Women's Volleyball . September 26, 2024

Gamecocks Begin SEC Play at Home Friday Night

COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina volleyball (9-2) begins conference play on Friday night, hosting Mississippi State (6-3) at 7 p.m. in the Carolina Volleyball Center. It will be the team’s first national broadcast of the year, as Danny Waugh and Logan Eggleston have the call on the SEC Network.

For fans attending home matches this week and all season long at the Carolina Volleyball Center (CVC), parking is available in the lot directly in front of Thirsty Fellow restaurant (behind 650 Lincoln Dorms). It is not advised that any parking occur in the lot facing Assembly Street as tickets could be issued. There is also a lot available off Park Street next to the Strom Thurmond Fitness Center as well as the Horizon Garage off Assembly Street.

The volleyball program now has a specific supporter group that is aimed at their most loyal fans. The funds generated through the Volleyball VIP Club will go directly to the program to support student-athletes. In addition to other benefits, membership includes free admission to all regular season home matches. Tickets can be purchased on-site or through THIS LINK.

Single-game tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for youth 17 and under, and $3 for groups of 15 or more (with pre-purchase). The physical address for the CVC is 1051 Blossom Street, Columbia, S.C. 29201. The student entrance will be the doors facing the Blossom and Assembly Street intersection, for general admission and VIP ticket holders, the entrance is off Park Street.

For continued updates on the team, follow Gamecockvolley on Twitter and GamecockVB on Instagram.

SCOUTING THE BULLDOGS
Mississippi State enters Friday’s SEC opener coming off a 3-0 sweep of Southern Miss to cap a 6-3 record in non-conference play. Picked to finish 14th in the preseason SEC coaches poll, the Bulldogs are powered by its pull in the portal, with transfers headlining both offensive and defensive categories. Graduate transfer Kailin Newsome (Southeastern Louisiana) leads State in both kills (117) and digs (106) while fellow Karli Schmidt (Kansas) and Amina Shackelford (Butler) rank second and third, respectively, in kills. Defensively, the team averages 16.50 digs per set and 2.56 blocks per set, both rank third in the SEC. Mississippi State travels to the Carolina Volleyball Center after winning only one away conference game in the 2023 season, going 1-8.

QUOTABLE: TOM MENDOZA ON MISSISSIPPI STATE

WHITESIDES COLLECTS SEC HONORS FOR WEEK FOUR
Gamecock graduate student Riley Whitesides was named the SEC Co-Offensive Player of the Week, the conference office announced Sept. 23. The veteran pin hitter led South Carolina to a pair of straight-set victories last week to wrap up non-conference play. This is the first offensive player of the week nod for Whitesides, her previous conference honors came during the 2020-21 season, when she earned freshman of the week three times.

Whitesides’ torrid non-conference season peaked with one of the best weeks as a Gamecock. The Greenville native hit .448 with 36 kills (6.00/set) to help the team sweep East Carolina and in-state rival Clemson and finish the pre-SEC slate at 9-2 overall. In Tuesday’s win over the Pirates, Whitesides hit .615 with 18 kills and added three service aces and six digs in a sweep of the previously unbeaten ECU side. She followed that up with 18 more kills in a road matchup at Clemson, hitting .341 with 15 digs and another ace. In the win over the Tigers, she jumped up to eight place in program history for career kills, now with 1,180.

Whitesides leads the Gamecocks into SEC play in the midst of a career year, hitting over 50 percentage points higher than her previous career best and averaging almost two full kills per set more than she did in 2023.

MENDOZA GOES FOR 100
South Carolina head coach Tom Mendoza sits on the verge of a milestone entering SEC play, coming into Friday’s match against Mississippi State with 99 wins with the Gamecocks. He would become the fourth coach in program history to reach the century mark, joining Kim Williams (226 wins from 1993-04), Bonnie Kenny (171, 1984-92) and Scott Swanson (101, 2011-17). Of the 12 coaches in the 51-year history, Mendoza ranks second in conference wins, fourth in road wins and first in wins over ranked opponents.

TRENDING TOPICS
Over the last five matches…

Oby Anadi has been red-hot in the middle, with 41 kills and a .438 hitting percentage. The senior has 10+ kills in three of the last five games and hit .700 or higher in four of the last seven games.
Riley Whitesides leads the offense with 86 kills in the seven games (4.78/set) while hitting .299. She has accounted for almost a third of the team’s total attacks in this stretch, with 194 attacks – 46 more than any other Gamecock.
The team’s serving game has improved, with a 33-15 advantage in service aces. Five different Gamecocks have four or more aces, led by eight from Riley Whitesides and Alayna Johnson. The team has been efficient behind the line as well, with 13 fewer service errors than its opponents.
Opponents have had success at the net defensively, out-blocking the Gamecocks 49-35 overall i with notable disparities against Stetson (13-7) and Wake Forest (18-9).
The back line of the defense has impressed, with three individuals recording 35 or more digs over the last five games. Libero Victoria Harris leads the way with 4.89 digs per set.

