April 17, 2014

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina sand volleyball team will compete in the Florida State pairs tournament this weekend at the FSU Sand Volleyball Complex in Tallahassee, Fla.

The Gamecocks, who played at Florida State at the end of March, will face pairs from the fourth-ranked Seminoles, No. 10 Georgia State and ULM in pool play in their last road event of the season. Play is set to get underway at 9 a.m. on Friday and 8 a.m. on Saturday.

Friday:Pool play begins at 9 a.m. (FSU, Georgia State, ULM)
Saturday: Pool play begins at 8 a.m. (FSU, Georgia State, ULM)
On Twitter: @GamecockSandVB
Notes

South Carolina Overview
• The Gamecocks are in their inaugural season under the direction of head coach Moritz Moritz, who served as an assistant on the Carolina indoor staff the previous two seasons.
• South Carolina was the first SEC school to add the sport and 31st overall.
• The Gamecocks currently have a roster size of 18 players. Three of those individuals – Paige Wheeler, Litsa Darby and Megan Kent – played indoor volleyball for Carolina in 2012 before making the transition to sand only players this year.
• Twelve of the 18 players are sand only players, while six – Mikaela Christiaansen, Erin Neuenfeldt, Sarah Blomgren, Jordan Wilson-Talmadge, Helen Récaborde and KoKo Atoa-Williams – are crossover players from the indoor program.
• South Carolina boasts a diverse roster as it has players from 12 different states, including Virginia, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Nevada, California, Florida, Arizona, South Carolina, Georgia, Michigan, Maryland and New Jersey.

Back to Tallahassee
• The Gamecocks are heading back to Tallahassee, Fla., for the second time in less than a month for the Florida State Pairs Tournament. Play begins Friday at 9 a.m. and Saturday at 8 a.m. at the FSU Sand Volleyball Complex.
• South Carolina will have a total of six pairs competing this weekend against pairs from No. 4 Florida State, No. 9 Georgia State and ULM.
• The Gamecocks have faced the Seminoles (L, 5-0 and L, 5-0) and Panthers (L, 5-0 and L, 4-1) twice and ULM (L, 3-2) once this season in dual play.

Pairs Tournament Format
• Pairs from each team will be seeded on the first day based on the team’s ranking.
• South Carolina’s No. 1, 2 and 3 pairs will be seeded in three pools of four teams, while its No. 4, 5 and 6 pairs will be seeded in three more pools of four teams.
• The second day of pool play will have six pools of four teams with pairs seeded based off of finishes from Friday’s pool play, which includes matches won record, then sets won and then point ratio (points won divided by points lost).
• Points will be given to a team for the finish of each of its pairs. A Team Cup trophy will be awarded to the school with the most points accumulated for its top five pairs’ finishes.
• First place will receive the following points from each pool: Gold Pool 12.5, Silver Pool 10.5, Bronze Pool 8.5, AAA Pool 6.5, AA Pool 4.5 and A Pool 2.5.

Projecting the Lineup
• No. 1: Paige Wheeler/Megan Kent – The duo is 5-18 overall this season and 3-4 in pairs events.
• No. 2: Mikaela Christiaansen/Sarah Blomgren – Have put together a 10-11 overall record and a 4-3 mark in pairs action.
• No. 3: Jordan Loney/Jade Vitt – Head into the weekend with a 5-10 record and an 0-1 record in pairs play.
• No. 4: Litsa Darby/Chynna Ratner – Currently 1-9 overall and 0-1 in pairs play.
• No. 5: KoKo Atoa-Williams/Erin Neuenfeldt – Enter this weekend at 4-8 overall and 0-1 in pairs action.

Last Time Out
• South Carolina played last weekend at the Fiesta on Siesta Key pairs tournament in Siesta Key, Fla. The event is considered the largest collegiate sand volleyball event in the country.
• The Gamecocks’ top two pairs played in pool play on Saturday and bracket play on Sunday for the Siesta Key Pairs Challenge.
• South Carolina’s No. 2 pair of Mikaela Christiaansen and Sarah Blomgren went 2-1 in pool play to secure a spot in the Gold Bracket.
• Christiaansen and Blomgren handed Florida State’s Sarah Wickstrom and Fatma Yildirim their first loss this season to open bracket play before being eliminated in the quarterfinals.
• The Gamecock’s No. 1 pair of Paige Wheeler and Megan Kent was seeded in the Silver Bracket after going 1-2 in pool play. Wheeler and Kent won their first-round match but were eliminated in the quarterfinals as well.
• In the Fiesta on Siesta Key Team Cup competition, the Gamecock pair of Jordan Loney and Jade Vitt won the Bronze bracket, going 5-0 on the way to the title.

