Women's Volleyball . December 4, 2024

Gamecocks Readies for NCAA Tournament Opener Against No. 23 Dayton

WACO, TEXAS – South Carolina volleyball begins postseason play in the Waco, Texas regional on Thursday, Dec, 5, facing No. 23 Dayton (29-2) in the first round. Game time is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. ET on ESPN+, with the winner to play on Friday, Dec. 6 at 8 p.m. ET against the winner of Wofford and host Baylor. The Flyers earned the number five seed in the Lincoln, Neb. regional, Baylor is the number four seed.

The Gamecocks (16-11, 7-9 SEC) have won the first round in three of their last four tournament appearances, most recently defeating 10th-ranked Colorado State in 2019 while playing in the Seattle Regional. This will be the 11th NCAA tournament trip in the program’s 51-year history. South Carolina has a 6-10 record in tournament games, searching to make the round of 16 for the first time since making its tournament debut in 1984.

The Southeastern Conference as a whole will be well-represented in the tournament, with nine teams making the field of 64 and five teams earning national seeds.

First and Second Round play of the 2024 NCAA Tournament will take place nationwide Thursday, Dec. 5 through Saturday, Dec. 7. Regional Semifinals and Regional Finals will be Thursday, Dec. 12 through Sunday, Dec. 15 with the National Semifinals and National Championship happening on December 19 and 22, respectively, in Louisville, Ky.

For more information and updates on the team’s journey through the tournament, follow Gamecockvolley on Twitter and GamecockVB on Instagram.

QUOTABLE: HEAD COACH TOM MENDOZA

SCOUTING THE #23 FLYERS
This will be Dayton’s 18th appearance in the NCAA Tournament, the program have an all-time record of 10-17 in tournament play and – like the Gamecocks – are looking to advance to the regional semifinal round for the first time in program history. The Flyers are ranked 23rd in the final coaches top-25 poll of the regular season, bringing a 29-2 record into postseason play after dropping two sets total on the way to an 18-0 record in conference play. The Flyers were vying to host the first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament before being upset in the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament championship by Loyola Chicago.

The offense run through the arm of fifth-year senior Lexie Almodovar, who ranks seventh in the nation for kills per set with a 4.91 average while also hitting over .300. The Flyers rank sixth in the country for hitting percentage, checking in at .302 in the regular season. The team is also stout defensively, ranking third nationally with a .130 opponent hitting percentage, boosted by top-50 rankings for blocks per set and aces per set. Middles Liana Sarkissian and Alayna Yates each average better than a block per set, and libero Karissa Kaminski finished third in the A-10 for digs with 4.24 per set.

REGULAR SEASON FINALE NOTABLES (FLORIDA and TEXAS A&M)