WEEK FOUR NOTABLES (ECU, CLEMSON)

The Gamecocks are 6-4 at Clemson since the start of the 2000s, compared to 8-0 at home in that same stretch. The last two trips to Jervey Gym ended in five-set matches, with each team winning once. The Tigers’ home facility has undergone major renovations since Carolina’s last visit in 2022 including adding 15 feet to the ceiling and installing a new video board, locker rooms and lounges.
This is South Carolina’s first road sweep in the rivalry since 2017.
The offense needed to adjust on the fly after starting setter Sarah Jordan left with an injury with the Gamecocks ahead 11-8 in the first set. The team shifted to a two-setter offense with junior Kimmie Thompson and sophomore Sydney Floyd stepping into the role, the duo combined for 35 assists and 11 digs in the 2+ sets played.
The team’s 34-32 win in the first set is tied for the highest score in a single set under head coach Tom Mendoza, matched twice prior (Sept. 9, 2022 vs. Cincinnati, Nov. 30, 2018 vs. Colorado). There would be nine ties and six lead changes AFTER the set reached the standard 25 points and the set would take almost a full hour to decide. The two teams combined for 10 different set-point opportunities, four for Clemson six for the Gamecocks.
Whitesides’ 18 kills mark her fifth game in a row with 15 or more kills and seventh game overall in 2024. She passed Kim DeNeve (1986-89) and Mikayla Robinson (2017-21) for eighth place on the program’s career kills list in the win, now with 1,180.
Freshman libero Victoria Harris finished with a team-high 18 kills in the three sets, her sixth game with 15+ digs this fall.
South Carolina allowed just 38 total points to the Pirates in the Sept. 17 win, the lowest by a Gamecock opponent since Sept. 17, 2016 (Gardner-Webb, 38) – exactly eight years to the day. After allowing 16 kills to ECU in set one, the Carolina defense gave up just eight kills total in sets two and three.
East Carolina entered Tuesday night ranked number one in the nation for opponent hitting percentage allowed. Through their first seven games, the Pirates held their opponents to an .088 percentage. South Carolina responded with a .507 hitting percentage, the program’s highest single-game number since Nov. 23, 2008 (.536 vs. Mississippi St.).
The one-two punch of Anadi and Whitesides finished the night with 29 of the team’s 46 total kills and combined for a .650 hitting percentage, committing just three errors over 40 swings together.
Whitesides led the team with 18 kills but also added three aces and a block assist. Her 21.5 total points are the most for a three-set match since Juliette Thevenin against Western Carolina (9/20/2013). The pin’s .615 hitting percentage marks the first time since Nov. 1, 2019 that a Gamecock had 15+ kills and a hitting percentage higher than .600 (Mikayla Shields, .640 vs. LSU).
Freshman Victoria Harris recorded three service aces in a span of four serves in set two, she entered the match with two aces total through her first nine career matches.
Now with the seven-game home stand behind them, the Gamecocks saw sell-out crowds in six of the seven games. The team entered the week ranked 19th nationally for accumulated attendance.
The back line of the defense was stellar, allowing one service ace while out-digging ECU 36-20.

WELL RECEIVED
The team’s serve reception defense continued a steady climb in performance, allowing just one service ace to East Carolina and Clemson in the final week of the non-conference schedule. Since Kansas recorded seven aces in the season opener, the Gamecocks allowed just 15 total aces in the ensuing seven-game win streak (24 sets). The team is benefitting from a consistent rotation of passers and each have performed admirably. Left side pins Riley Whitesides (201 receptions) and Alayna Johnson (203) have combined to account for 65 percent of the team’s total receptions to date, with the two being aced just 13 times in 404 total serves. For her career, Whitesides has the most serve receptions in the program’s rally-scoring era – currently with 2,366 – and has a career reception percentage of .949.

Defensive specialists Elizabeth McElveen (67) and Victoria Harris (124) account for the next-closest totals this fall, and the pair have allowed 10 aces in 191 receptions. The passing efficiency has been a boon to the offense and improves on an uncharactistic 2023 season. The Gamecocks allowed 1.58 aces per set to opponents last fall, by far the most allowed in head coach Tom Mendoza’s tenure (since 2018). Heading into SEC play, the aces per set average is down to 0.84.

