returning this fall. With senior Jade Tingelhoff graduating, setting duties for returners fall on the shoulders of sophomore Armania Heckenmueller, who averaged 7.13 assists per set out of the back row in her debut season. Defensively, the Bearcats had five different athletes with 200 or more digs, but lost libero Abby Williams to graduation. Junior Damjana Cabarkapa anchored the team’s defense at the net, posting 130 total blocks (15 solo) in 2018.

SCOUTING CLEVELAND STATE
Cleveland State went 17-12 in 2018, including an 11-5 mark in the Horizon League. The Vikings were led by a pair of rising seniors, Trinniti Hall and Sara Skeens, who both finished with over 300 kills, and have high hopes for 2019 with almost every starter returning. The statistical leader for every category outside of digs will return to the team, as the Vikings aim to return to the top of their conference after winning it in 2015, 2016 and 2017.

SCOUTING No. 12 PITTSBURGH
The host Panthers broke out in 2018, going 30-2 and winning the ACC before being upset in the second round of the NCAA tournament. It was the team’s second ACC regular season title in a row, and third-straight year in the NCAA tournament, but the 30 wins were the most since 1990. The offense returns all five of its primary attackers, but did lose seniors Kamalani Akeo (setter) and Angela Seman (libero).The trio of Kayla Lund, Nika Markovic and Layne Van Buskirk all went over 300 kills last year, and Van Buskirk also anchored the defense with 161 blocks (24 solo).

ROBINSON AND SHIELDS COMING OFF ALL-SEC SEASONS
For the first time in 16 years, South Carolina put multiple student-athletes on the conference’s postseason team, chosen by the league’s 13 coaches, with Mikayla Robinson and Mikayla Shields making the cut.

It was Robinson’s first all-conference honor but second postseason recognition, as the junior made the all-freshman team in 2017. Last year, Robinson led the Gamecocks in blocks (96 total, 22 solo) and hitting percentage (.298) during the regular season. She was named the SEC Defensive Player of the Week twice, and her 22 solo blocks were the third-most for any Gamecock in the rally-scoring era (since 2001). Offensively, Robinson’s hitting percentage also ranked in the top ten for highest in a season during this scoring era.

Shields is now a back-to-back All-SEC honoree, making her the ninth Gamecock to do so since South Carolina joined the conference in 1991. She led the team in the regular season with 3.22 kills per set and hit .272 despite leading all Gamecock hitters with 837 total attacks. She wasn’t just solid as an attacker, as she also led the team with eight double-doubles, ranked second on the team with 2.38 digs per set, and reached a career high for service aces (26).

SHIELD BEARER
Last season, Mikayla Shields became the fifth junior in the program’s 46-year history to make it to 1000 career kills in three seasons or less. Overall, she is 15th member of the program ever to reach 1,000 kills, and the fourth-fastest (making it in her 80th career game). The last Gamecock to reach 1,000 kills was Juliette Thévenin in 2012.

MENDOZA ENJOYS STRONG CAROLINA DEBUT
Tom Mendoza became the 13th head coach in Gamecock volleyball’s 46-year history on Jan. 3, 2018. Mendoza was no stranger to the NCAA tournament, having spent 2016 and 2017 as head coach at High Point University, where he led the Panthers to back-to-back tournament appearances. He inherited a team that went 12-18 and 5-13 in SEC play, and delivered a 20-win season and the program’s first NCAA tournament appearance in 16 years. The Gamecocks posted a RPI of 156 in the season prior to Mendoza’s arrival, but despite returning five starters and their libero from last season, jumped up to the 35th-best RPI in the country and had a 9-8 record against teams ranked in the RPI top 100.

KOEHLER SETTING HER SIGHTS ON SC RECORDS
Senior Courtney Koehler will guide the team’s offense for a third season in 2019, and her production has her leaping up the program’s record book. The Asheville, N.C. native moved into the program’s all-time top 10 for career assists and she enters her final season sitting seventh overall in Carolina’s 46-year history. Koehler’s 2018 total of 1,121 assists put her fourth in for most in a season for the rally-scoring era, giving her two of the top four marks.

