Women's Volleyball . October 17, 2024

Volleyball Kicks off Key Home Stretch With Two Weekend Matches

COLUMBIA, S.C. – After opening conference play with three of its first four games on the road, South Carolina volleyball returns to the friendly confines of the Carolina Volleyball Center for six games in a row, starting Oct. 18-20. The Gamecocks (10-5, 1-3 SEC) host Ole Miss (12-5, 2-3 SEC) on Friday at 7 p.m. on the SEC Network+ and wrap the weekend in front of a national audience with a 2 p.m. first serve against Oklahoma (7-6, 1-4) on Sunday at 2 p.m. on the SEC Network.

Friday night will be the team’s breast cancer awareness game, pink rally towels provided by Prisma Health and a commemorative band will be given to the first 500 fans in attendance.

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 REBELS
Ole Miss brings a strong offense by committee into Friday’s match, the Rebels have six different players averaging 1.5 kills or more per set with junior pin hitter Nia Washington leading the effort with 3.49 kills (4.53 in SEC play). Boosting the offense is first-year transfer setter Mokihana Tufono, who ranks 22nd nationally with 10.52 assists per set. On defense, libero Cammy Niesen is third in the SEC with 4.32 digs per set and the Rebels rank fourth in the conference with a .178 opponent hitting percentage allowed. Last week, the team lost both matches on the schedule, falling at home to Texas A&M and at Georgia.

The teams split the 2023 series with each side winning on its home court. The Gamecocks are 19-7 at home in the all-time series and are 6-4 against Ole Miss during head coach Tom Mendoza’s tenure.

SCOUTING THE SOONERS
Oklahoma has battled through a challenging early schedule in SEC play, entering the weekend with a deceptive 1-4 conference mark with a match at Georgia scheduled for Friday. The Sooners upset No. 20 Tennessee in week one and went to five sets at home against No. 15 Florida and at No. 13 Kentucky. The offense has been the key for Oklahoma, with four individuals over two kills per set and junior Alexis Shelton ranking third in the SEC with 4.51 kills per set. The towering combo of 6’3 middle Lydia Martyn and 6’7 pin Kari Geissberger both rank in the top-10 of the SEC in hitting percentage and blocks per set, and freshman pin Kamille Gibson rounds out the offensive names to know with her 2.68 kills per set. Quarterbacking the offense is setter Payton Chamberlain who ranks 13th nationally for assists. Defensively, the team ranks second in the SEC with 2.65 blocks per set but are just 13th in digs.

The two teams had an extended back-and-forth series in the mid 90s, meeting five times between 1994 and 1998. The Sooners won the first two meetings, but South Carolina won the next three, including a two-game series in September of the 1998 season.

MENDOZA REACHES 100
The win over No. 19 Florida on Oct. 13 was head coach Tom Mendoza’s 100th at the helm of South Carolina. He is 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 program’s 51-year history, Mendoza ranks second in conference wins, fourth in road wins and first in wins over ranked opponents.

KEEPING THE STREAK ALIVE
The victory over No. 19 Florida on Sunday, Oct. 13 marked the seventh season in a row where South Carolina defeated a ranked opponent, extending the longest streak since joining the SEC in 1991. The Gamecocks have 10 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). Prior to the win in Gainesville, the Gamecocks had not won a true road match against a nationally ranked opponent since Sept. 14, 2003 (#14 Notre Dame, 3-1). The team has never swept a ranked opponent in a true road match in the SEC era (since 1991).