DOUBLE TROUBLE
Few teams in the country can match the production and consistency of Carolina’s middle blockers Oby Anadi and Ellie Ruprich. The two entered 2024 with over 700 combined blocks. Last fall, they became the first pair of Gamecocks to record 100+ total blocks in back-to-back seasons since 1995 (Heather Larkin and DeeDee Fortman) and 1996 (Larkin and Lori Drost). Going back to the earliest available statistics (1983), the program had never seen the same two individuals surpass 100 blocks in successive seasons.

SETTING THE SCENE
The team carries three setters on the roster for 2024, bringing back junior Kimmie Thompson and sophomore Sydney Floyd and adding in Towson transfer Sarah Jordan, but the team did lose Claire Wilson to a medical retirement. Jordan had success and experience running both a single-setter and two-setter offense during her career at Towson, and played almost the entire first weekend as the lone setter for Carolina. Entering the week, Jordan is averaging over 10 assists per set. The Gamecocks are looking to improve the offense’s connection after back-to-back seasons flirting with a .200 team hitting percentage – the lowest two so far under head coach Tom Mendoza. Entering the weekend, the team has a .259 hitting percentage.

FIVE FACES IN NEW PLACES
The Gamecocks added five to the roster for the fall season. Each of the five have a different background to bring to a squad featuring 11 returners…

Jolie Cranford joins the indoor team after two standout seasons with Gamecock beach volleyball. She will continue to play beach in the spring. She enters her junior season as the beach program’s winningest player on the active roster, with a career record of 41-21.
Maggie Elliott is the third crossover athlete on the roster, joining Riley Whitesides and Jolie Cranford on the beach volleyball team. She earned four letters at Lucy Garrett Beckham high school, playing for her mother, Adria, who played collegiate volleyball at Florida State. Her father also has a strong athletic background, competing in beach volleyball on the AVP Pro Tour for 16 years and also working as a collegiate beach coach.
Victoria Harris will be a freshman this fall, but enrolled early with the Gamecocks and spent the spring semester training and rehabbing a high school injury. She totaled over 1,300 digs and over 1,400 service receptions at Cardinal Newman high school, leading the team to two South Carolina state championships.
Sarah Jordan transferred to the Gamecocks after two seasons at Towson, playing in 56 total matches as the team’s setter. She finished her time as a Tiger with over 1500 assists and 400 digs, also adding 45 service aces behind the line. Jordan led the Tigers in assists with 973 and averaged 9.18 assists per set as a sophomore in 2023, also recording career highs in digs and kills.
Anna Wilson transferred after two seasons at High Point; after redshirting as a true freshman, she played in 15 matches in 2023.

A VICTORIOUS RETURN
She might have played high school volleyball just down the road from the Carolina Volleyball Center, but freshman Victoria Harris has taken the long way to collegiate volleyball. A standout libero at Cardinal Newman School, about 10 miles to the northeast of downtown Columbia, Harris had to overcome two serious injuries to make it to the next phase of her volleyball career. In September 2022, she fractured her hip during a game after a teammate landed on her. She recovered in time to play the following season, but endured another setback when she tore her ACL in August of 2023. She had surgery on her knee in October and then worked towards graduating early from high school and enrolling at South Carolina for the spring semester.

She was finally cleared for full action at the end of July and immediately jumped into an important role for the Gamecocks. Entering the week, Harris has started every game as the team’s libero and averages 4.32 digs per set. Her 23 digs in the week one matchup at Duke led the defense and is the most by a Gamecock freshman since Taylr McNeil in 2014 (23 vs. Furman). If Harris retains the role for the majority of 2024, she would join current senior Morgan Carter as the only Gamecocks to play libero as true freshmen since the position was first introduced in college volleyball in 2002.

ANADI READY TO PEAK IN SENIOR SEASON
Senior middle Oby Anadi made herself known as a blocker over her first season and a half in the lineup but she still was working her way into the team’s offensive game plan. The 2023 season proved that growth, as she set career highs on offense AND defense. Anadi totaled 119 kills over her first two seasons (41 matches), but finished with 146 over 27 matches. On defense, she had a personal-best 129 total blocks last fall and became the first Gamecock since Belita Salters in 2007 to have a hand in 50 percent or more of the team’s total blocks. Anadi’s 303 total blocks currently ranks seventh-most in the rally scoring era.

Anadi finished the team’s recent seven-game home stand with 11 kills and a .714 hitting percentage on Tuesday night against ECU. The senior has 10+ kills in three of the last five games and has hit .700 or higher in four of the last seven games. She had three games with double-digit kills through the first three SEASONS of her career entering 2024 (68 matches). For the season, she is hitting .439 with 78 total kills (2.11/set), third-most on the team.

