Gamecocks Travel to Maryland for Weekend Tournament

COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina’s volleyball team heads back on the road this weekend, heading up I-95 for the Maryland Invite on Saturday and Sunday. The tournament will pit the Gamecocks against Liberty, Colgate and the host Terrapins.
 
SCOUTING LIBERTY
The Flames were just 12-19 last season, but return a two-woman attack of Anna Gragg (2.80 kills per set), and Casey Goodwin (2.58 kills per set) that led the offense. The team also returned both starting setters and starting libero Margaret Latchford (4.08 digs per set in 2017). This past weekend, Liberty went 1-2 with a win over Houston Baptist but losses to Rice and the Gamecocks down in Houston. In the match with Carolina, the Flames were led by Victoria Baptista’s 13 kills and 12 digs and out-blocked the Gamecocks 12-5, but were not able to slow down Brittany McLean, who led the attack with a career-high 18 kills. 
 
SCOUTING MARYLAND
The Terps are directed by first-year head coach Adam Hughes, despite posting an 18-14 overall record in 2017. The team will have a lot of offense to replace after losing four of its top five kills leaders from 2017. The lone returning leader is pin Erika Pritchard, who finished second on the team with 331 kills. Maryland will also look to replace its leading defender at the net and back line after losing its top blocker and libero from 2017. The team is 5-1 entering the weekend, with its lone loss coming to Air Force in five sets. Pritchard has been one of the best attackers in the country so far, averaging 4.76 kills per set to go with a .269 hitting percentage, with senior Liz Twilley (2.39 kills/set) and sophomore Jada Gardner (2.48 k/s) rounding out the offense’s leaders.
 
SCOUTING COLGATE
The Raiders are poised to be the team to watch in the Patriot League this season, as they return all the key pieces from a 2017 campaign that saw the team finish 18-11 and earn a spot in the NIVC postseason tournament. The centerpiece is sophomore Ali Lowe, who averaged 3.88 kills per set in her freshman season, earning her the conference freshman of the year award. The team’s entire top five for kills return, accounting for 85 percent of the team’s total. Also returning is the team’s libero, sophomore Bridget Kolsky, and its leading blocker, Jaelah Hutchison. Through two weekends, the team is 2-4, with a win over Rutgers and losses to high major programs like Northwestern and California in the mix.
 
RICE INVITATIONAL NOTABLES

• Mikayla Shields and Aubrey Ezell represented South Carolina on the all-tournament team. Shields hit .291 with 41 kills and 30 digs, Ezell had 48 digs and 14 aces.
• With three more aces Saturday against Houston Baptist, Ezell now has 25 for the season. The senior moved into a tie with Jodi Thompson (1991-94) for fifth in the program’s all-time history with her 162 career aces.
• Brittany McLean ended the weekend with 38 total kills, after putting away 13 against Houston Baptist.
• Mikayla Shields rebounded from an off match against Liberty to lead the offense against Rice. Her 18 kills and 11 digs marked her second double-double of the season and 18th of her career.
• Ezell’s seven aces against Rice are a new personal best for the rally-scoring era leader for the category. The senior had at least two aces in the three of the four sets Friday. The only Gamecocks in the modern era with more aces in a match of any length is Cally Plummer (10/10/2001) and Megan Hosp (9/7/2002), who had eight.
• Claire Edwards led the team with seven total blocks against Rice, matching her career high set against North Florida last season.
• The team had 11 total aces against Liberty and Rice Friday. There have only been three matches with double-digit aces for the team over the previous two seasons combined. The last time the Gamecocks had 11 or more aces in a four-set match was in 2010, when they had 13 against Creighton.
• McLean’s 18 kills against Liberty are tied for the most by any Gamecock through six matches this season, and are a new career high for the junior.
• Jess Vastine’s 14 digs against Liberty led the team and set a career high.
• Claire Edwards’ three aces against the Flames were also a career high. The junior previously had a pair of aces on two different occasions in 2017.

MENDOZA READY FOR FIRST SEASON IN COLUMBIA
Tom Mendoza became the 13th head coach in Gamecock volleyball’s 46-year history on Jan. 3, 2018. Mendoza came to Columbia after two seasons as head coach at High Point University, where he led the Panthers to 47 wins and back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances. Mendoza’s High Point team won 24 matches in 2017, the second-most in the program’s Division I era. The Panthers were in rare company as a mid-major program earning an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, the team’s third NCAA berth overall, and the first volleyball at-large bid in Big South Conference history. In the postseason, Mendoza was named Big South Coach of the Year and the AVCA)Southeast Region Coach of the Year for his efforts. 
 
Before taking over at High Point, Mendoza helped lay the foundation for one of the top indoor program in the country – Creighton University. During his six years in Omaha, Mendoza helped the program win 20 or more matches five times, with five conference titles, five NCAA Tournament bids and a berth in the NCAA Sweet 16 in 2015. The Buffalo Grove, Ill. native was a three-year letter winner at Newman University and a one-year letter winner at Lewis University, and was a NAIA All-American as a setter.
 