WEEK SEVEN NOTABLES

South Carolina’s first block of the Georgia match came with the team down 24-17 in the second set. The Gamecocks finished with two total blocks, their lowest total of the season and fewest in a single game since Oct. 9, 2022 (2.0 at Tennessee).
After a quiet start to the night, Victoria Harris came alive to power up the Gamecock rally at Georgia. The freshman finished with 22 digs – one off her career high with 17 coming in sets three and four alone. It is her third 20-dig game of the season.
Riley Whitesides led the offense with 22 kills in Athens, one off her career high. with three service aces, two coming in the first set. It is her fourth game this season with three or more aces. She is just the sixth Gamecock in the rally scoring era (since 2001) to reach 90 career aces.
The offense moved to a two-setter system towards the end of set two in Georgia, and the new look paid positive dividends. Substitutes Kimmie Thompson and Campbell Paris were key to the team’s rally, with Thompson passing out 18 assists with three digs and Paris adding eight kills on a .368 hitting percentage.
South Carolina played its first five-set match of the season in its 14th This is the latest into a season the Gamecocks have played before going the distance in a game since at least 1983 (the first season where fully vetted record-keeping is available).
Since head coach Tom Mendoza’s arrival in 2018, the Gamecocks and Bulldogs have gone to five sets in six of the 10 total matchups with each side winning three times.
Since joining the SEC in 1991, South Carolina had just two SET wins at Florida. The Gamecocks were 2-32 in Gainesville entering Sunday since the all-time series started in 1984, with the last win coming on Oct. 18, 1986.
After posting four kills in the first set against the Gators, Riley Whitesides passed Amy Iannoccari (1991-94) and moved into seventh in program history for most all-time, now with 1,242.
Whitesides continues to be a thorn in the Gators’ side. Since arriving to South Carolina in 2020, the Greenville native has been a leading factor in three wins over Florida. Prior to her arrival, the Gamecocks had just two wins in the 55 meetings over 28 years since joining the SEC (1991-2019). She had 23 kills as a freshman in the team’s win in 2020, had 16 kills in a five-set win in 2022 and hit .364 with 14 kills on Sunday.
Anadi had her best game of the year as a two-way threat in Gainesville, matching her season-high with six blocks and adding eight kills on a .500 hitting percentage. The senior now has five games this season with 8+ kills and a hitting percentage at or better than .500.
Florida entered the weekend ranked fifth nationally for highest team hitting percentage, at .300, but were held to a .218 mark with 18 attacking errors compared to .300 and 11 errors for the Gamecocks.
The Gators also were the top-serving team in the SEC with a league-leading 2.13 aces per set, but were held to two on Sunday while also committing seven more service errors than South Carolina (9-2), which finished with five aces.

TRENDING TOPICS
Over the last five matches…

Riley Whitesides leads the offense with 80 kills in the five games (4.44/set). Right behind her is fellow left-side pin Alayna Johnson (3.17 kills per set). The duo account for 58 percent of the team’s total attacks over the five-game stretch (375 attacks).
Tireh Smith is on a hot streak, hitting .333 with 48 total kills over the last five games, highlighted by an 18-kill night at Georgia on Oct. 11.
The team’s serving game has improved, with a 23-18 advantage in service aces. Four different Gamecocks have four or more aces, led by seven from Riley Whitesides. The team has been efficient behind the line as well, with 19 fewer service errors than its opponents.
Opponents have had success at the net defensively, out-blocking the Gamecocks 59-30 overall with notable disparities against Mississippi State (16-12) and Georgia (18-2).

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 trio of passers and each have performed admirably. Left side pins Riley Whitesides (286 receptions) and Alayna Johnson (316) combine to account for 65 percent of the team’s total receptions to date, with the two being aced just 24 times in 602 total serves. For her career, Whitesides has the most serve receptions in the program’s rally-scoring era – currently with 2,451 – and has a career reception percentage of .949. Freshman libero Victoria Harris (214) accounts for the next-closest total this fall, has allowed seven aces through the first 15 games.

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 the weekend, the aces per set allowed average was down to 0.92, and the 48 aces allowed is fewest in the SEC.