It was a true team effort in the win over No. 18 Florida; coming off a loss at Tennessee where Riley Whitesides accounted for 19 of the team’s 36 total kills, the team had three individuals with over a dozen kills each on Wednesday: Whitesides (17), Alayna Johnson (14) and Tireh Smith (13).
Whitesides cracked the 400-kill milestone for the season on Wednesday against the Gators, she is the eighth woman in the modern scoring era (since 2001) to reach 400, first since Mikayla Shields in 2019. Whitesides also went over 1,400 career kills, she is one of only five women in the program’s 51 seasons to reach that total.
In the 65 meetings prior to Whitesides’ arrival to Columbia in 2020, South Carolina was 7-58. Over her five seasons, the Gamecocks hold a 4-6 mark.
Tireh Smith appears poised to take over Whitesides’ mantle as Gator hunter, as she continues to perform well in matchups with Florida in her young career. The sophomore hit .296 with 13 kills and a team- and career-high eight blocks. Smith hit .412 with eight kills and six blocks in the team’s three-set sweep in Gainesville in October and, last fall as a freshman, came in as a substitute and hit .500 with five kills in three sets at Florida.
Victoria Harris led the team with 18 digs, she ranks second in the program’s all-time history for most digs in a single season by a freshman, now behind only Fernanda Laires’ total of 470 in 1996.
The team’s high-risk, high-reward mindset paid off on Wednesday, South Carolina finished with 30 service errors in the win. Across all of NCAA volleyball, the 30 errors are the most by any team in the nation in a winning OR losing effort dating back to at least 2019. The next closest high was 26, by Denver this season in a win against North Dakota (Oct. 5).
Florida entered the match with the SEC’s top offensive efficiency, hitting .304 through its first 26 matches which ranked it fifth among 334 teams nationally. The Gators ended Wednesday with a .129 hitting percentage, their lowest efficiency of the season.
Gator sophomore Kennedy Martin was named a National Player of the Year semifinalist by the American Volleyball Coaches Association earlier this week, but South Carolina was able to hold her 200 points under her season hitting percentage (.366 versus .163 on Wednesday.
With her two service aces in the first set, Riley Whitesides, moved past Ivana Kujundzic (2006-09) and into sole possession of third place for career aces in the rally scoring era. She also moved into the era’s top 10 for career digs, now with
This is the second top-25 win this season for the Gamecocks, head coach Tom Mendoza now has 11 wins over ranked opponents in his tenure. Only two South Carolina coaches have more than two ranked wins over their entire careers with the Gamecocks. Kim Williams had seven ranked wins in her tenure (1993-04).
With three blocks in the match against Texas A&M, Ellie Ruprich now owns the modern-scoring era record for block assists (403), solo blocks (117) and total blocks (520).
The Aggie offense was efficient on Saturday, hitting .355 while South Carolina recorded a season-low 20 digs along with three total blocks.
Riley Whitesides led all hitters with 14 kills, pushing her season total to 416. She passes Shonda Cole’s 2005 total of 414 for fifth-most in a single season in the modern scoring era. Her 4.43 kills per set average is second-highest, behind Cole’s 2006 average of 5.95 – an all-time program record.
South Carolina fell to 15-4 this season when matching our surpassing opponents in service aces. The team’s 6-1 advantage was nullified by a 15-5 margin in service errors.
The Gamecocks end the regular season with 94 sets played, the fewest since 2001 (92 sets over 26 matches). Carolina played the minimum three sets in 17 of its 27 total matches.
Setter Sarah Jordan averaged over 12 assists per set on Saturday, her season average of 9.90 per set is the highest by a Gamecock since Courtney Koehler’s 2018 average of 10.01.
Sophomore Sydney Floyd dropped in a pair of aces in set three, it is her fifth career multi-ace game.
Despite being held to single-digit digs for the first time since Sept. 10, freshman Victoria Harris still finished the regular season with 381 digs and 4.05 per set. She is the seventh Gamecock in the modern scoring era to average four or more digs per set and is the lone freshman among the other six women.
Junior Alayna Johnson reached 500 career kills on Saturday, she is the 25th woman in the modern scoring era to reach the milestone.

GAMECOCK PAIR EARN ALL-CONFERENCE HONORS
The Southeastern Conference announced its 2024 volleyball postseason awards on Dec. 1. South Carolina had two honorees, with graduate student Riley Whitesides making the 16-woman All-SEC First Team and first-year libero Victoria Harris making the seven-woman All-Freshman Team.

Whitesides put together one of the best seasons by an attacker in the program’s 51-season history over the regular season. The left-side hitter averaged 4.43 kills per set, ranking her inside the top 25 nationally. In the regular season finale against Texas A&M on Nov. 30, she passed Shonda Cole’s 2005 total of 414 for fifth-most in a single season in the modern scoring era. Her 4.43 kills per set average is second-highest in the program’s all-time history, behind Cole’s 2006 average of 5.95. The Greenville native is responsible for over 34 percent of the team’s total kills for the entire season, which is the second-highest share of kills in the program’s stat-keeping era (since 1984). She nearly doubled her kill total from 2023 (239) while also hitting almost 60 points higher (.184 in 2023, .241 in 2024).