GAMECOCKS EARN WIN #800
South Carolina’s 3-0 sweep of Clemson on Aug. 25 was the 800th victory in the program’s history. Along the way, the team has 17 season with 20 wins or more and seven appearances in the NCAA tournament.
 
AUBREY ACE-ZELL
After leading the SEC and setting a personal best with 49 service aces in 2017, Ezell begins the 2018 campaign as the rally-scoring era leader in the category. The senior racked up 14 aces over the weekend at Rice, highlighted by a career-high seven aces against the Owls, and is now tied for fifth in the program’s top five for most all-time. She currently leads the country with her 1.19 aces per set average, and is the NCAA active career leader for the category.
 
SHIELD-BEARER
Mikayla Shields followed up a record-breaking freshman season with an even better sophomore campaign in 2017. The Orlando, Fla. native upped her kills per set from 3.25 to 3.70 and more than doubled her entire 2016 total for digs, with a 2.44 average per set. On Nov. 8 of last season against Missouri, Shields set a career high with 29 kills, and on Nov. 12  vs. Arkansas, she broke 700 career kills. She is just the third sophomore in the program’s 45-year history to make it to 700 kills in just her first two seasons. The others were all-time kills leader Lori Rowe (in 1984), and current associate head coach Shonda Cole (in 2004). Early on this season, Shields leads the offense again with 3.28 kills per set and a .329 hitting percentage, and passed 800 career kills.
 
MCLEAN BRINGS POSTSEASON EXPERIENCE TO SC
Britt McLean transferred to South Carolina after two seasons at Minnesota. She comes to the team after ending the 2017 on a high note with the Gophers, playing every set of their three NCAA tournament matches. In the opening round against North Dakota, McLean led the team with 13 kills and a .355 attack percentage in a three-set sweep. In her two seasons at Minnesota, McLean played in nine matches.
 
PHEISTER ROUNDS OUT GAMECOCK STAFF
Joining first-year head coach Tom Mendoza and fourth-year assistant coach Shonda Cole on the bench this fall will be Ethan Pheister, who spent the last three seasons as an assistant at LSU, working with the Tiger setters and helping coordinate the offense.
 
“Ethan is the right coach to round out our staff, and contributes to the culture we are working to build in our program. He is an elite trainer and is one of the top minds in our game from a scouting and analysis perspective. More importantly, he identifies well with the student-athletes, and has a teach-first mentality to their development both on and off the court,” Mendoza said.
 
LSU turned itself around in 2017, going from nine wins in the previous season to 20 wins and an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. Pheister also had prior experience coaching in the SEC, spending the 2012 season at Arkansas and helping the Razorbacks make the national tournament.
 
“There are a lot of things that are exciting about what’s going on at South Carolina right now,” Pheister said. “The vision that Tom and Shonda have of what this program can be matches up with what I see as well. I’m really excited to be a part of that process and see where we can take this program. This is a team that’s on the precipice of taking that next step.”
 
EZELL JOINS AN EXCLUSIVE CLUB
Aubrey Ezell passed 150 career aces during the team’s weekend at the Rice Invitational, making her just the second player in the program’s 45-year history to reach 2,000 assists, 1,000 digs and 150 aces in a career. Jodi Thompson (1991-94) is the only other Gamecock to claim all three milestones.
 
KEY PIECE RETURNS FOR CAROLINA 
After suffering an injury in the preseason, Alicia Starr missed the first four matches of the season. On Tuesday against Charlotte, the junior saw her first extended action and came through with 10 kills and seven digs for the Gamecocks. Starr has been a key member since day one, and will add key depth to the team’s outside attackers.
 
IRON WOMAN 
Aubrey Ezell is on an impressive streak for the Gamecocks. The senior has not missed a single set in her career, entering the weekend on a stretch of 98 matches played. Currently, her 361 total sets played put her 16 away from entering the program’s top-10 in the rally-scoring era, but no other player in this era have played in as many consecutive sets.
 
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 have come this season, including a program-record crowd of 3,458 at the Clemson match on Aug. 25. That beat the record set less than 24 hours earlier, when 2,579 watched the team take down ETSU. After two weeks this season, the Gamecocks rank tenth nationally for cumulative attendance and ninth in average attendance.
 
DOUBLE-DOUBLE THE TROUBLE
After going for 18 kills and 11 digs against Rice (8/31), Mikayla Shields moved past Shonda Cole and up to 19th in program history for career double-doubles. Teammate Aubrey Ezell ranks 15th on the career list with 22 – only six Gamecocks total have gone over 20 career double-doubles in the last 15 years.
 
ALL-TIME RECORDS

• South Carolina holds an 803-631 (.559) 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 185-263 (.415).
• In matches in the Carolina Volleyball Center, Carolina 194-111 (.635) overall and 95-94 (.503) in SEC matches.
• Tom Mendoza became the program’s 13th head coach on Jan. 3, 2018. This is his third season overall as a head coach, with a career record of 53-19.