SMITH EMBRACES HER OPPORTUNITY
While it is year three on campus, Tireh Smith is still a relative newcomer to the Gamecock lineup. The Charleston native took a redshirt in her freshman year, then suffered an injury to her hand in the 2023 preseason. She finally made her debut on Oct. 15 last season, playing in two sets at Texas A&M. All told, she appeared in 16 sets over eight games in 2023. After a full spring semester of training, Smith made her case for expanded role in 2024. In week one at Duke, she supplanted incumbent right side Campbell Paris on the right pin and has played in all but two of the team’s 52 sets so far this fall. So far, Smith has eight or more kills in seven games and has hit .250 or higher in six of those seven games.

Her impact has been felt most in the early days of SEC play. Smith had a career night on the attack at Georgia on Oct. 11, finishing with a career-high 18 kills while hitting .314. Eleven of her kills came in the pivotal third and fourth sets to help the team rally back. It is her third match this season with double-digit kills and is the highest single-game kill total by a Gamecock right side hitter since Kiune Fletcher on Nov. 12, 2023 (18 games). She had another big day on Oct. 13 at #19 Florida, posting eight kills, hitting .412 and adding six blocks. She now is averaging 2.87 kills per set with a .341 hitting percentage through the team’s first four SEC matches.

DOUBLE TROUBLE
Few teams in the country can match the career production 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 just under 10 assists with 9.68 per set, ranking 10th in the SEC. 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 .246 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 will also join Riley Whitesides and Jolie Cranford on the beach volleyball team. She played indoor volleyball 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 there with over 1,500 assists and 400 digs. 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, 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 4.23 digs per set, fourth-most in the SEC. 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 two seasons in the lineup but was still 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 finished with 146 kills over 27 matches in 2023, after totaling 119 kills over her first two seasons (41 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 313 total blocks currently ranks sixth-most in the rally scoring era.

Anadi finished the team’s seven-game September home stand with 11 kills and a .714 hitting percentage against East Carolina on Sept. 17. The senior has 10+ kills in three of the seven home games and hit .700 or higher in four of the seven games. To put it in perspective, 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 .394 with 98 total kills, fourth-most on the team.

WHITESIDES CARRIES 2023 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 in October 2023.

The Greenville native averaged 12.87 kills, 9.25 digs and a service ace per game in eight October matches last fall. On top of that, Whitesides averaged 3.36 kills per set in the team’s six games against ranked opponents when she was healthy. 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.

Entering 2024 play, she has only increased her productivity. Entering Friday, Whitesides is hitting .251 and averaging 4.38 kills per set. She is coming off a strong weekend on the road in SEC play, totaling 36 kills in the team’s matches at Georgia and #19 Florida. She had 14 kills on a .364 hitting percentage in Gainesville, helping the team win at Florida for the first time since 1986.

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 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 35th nationally and the average of 1,574 fans per game ranks 45th nationally. In eight 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 fourth for solo blocks, fifth in block assists and fourth 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
A typical strong point for the Gamecocks, the team’s blocking defense has had a slower start than usual in 2024. Only three players, starting middles Oby Anadi and Ellie Ruprich and right side Tireh Smith, are over 20 total blocks through the team’s 15 games to date. As a team, South Carolina has fallen back to ninth in the SEC for blocks per set and 142nd nationally.

South Carolina 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).

That number remains high in 2024, currently South Carolina has been blocked more per set (2.77) than any over SEC school and the 144 total blocks against them is second in the conference.

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.

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

Home is where the heart is. The Gamecocks are 63-27 (.707) at the Carolina Volleyball Center in Mendoza’s seven seasons.
September is the team’s best month, combining for a 41-18 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 83-13 when winning the first set, 17-67 when losing it.
In five-set matches, the team holds an 24-15 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 101 times and have lost just nine of those matches.
Aces have been a key to victory; under Mendoza the Gamecocks are 76-19 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 55-12 record when finishing with more digs in a match since Mendoza arrived in 2018.

ALL TIME RECORDS

South Carolina holds an 887-705 (.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 235-326 (.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 17-17 overall record in the opening game of SEC play.
In matches in the Carolina Volleyball Center, opened in 1996, Carolina is 253-138 (.645) overall and 128-118 (.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 147-101 and a record of 100-83 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 100 career wins.