Columbia native Victoria Harris has elevated her hometown team’s defensive play with a record-setting season at libero. Overcoming two season-ending injuries to close her high school career at Cardinal Newman, Harris is the ninth Gamecock in program history to make the SEC’s All-Freshman Team and first since 2021. She ranks sixth in the SEC for digs per set, at 4.05, which also ranked 12th nationally among Division I freshmen. With her efforts on the back line of the defense, South Carolina lowered its total of service reception errors from 166 in 2023 to 103 in 2024 and ran a more efficient offense that improved its hitting percentage 25 points from year-to-year.

Harris’ 381 digs are the second-most by a Gamecock freshman in program history, behind only Fernanda Laires’ total of 470 in 1996. She had four 20-dig games this fall, most by a freshman in the program’s SEC era (1991), topped by a 27-dig performance on Nov. 13 at LSU. It was the most in a single game by any freshman Gamecock in the rally-scoring era and the ninth-highest total overall, earning her SEC Freshman of the Week honors on Nov. 18.

Brooklyn DeLeye of Kentucky was named the SEC Volleyball Player of the Year, and Maya Sands of Missouri was voted the Libero of the Year. Mychael Vernon of Missouri was selected the Newcomer of the Year, while Jaela Auguste of Florida was tabbed the Freshman of the Year. Scholar-Athlete of the Year went to Cammy Niesen of Ole Miss. Kentucky head coach Craig Skinner was named SEC Coach of the Year. All awards were chosen by the league’s head coaches, and no ties were broken.

QUOTABLE: RILEY WHITESIDES

RUPRICH ACHIEVES THE BLOCKING “TRIPLE CROWN”
Graduate student Ellie Ruprich joined one of the most exclusive clubs in program history on Sunday, Nov. 3, reaching 500 career blocks after recording four in the three-set win over Tennessee. The Beverly Hills, Michigan native passed Mikayla Robinson (496 blocks from 2017-21) for the rally-scoring era record in career blocks in set one against the Lady Vols, then reached 500 with a set-clinching stuff in a 29-27 victory in set two. The last Gamecock to reach 500 blocks was Stephanie Pflughaupt (1986-89) during the 1988 season. She and Lori Rowe (641 blocks from 1983-86) were the only two members of the 500-blocks club prior to Ruprich. Currently, across all three divisions in NCAA volleyball, Ruprich is one of only 14 women who have reached 500 total blocks.

With three blocks in the regular season finale against Texas A&M, Ruprich now owns the modern-scoring era record for block assists (403), solo blocks (117) and total blocks (520). Diving further into the numbers, Ruprich ranks third among all current Division I athletes in solo blocks, with 117, and is 11th in total blocks. She has either led or tied for the team lead in blocks in 65 of her 132 career games played and has five or more blocks in 46 games.

TRENDING TOPICS
Over nine matches in the month of November…

The team went 4-5 over the last month of the regular season, with two wins on the road at LSU and at Alabama, and at home against Tennessee and Florida.
Riley Whitesides leads the offense with 138 kills in the month (4.45/set), shouldering a heavy workload on the left pin. Her 390 total attacks are 237 more than anyone else on the team and accounts for over 38 percent of the team’s total attacks.
Ellie Ruprich has stepped up her offensive production, ranking fourth on the team in kills (41) and hitting .311 over the nine November matches.
The offense is hitting .220, with opponents up at .242 and averaging a full kill more per set.
Opponents hold a 39-30 advantage in service aces, the Gamecocks are averaging just 0.97 aces per set while committing 95 service errors in 31 sets.

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 longway 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 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 tournament, Harris has started every game as the team’s libero and averages 4.05 digs per set, sixth-most in the SEC, with a .960 serve reception percentage over 354 total receptions. Her season highlight came in a five-set win at LSU on Nov. 13, where she totaled 27 digs. It is the ninth-highest single-game total in the rally-scoring era and most by a freshman. The last Gamecock to have 25 digs in a match as a freshman was Hannah Lawing on Oct. 28, 2007. Her efforts against the Tigers earned her SEC Freshman of the Year honors on Nov. 18. She has four 20-dig games this fall, something not done by a Gamecock freshman since the program joined the SEC in 1991. The big performance at LSU also helped set a season milestone, as she surpassed Aubrey Ezell’s 2015 total of 309 as the most digs in a freshman season in the rally-scoring era.