Scouting the Competition
• Florida State, the fourth-ranked team in the country, has a 16-1 record in dual play this season.
• Florida State’s top five pairs this season have gone a combined 97-18.
• The Seminoles’ top pair of Aurora Davis and Jace Pardon is 30-1 on the year, with the lone loss coming to No. 1 Southern California’s top pair.
• Davis and Pardon have lost only four sets this season.
• Georgia State is the 10-ranked team in the country and has a 13-4 dual record on the year.
• The Panthers have defeated South Carolina in both dual meetings this season, winning the first matchup 5-0 and the second 4-1.
• Georgia State’s No. 5 pair of Alexis Townsend and Delaney Rohan lost to South Carolina’s five pair of KoKo Atoa-Williams and Erin Neuenfeldt in three sets in the second meeting (21-13, 17-21, 16-14).
• ULM is 4-9 in duals this season, including a 3-2 win over South Carolina.
• The Warhawks top pair of Zuzana Markova and Marcela Araya is 15-4 on the season.
• ULM’s No. 2, 3, 4 and 5 pairs are a combined 17-48 this year.
• In their only matchup this season, ULM lost points at No. 3 and No. 5 to the Gamecocks.

A Bunch of Firsts
• The Gamecocks’ played their first-ever dual on March 8 against North Florida in St. Augustine, Fla.
• The No. 4 pair of KoKo Atoa-Williams and Litsa Darby was the first pair to take the court for South Carolina against North Florida (3/8).
• Atoa-Williams and Darby scored the first point and won the first set in school history, defeating North Florida’s Tanner Garbut and Cameron McGuire in the second set, 21-18 (3/8).
• South Carolina’s No. 2 pair of Sarah Blomgren and Mikaela Christiaansen became the first pair to win a match in school history, defeating North Florida’s Anna Budinska and Carie Whitmire in two sets, 21-19 and 21-18 (3/8).
• The Gamecocks recorded the program’s first win with a 3-2 victory over Jacksonville (3/8).
• In its first home match in school history, South Carolina defeated Oregon 4-1 (3/21).
• Litsa Darby and Morgan LaVigne secured the first dual point for the Gamecocks at the Carolina Sand Volleyball Complex with a win at No. 5 against Oregon, 21-16 and 21-10 (3/21).
• The first announced home attendance in program history was 1,102 for the Gamecocks’ match against Oregon (3/21).
• The Gamecocks played in their first pairs tournament on March 30 in Tallahassee, Fla.
• The pair of Paige Wheeler and Megan Kent defeated teammates Mikaela Christiaansen and Sarah Blomgren 2-1 for the first win in a pairs tournament (3/30).

Fastest Emerging Sport in NCAA History
• Sand volleyball is the fastest growing NCAA sport ever.
• The sport had just 16 teams in its inaugural season in 2012. A total number of 41 Division I schools have decided to add the sport since then.
• Now that the number of schools is over 40, the NCAA will sponsor an NCAA Championships when those programs have sponsored the sport for two years.

There’s a Difference?
• Although sand volleyball and indoor volleyball have plenty of similarities, they also have several differences, including a court size of 16m x 8m compared to 18m x 9m.
• Each team event is called a dual and consists of five pairs for each team.
• A winner is determined when a team wins three of the five pairs matches. Each pairs match is a best-of-three format. The first two sets are rally scoring to 21 points with the third set to 15 if necessary.
• There is no open-hand tipping in sand volleyball.
• The block touch does count as the first of three allowable touches in sand volleyball.
• With the weather elements, pairs swap courts every seven points in a 21-point set and every five points in a 15-point set.
• Sand coaches are only allowed to give instructions to players during timeouts and between sets.