GAMECOCKS PREP FOR TOUGH NON-CONFERECE
The Gamecocks are embarking on an ambitious schedule to follow up last year’s NCAA tournament run. Five of the team’s 12 non-conference opponents are 2018 tournament participants, four finished in the RPI top 25, six won 20 or more matches, and the group as a whole went a combined 254-117 (.685).

“We’re playing the ACC champion (Pitt), the first- and second-place teams from the AAC (UCF and Cincinnati, respectively), one of the best teams in the Big 12 (Kansas) and a Wisconsin team that is always making deep runs in the NCAA tournament,” head coach Tom Mendoza said. “We addressed in the spring, even before our schedule was set, the need to get the right schedule regardless of the day or time so we can be in the conversation for another NCAA tournament run. We’re going to have to be ready to go from day one.

GAMECOCKS BOOST DEPTH WITH 2019 RECRUITS
With all six starters from the the team’s NCAA run in 2018 returning, head coach Tom Mendoza has been able to boost the team’s depth under less pressure. The Gamecocks welcomed three scholarship players and three walk-ons for the fall, hailing from all corners of the U.S.

“They are all learning the college game right now,” Mendoza said. “The thing that is most impressive about the freshmen is that they don’t seem out of place. The fact that it’s week one and their heads aren’t spinning is impressive and shows the level of potential that they have.”

The team added help across the net, starting on the left side with McKenzie Moorman (Elmhurst, Ill.), moving to the middle with Kylee Stokes (Phoenix, Ariz.) and to the right with Holly Eastridge (Avon, Ind.). All three made the Senior Aces Top 150 list and will be competing for playing time straight away. Right side hitter Gabby Brown (Summerville, N.C.) is following in her sister Callie’s footsteps at Carolina, and will have a leg up after enrolling early and spending the spring semester in the gym training with the Gamecocks. 

Mendoza rounded out his class with two defensive specialists, Anna Holman (Murrieta, Calif.) and Camilla Covas (San Juan, Puerto Rico), who hope to solidify the ball control the same way that Lauren Bowers and Addie Bryant were able to do as first-year players in 2018.

HOME-COURT ADVANTAGE
The Gamecocks have made the Carolina Volleyball Center one of the toughest venues in the country over the last three seasons. Of the program’s top ten crowds all time in the CVC, nine have come in the last three years and three of the top five came in 2018 alone, including a program-record crowd of 3,458 at the Clemson match. Last season, the Gamecocks ranked 33rd nationally for cumulative and 30th for average attendance and went 11-2 in the CVC – its highest home win total since 2008. On Nov. 4, 2018, the team won the 200th home match in CVC history when it took down Auburn, 3-1.

PROGRAM GREAT CALLY PLUMMER NAMED TO 2019 HALL OF FAME CLASS
The University of South Carolina Athletics Hall of Fame class of 2019 was announced in July, and volleyball alumna Cally Plummer (1998-2002) made the nine-member class. She is the fourth member of the program to be honored, and one of just 187 members total in the Hall of Fame’s 52-year history.

Plummer is one of just four Gamecocks in program history to be a four-time All-SEC performer. As a right-side attacker, Plummer is still the program’s all time in career aces, and ranks fourth in career kills and fifth in career attacks. For her career she finished with 1,295 kills, 233 aces, 956 digs, and 270 blocks, and the Gamecocks made the NCAA tournament in all four of her seasons on the court.

The class will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on Thursday, October 17, at Colonial Life Arena, and recognized at the South Carolina-Florida football game on Saturday, October 19. Previous alumnae in the Hall of Fame are Ashley Edlund (1995-98), Heather Larkin (1994-97) and Shonda Walllace (Cole) (2003-06).

ALL-TIME RECORDS

• South Carolina holds an 817-640 (.560) all-time record, dating back to 1973. The team’s 800th win of all time came on Aug. 25, 2018 against Clemson.
• The Gamecocks joined the SEC for volleyball in 1991, and have an all-time conference record of 193-271 (.418).
• In matches in the Carolina Volleyball Center, Carolina is 201-113 (.642) overall and 102-96 (.518) in SEC matches.
• Tom Mendoza became the program’s 13th head coach on Jan. 3, 2018. This is his fourth season overall as a head coach, with a career record of 67-28.