For her efforts, Harris made the seven-woman SEC All-Freshman team, as voted on by the conference’s coaches. Harris joins 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.

QUOTABLE: VICTORIA HARRIS

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 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 healthier Whitesides enjoyed a breakout season with the beach volleyball team in the 2024 spring semester, moving up to the top pairing by the end of the season and finishing with a 20-15 overall record.

In 2024, she has reached heights rarely seen by a Gamecock attacker. Entering the tournament, Whitesides is hitting .241 and averaging 4.43 kills per set, both are career-high paces and the 4.43 kills per set would rank her third in the program’s 51-season history if the season ended today. She set a new single-season high for kills in a win over Auburn on Oct. 16, breaking her previous high of 268 in 2022, but she needed 38 fewer sets and nine fewer matches to get there.

Arguably her best night as a Gamecock came when the team needed her most. In the comeback win at LSU on Nov. 13, Whitesides’ 30 kills led the team and were the most by any Gamecock against a SEC opponent was Shonda Cole on Oct. 1, 2006 (vs. Alabama). It wasn’t just Whitesides’ kill total that impressed, it was also her efficiency. Over a career-high 66 swings, she had just six errors, good for a .364 hitting percentage.

Currently, Whitesides ranks in the top 10 for kills (1,430, 5th), attacks (3,954, 3rd), service aces (99, 2nd), digs (912, 10th) and points scored (1,622.0, 4th) for the rally-scoring era (since 2001). She is the first All-SEC honoree for South Carolina since 2022 and 24th woman overall to make the conference list since the program joined in 1991.

WELL RECEIVED
The team’s serve reception defense has been a bright spot for the season, coming into this week ranked second in the SEC for fewest service aces allowed. The team is benefitting from a consistent trio of passers and each have performed admirably. Left side pins Riley Whitesides (531 receptions) and Alayna Johnson (607) combine to account for 64 percent of the team’s total receptions to date, with the two being aced 56 times in 1,138 total serves. For her career, Whitesides has the most serve receptions in the program’s rally-scoring era – currently with 2,696 – and has a career reception percentage of .951. Freshman libero Victoria Harris (354) accounts for the next-closest total this fall, has allowed 14 aces through 27 games.

The passing efficiency has been a boon to the offense and improves on an uncharacteristic 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 week, the aces per set allowed average is down to 1.10 and the team’s hitting percentage is up 25 points.

QUOTABLE: ALAYNA JOHNSON

COMPARING WINS AND LOSSES

The service line has made all the difference this season, the team is 14-4 when matching or surpassing opponents in aces but are 1-8 when being out-aced; the only win while losing the service battle was at Alabama.
A diverse offense has proven key. In losses, the trio of Alayna Johnson, Tireh Smith and Oby Anadi combine for 5.49 kills per set and a .155hitting percentage. In wins, that number jumps to 7.39 kills and a .309 hitting percentage.
While the output of Riley Whitesides has remained steady in wins (4.69 kills per set) and losses (4.15/set), her efficiency is noticeable. In wins, she hits .304 but drops down to .174 in losses.
A strong start has been key, the team is 14-0 when winning the first set but is just 2-11 when losing it. Before overcoming a first-set loss to beat Oklahoma on Oct. 20, the Gamecocks had lost 18 games in a row when dropping set one.
Opponents are doubling up the Gamecocks in blocks across the 11losses, with 132 total blocks compared to just 64 for South Carolina.
With the team’s blocking numbers down from year’s passed, the back line of the defense has been more important than ever. When finishing with more digs, the Gamecocks are 11-2.