WHITESIDES CARRIES OCTOBER MOMENTUM INTO 2024
The loss of senior Riley Whitesides to injury late last season came at an inopportune time for the Gamecocks, as the veteran pin was in the midst of one of the best stretches of her career during the month of October.

The Greenville native finished with more kills (103), digs (74) and service aces (8) in eight October matches than in any of the previous three seasons of her career. In the team’s six games against ranked opponents when she was healthy, Whitesides averaged 3.36 kills per set and her 84 total kills were 27 more than anyone else on the team. The injury forced her out of two games completely, and even after she was cleared to play she was limited to a back-row-only role in the final three games of the season, where she was unable to be part of the offense.

A healthy Whitesides enjoyed a breakout season with the beach volleyball team in the spring semester, moving up to the top pairing by the end of the season and finishing with a 20-15 overall record. Of her 20 wins, nine came on court one and five came against nationally ranked opponents.

Entering SEC play this fall, she has only increased her productivity. Entering Friday, Whitesides is hitting .276 and averaging 4.49 kills per set, highlighted by 36 kills over six sets last week in the final two games of non-conference play, hitting .448 in sweeps of East Carolina and Clemson.

GAMECOCK NATION PACKS THE GYM
Few venues feature the atmosphere of the Carolina Volleyball Center, and Gamecock fans came out in record-setting numbers last fall. The team had more games with 2,000 or more fans in 2023 (5) than in the previous 49 seasons of volleyball at South Carolina combined (3) and six of the top-10 most-attended matches in program history came in the team’s first eight home games. The Gamecocks ranked 44th nationally for total attendance (23,114) and 43rd in average attendance (1,651 per game) in 2023, despite having the smallest capacity gym of any team ranked ahead of it. The team broke the single-season home attendance record in 2023, welcoming in 23,114 fans, surpassing the previous record of 18,797, set during the 2018 season. Dating back to 2014, the Gamecock volleyball program is averaging at least 1,000 fans per game every season.

So far in 2024, the team’s total attendance of 9,743 ranks 22nd nationally and the average of 1,604 fans per game ranks 42nd nationally. In seven home games, the team has six over-capacity crowds.

RUPRICH REACHES ANOTHER MAJOR MILESTONE
Graduate student Ellie Ruprich became just the eighth woman in program history to reach 400 career blocks last fall, she is just the third woman in the modern scoring era (since 2001) to reach 400 career blocks, joining Darian Dozier (2012-15) and Mikayla Robinson (2017-21). Among current active players, Ruprich entered 2024 ranked second across all NCAA divisions for solo blocks and 13th in total blocks. The Beverly Hills, Michigan native is still in the hunt of some rarely contested records. In the rally-scoring record book, Ruprich surpassed Mikayla Robinson’s solo blocks record and reached 100 for her career in the win over Temple on Sept. 6. She is the fifth Gamecock in the program’s 51-year history to reach 100 solo blocks, the last woman to do so for South Carolina was Amy Collinsworth in 1993. In the all-time record book, she ranks fifth for solo blocks, fifth in block assists and fifth in total blocks.

GETTING THE SAND OUT OF THEIR SHOES
The indoor team has three indoor-to-beach crossover athletes on the roster this fall, with each Gamecock bringing a different background. The three crossovers are the most under head coach Tom Mendoza and are the most on a roster since the 2014 season. Leading the way is Riley Whitesides, who moved from an indoor-only role to beach as her spring sport during the 2022-23 school year and broke out last season on the sand. She moved up to the top court by the end of the season and finished with a 20-15 overall record.

Jolie Cranford moves from a beach-only career to an indoor role, staying true to her roots. Cranford, a native of Colorado, played indoor exclusively until late in her high school career when the COVID-19 pandemic pushed her athletic pursuits outdoors. Now two seasons into her beach career, she enters 2023-24 as the team’s winningest player on the active roster, holding a career mark of 41-21 through two seasons.

The final crossover athlete is Maggie Elliott. Originally committed to Florida State as both an indoor and beach athlete, the Charleston native opted to stay in-state for her collegiate career. As an indoor volleyball athlete, she played for her mother, Adria, and led her high school team in kills for all four years on the varsity roster.

