Sept. 7, 2006

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Match #9: South Carolina (7-1, 0-0) vs. St. John’s (7-0, 0-0)
Sept. 8 • Columbia, S.C. • 10 a.m.
Live Stats: • Radio: USCsports.com • TV: None

Match #10: South Carolina (7-1, 0-0) vs. #10 Southern California (6-0, 0-0)
Sept. 8 • Columbia, S.C. • 8 p.m.
Live Stats: • Radio: USCsports.com • TV: None

Match #11: South Carolina (7-1, 0-0) vs. Florida State (5-0, 0-0)
Sept. 9 • Columbia, S.C. • 1:30 p.m.
Live Stats: • Radio: USCsports.com • TV: None

ABOUT THE WEEK
• With a quarter of its regular-season matches already in the books, the South Carolina volleyball team opens its home slate Friday hosting the Gamecock Invitational. The Gamecocks open the event playing St. John’s at 10 a.m. and then No. 10 Southern California at 8 p.m. South Carolina takes on Florida State in the final match of the tournament Saturday at 1:30 p.m. Florida State and Southern California meet at noon on Friday and FSU plays St. John’s at 5:30 p.m. Before the Gamecocks’ Saturday match, Southern California and St. John’s square off at 11 a.m.

• Southern California is a team with which South Carolina coach Nancy Somera is very familiar. She played for the Women of Troy from 1985 to 1988 and served as an assistant coach from 1991 to 1998. After taking the head coaching vacancy at Oregon State in 1999, Somera’s teams faced off with her alma mater twice a year. Friday marks the 13th time Somera has faced Southern California in her career.

• South Carolina is 0-1 against Southern California, losing a 3-0 decision in 2003. The Gamecocks and Red Storm of St. John’s have never played, and Florida State owns a 16-9 edge over South Carolina.

• All four teams in the Gamecock Invitational have enjoyed a great deal of success in 2006. The 10th-ranked Southern California Women of Troy are 6-0, which includes wins against Utah and Tennessee. Florida State is 5-0 after knocking off Stetson, South Alabama and Eastern Illinois to win the FSU Invitational. The Seminoles have yet to lose a game this year. St. John’s defeated Stony Brook 3-0 on Wednesday evening to run its record to 7-0. The Red Storm also have not lost a game in 2006.

SHE CAN DO IT ALL
Setter Iris Santos is perhaps one of the most versatile players in school history. In 2005, she became the first Gamecock to record at least 200 kills, 200 digs and 500 assists in a single season. During her career at South Carolina, she has played virtually every position except middle blocker. Santos also is one of only nine Gamecocks to rack up at least 1,000 assists during her career. With 427 career kills, Santos is set up to become only the second player in USC history with at least 1,000 assists and 500 kills. The other was Ashley Edlund, who accumulated a record 5,177 assists and 517 kills. Santos had the distinction of posting two triple-doubles last season within less than a week of each other against North Carolina (14 kills, 40 assists, 13 digs) and Houston (12 kills, 57 assists, 13 digs). She came close to picking up her third career triple-double this season against Western Carolina with seven kills, 32 assists and 13 digs.

CHASING NANCY
South Carolina coach Nancy Somera certainly left her mark on Southern California’s career records. Her 1,536 digs ranks second, however, current libero Debora Seilhamer needs just 52 more to tie Somera. With three matches this weekend and Seilhamer’s current 6.70 digs per game average, there is a good chance Somera will drop to the No. 3 position.

TOP GAMECOCK
• Outside hitter Shonda Cole is back for her senior year with the Gamecocks after training with USA Volleyball for the second summer in a row. She is the only South Carolina volleyball player to train with USA Volleyball and is poised to finish among the top five in career kills, attacks and kills per game at USC. Cole is currently ranked fourth in school history for kills with 1,237, and just 57 more will catapult her into sole possession of third. Her 3.83 career kills per game ranks first, and Cole’s 2,947 attacks is the sixth-best mark at USC.

• Cole broke a nearly 23-year-old record in the Gamecocks’ second match of the 2006 season against TCU in Fort Worth, Texas. She ripped 37 kills against the Horned Frogs to break the previous single-match standard of 32 that was set by Lori Rowe against Louisville on Oct. 28, 1983.

• Cole nearly rewrote the records book again against Clemson after blasting 37 kills at TCU. She tallied 36 in a 3-2 victory against the Tigers.

A FAMILY AFFAIR
Head coach Nancy Somera is in her second season with South Carolina. Her top assistant, Ben Somera, also is her husband and coached alongside her at Oregon State before the couple decided to move to Columbia. The Someras are not alone at the NCAA Division I level as a husband-wife coaching duo, as others include Texas A&M head coach Laurie Corbelli and associate head coach John Corbelli, and Missouri head coach Wayne Kreklow and associate head coach Susan Kreklow.

BYE-BYE SEC TOURNAMENT
The SEC is no longer holding a post-season conference tournament to decide which school receives the league’s automatic NCAA berth. Instead, a double round-robin format during the regular season will decide the champion, giving each team 20 conference matches (Vanderbilt does not sponsor volleyball). The SEC first sponsored volleyball and a post-season tournament in 1979.