BE YOUR BEST BY BEATING YOUR BEST
For as big of a jump as Riley Whitesides has enjoyed this fall, a handful of her teammates have also racked up a number of new personal bests with seven games remaining on the schedule. Junior Alayna Johnson surpassed her career high for kills in a season during the Oklahoma win on Oct. 20, needing seven fewer games to reach her 2023 total of 166. She also has doubled up her service ace total from 2023 (10) to 2024 (23) and passed her single-season dig high on Oct. 11 at Georgia in 10 fewer games than she needed in 2023.

Two second-year contributors have also been key. Tireh Smith went from nine kills over eight games in 2023 to 195 so far this fall. Liz McElveen expanded her role from a serving sub as a freshman in 2023 to a back-row defensive specialist this season, she currently ranks third on the team in service aces and fifth in digs.

SAVING THE DRAMA
For better or worse, South Carolina has had an efficient fall so far. The team has only played beyond three sets 10 times in 27 games and are at 94 sets played in the regular season. Outside of the adjusted 2020-21 season, the fewest sets played in a single season by the Gamecocks is 92, over the 26-game 2001 season. So far this season, the team is 9-8 in three-set matches, 5-2 in four-set matches and 2-1 in five sets. It was 14th game of the season before South Carolina finally went to five sets, the latest into a season the Gamecocks have played before going the distance since at least 1983 (the first season where fully vetted record-keeping is available).

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, totaling 1,500 assists, 400 digs and 45 service aces in 56 games played with the Tigers.

Entering the tournament, Jordan is averaging 9.90 assists per set, ranking 8th in the SEC. The junior from Leesburg, Va. had her best night to date as a Gamecock in the Nov. 13 comeback win at LSU, passing out 66 assists while guiding the offense to a .343 hitting percentage over five sets. It is a rally-scoring era record for most assists in a match of any length, surpassing Megan Hosp’s 65 against North Carolina on Dec. 6, 2002. The last Gamecock with more was Hosp during the sideout-scoring era, with 72 against Arkansas on Sept. 24, 2000. Jordan is the first Carolina setter to go over 60 assists in a match since Courtney Koehler in the first round of the 2018 NCAA tournament against Colorado (Nov. 30, 2018). South Carolina’s .343 hitting percentage is the second-highest for a five-set match in program history, behind only a .357 percentage against Arkansas on Nov. 23, 2012.

The Gamecocks were 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 postseason, the team has a .238 hitting percentage.

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 had never swept a ranked opponent in a true road match in the SEC era (since 1991) before Oct. 13.

HIGHS AND LOWS AT THE NET
A typical strong point for the Gamecocks, the team’s blocking defense has taken a dip in 2024. Only three players, starting middles Oby Anadi and Ellie Ruprich and right side Tireh Smith, are over 40 total blocks entering the postseason. As a team, South Carolina has fallen back to 10th in the SEC for blocks per set and 168th nationally.

In 2023, 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.

That number remains high in 2024, South Carolina has been blocked more overall (255.5 total blocks) and per set (2.72) than any other SEC school. Seven of the 16 SEC opponents faced by the Gamecocks recorded double-digit blocks, compared to just three double-digit block games for Carolina.

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.

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.

QUOTABLE: OBY ANADI

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

Home is where the heart is. The Gamecocks are 67-30 (.690) 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 87-13 when winning the first set, 19-73 when losing it.
In five-set matches, the team holds an 26-15 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 105 times and have lost just nine of those matches.
Aces have been a key to victory; under Mendoza the Gamecocks are 81-20 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 57-13 record when finishing with more digs in a match since Mendoza arrived in 2018.

ALL TIME RECORDS

South Carolina holds an 893-711 (.556) 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 241-332 (.420) in the 31st season as a member. The 200th SEC win came on Nov. 8, 2019 at Mississippi St.
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 257-141 (.645) overall and 132-121 (.521) 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 153-107 and a record of 106-89 at South Carolina. He is just the fourth coach in South Carolina’s history to reach 100 wins.