HIGHS AND LOWS AT THE NET
South Carolina’s defensive calling card remains at the net, as the Gamecocks finished fourth in the SEC with an average of 2.46 blocks per set last fall. For as good as the Gamecock block was, however, opponents were better. South Carolina opponents averaged 2.75 blocks per set when facing the Gamecocks, far and away the most in the SEC. The team allowed 10 or more blocks in 16 of its 27 games overall and nine of 18 conference games. The 2.75 blocks per set against them is the the highest single-season average for Gamecock opponents in the rally-scoring era (since 2001).

VOLLEYBALL FINALIZES STAFF FOR FALL
Head coach Tom Mendoza promoted Ethan Pheister to Associate Head Coach and hired Jimmy Kim as the team’s Technical Coordinator. Pheister is also preparing for his seventh season at South Carolina, serving predominantly as the team’s defensive coordinator. In his time with the Gamecocks, he has developed the team’s middle blockers into one of the best positional groups in the Southeastern Conference. In the modern scoring era (since 2001), he has trained four of the 11 student-athletes who have totaled 250 or more blocks, highlighted by Mikayla Robinson (2017-21) and Ellie Ruprich (2020-Present). The duo rank third and fifth, respectively, for total blocks in the program’s 50-year history. As a team, the Gamecocks have consistently ended the season in the top three of the SEC and top 50 nationally for average blocks per set during Pheister’s tenure.

Kim comes to South Carolina from UC Irvine. He began working with the UCI women’s volleyball program in 2022 as its technical coordinator, and added the same duties with the Anteater’s men’s program the following year. This summer, Kim also added Technical Coordinator duties for USA Volleyball, working with the national team during its run in the Volleyball Nations League.

STATUS QUO IN THE CLASSROOM
The program improved its streak to 15 seasons in a row earning the AVCA’s Team Academic Award, announced on July 17. The Gamecocks have put 10 or more individuals on the SEC’s Fall Academic Honor Roll for eight seasons in a row and placed 16 members on either the Fall or First-Year Academic Honor Rolls in the 2023-24 school year. This comes despite an ambitious list of majors that spans the world-renowned business school, sports science fields and education.

SAVING THE BEST FOR LAST
An electric offensive performance carried South Carolina to a three-set sweep of eighth-ranked Tennessee in the 2023 regular season finale. The Gamecocks hit .488 as a team, the highest of any SEC team during conference play last fall, to overpower the Volunteers. Alayna Johnson led the way with a career-high 17 kills, hitting .464 along the way. The victory marked the sixth season in a row where South Carolina defeated a ranked opponent, extending the longest streak since joining the SEC in 1991. Tennessee is the third top-10-ranked team beaten during the streak, joining No. 5 Kentucky in 2021 and No. 4 Florida in 2020. The Gamecocks enter 2024 with nine wins over ranked opponents since head coach Tom Mendoza was hired in 2018. The program had just nine ranked wins total in the 27 seasons prior to his arrival (1991-2017).

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

Home is where the heart is. The Gamecocks are 63-26 (.707) at the Carolina Volleyball Center in Mendoza’s seven seasons.
September is the team’s best month, combining for a 41-17 mark. The highlight came in 2018 with a perfect 9-0 record in September, the first Gamecock squad since 1983 to do so.
The team is 82-13 when winning the first set, 17-64 when losing it.
In five-set matches, the team holds an 24-14 record. In the three years prior to his arrival, the Gamecocks were just 7-8 in five-setters.
The offense finished with a higher hitting percentage than its opponents 100 times and have lost just nine of those matches.
Aces have been a key to victory; under Mendoza the Gamecocks are 75-17 when matching or surpassing opponents in aces.
If the back line is locked in, the odds swing heavily in South Carolina’s favor; the team has a 55-11 record when finishing with more digs in a match since Mendoza arrived in 2018.

ALL TIME RECORDS

South Carolina holds an 886-702 (.557) all-time record, dating back to it’s first season as a varsity sport in 1974. 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 234-323 (.420) in the 31st season as a member. The 200th SEC win came on Nov. 8, 2019 at Mississippi St.
Dating back to 1983, the team has a 37-5 record in its home opener and a 24-18 record in its road opener.
The team has a 17-16 overall record in the opening game of SEC play.
In matches in the Carolina Volleyball Center, opened in 1996, Carolina is 253-137 (.645) overall and 128-117 (.525) in SEC matches. The CVC’s 250th win came on Sept. 10, 2024 against the College of Charleston.
Tom Mendoza was introduced as the program’s 13th head coach on Jan. 3, 2018. This is his ninth season overall as a head coach, with a career record of 146-98 and a record of 99-80 at South Carolina. He has led his teams to the NCAA tournament in five of his eight years as a head coach and is just the fourth coach in South Carolina’s history to reach 75 career wins.