ALL-TOURNAMENT ACCOLADES
• Seniors Shonda Cole and Iris Santos were both named to the TCU Molten/La Quinta Invitational All-Tournament Team in Fort Worth, Texas, following a 3-1 weekend for the Gamecocks. Cole racked up 82 kills in four matches, averaging 5.86 kills per game and hitting .408 (82-20-152). She also led the team in blocks with a per game average of 1.21 and dug 2.29 balls. Santos put up 12.15 assists, 1.15 kills, 1.54 digs and 0.85 blocks per game in USC’s four contests.

• Cole earned MVP honors at the Big Orange Bash in Clemson, S.C., after leading the Gamecocks to the tournament title with a 4-0 record. Cole averaged 5.93 kills while hitting .381 (83-24-155) and adding 1.71 digs and 0.64 blocks. She ripped 36 kills in USC’s 3-2 victory against Clemson. Santos made the all-tourney squad in Clemson as well with 11.20 assists, 1.40 kills, 2.67 digs and 0.60 blocks. Sophomore Belita Salters also made the team, a first for her career. She averaged 1.86 kills and 0.86 blocks while hitting .353 (26-8-51) over the course of the tournament.

A BUSY SCHEDULE
• The Gamecocks have 32 regular-season matches scheduled for 2006, which is the most since 1991 when USC had 36. South Carolina played its most matches in one season in 1977 with 56, the same year it posted a record 47 victories. The 32 matches is nothing new for coach Nancy Somera, as her Oregon State teams played the same amount in 2000 and 2003.

• At the Big Orange Bash tournament in Clemson, S.C., South Carolina played the host Tigers at 7 p.m. on a Thursday and then played at 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. the next day, giving the Gamecocks three matches in less than 24 hours.

SOMERA CLOSING IN ON 100
USC head coach Nancy Somera is closing in on the 100-win plateau for her career thanks to a 97-113 record over eight seasons. At South Carolina, Somera has accumulated a 20-15 mark in two years and is 271-177 in her 16 seasons of collegiate coaching.

GO WITH YOUR INSTINCTS
When coaches Nancy and Ben Somera decided to take over the South Carolina volleyball program, they were able to convince setter Petra Lorenzi to come with them. The Someras recruited Lorenzi while working at Oregon State and Lorenzi enrolled at South Carolina after finishing her high school career at Del Norte in Crescent City, Calif.

PLENTY OF IN-STATE TALENT
Five of South Carolina’s 14 players hail from the Palmetto State. The most tenured of the group is junior middle blocker Crystal Johnson (Camden, Camden H.S.), followed by sophomore middle blocker Belita Salters (Lake City, Lake City H.S.). Three of the Gamecocks’ five newcomers are from South Carolina, with Channing Cantrell (Pickens, Pickens H.S.), Sarah Cline (Rock Hill, Northwestern H.S.) and Christine Hauer (Aiken, Aiken H.S.).

HER NUMBERS ARE HARD TO BEAT
Coach Nancy Somera put up some impressive numbers during her playing days at Southern California from 1985 to 1988. She is ranked sixth in career kills (1,534), eighth in kills per game (3.65), third in attacks (3,984), second in digs (1,536), third in digs per game (3.66) and first in aces (170) and aces per game (0.41).

USC’S NCAA HISTORY
South Carolina made its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament in 1984 after it won the Metro Conference Tournament. The Gamecocks’ other bids came in 1995, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001 and 2002. The Garnet & Black has made it as far as the second round of the tournament four times, coming in 1995, 1997, 2000 and 2002.

PAGING DOCTOR JOHNSON, DOCTOR THOMSON
While junior middle blocker Crystal Johnson still has one year of eligibility remaining after this season, she is not planning on using it. Instead, Johnson will graduate and plans to enter medical school. Senior defensive specialist Alexcis Thomson also has plans to attend medical school after this season.

IN THE RANKINGS
The Gamecocks received a vote in this season’s AVCA preseason poll. South Carolina is hoping to get back into the top 25 this season, a place it has not been since Dec. 2, 2002, when the team held a No. 24 national billing. USC’s best ranking is 17th, which came on Oct. 1, 2001.

LOOKING TO GET BACK ON TRACK
South Carolina is looking to end its streak of three consecutive losing seasons in 2006. The Gamecocks ended on a positive note in 2005 with three straight victories, one of which came against NCAA Tournament squad Alabama. USC was a combined 37-47 (.440) from 2003 to 2005 after going 187-82 (.695) from 1994 to 2002. South Carolina is well on its way in 2006, sitting at 7-1 after eight matches.

VANDEN HULL BACK FOR 2006
Senior outside hitter Lynae Vanden Hull had her junior year cut unexpectedly short when she tore an ACL while warming up for South Carolina’s match at Clemson. The 2003 SEC Freshman of the Year has completely rehabilitated her knee and is making a positive impact on the squad this season, ranking third on the team in kills per game with 2.28 and hitting .263 (66-21-171).