March 18, 2016

COLUMBIA, S.C. – The South Carolina beach volleyball team will continue play at home as they host the Carolina Classic this weekend at Wheeler Beach.

The Gamecocks welcome four teams to Columbia, as Louisiana-Monroe, Florida Atlantic, North Florida and Jacksonville State will compete in the event. Carolina is slated to face ULM (11 a.m.) and FAU (p.m.) on Saturday, and UNF (1 p.m.) and JSU (5 p.m.) on Sunday.

Admission is free to all of South Carolina’s beach volleyball events. The complex is located in the Athletics Village directly behind the right-field wall of Carolina Softball Stadium. Fans and media can park for free in the Athletics Village garage.

South Carolina at a Glance
– The Gamecocks are in their third season under the direction of head coach Moritz Moritz after going 14-7 in the program’s second season in 2015.
– 11 players from last year’s roster are back.
– Carolina currently has a roster size of 20 players.
– Four of the players on this year’s roster ââ’¬” Sarah Blomgren, Darian Dozier, Aubrey Ezell, Emma Lock ââ’¬” are crossover players from the Carolina indoor program.
– South Carolina boasts a diverse roster as it has players from 11 different states, including Texas, Virginia, California, Florida, South Carolina, Maryland, Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, New Jersey and Missouri.

A Look Back at the Gamecock Challenge
– Carolina went 4-0 in their first home tournament.
– The Gamecocks recorded the program’s second sweep on the season as they defeated Coastal Carolina 5-0 in their final match of the tournament on Sunday.
– South Carolina defeated Mercer (4-1) and No. 18 Tulane (4-1) on Saturday and topped UAB (4-1) on Saturday, dropping only three sets on the weekend.
– Two pairs went undefeated in the tournament ââ’¬” No. 3 pair Macie Tendrich and Katie Reilly and No. 4 pair Jade Vitt and Delaney Wood.

Carolina in Home Duals – The Gamecocks are now 4-0 in home matches this season and 13-5 all-time at Wheeler Beach, including 3-2 in 2014 and 6-3 in 2015.
– In the first dual in Wheeler Beach history, the Gamecocks defeated Oregon 4-1 in front of 1,102 fans on March 21, 2014.

Scouting Louisiana-Monroe
– The Warhawks enter their fourth season as a program and are under the direction of Patrick Hiltz.
– Louisiana-Monroe enters the Carolina Classic at 1-4 on the season. ULM opened the year at the Tiger Beach Challenge and fell to LSU (5-0), Stetson (5-0), Georgia State (5-0) and Florida International (4-1). The Warhawks only victory came over New Orleans (5-0).
– ULM returned six members from last year’s squad and welcomed seven newcomers, with eight of the 13 members crossing over from the indoor program.

Series History vs. Louisiana-Monroe – The Warhawks lead the all-time series with the Gamecocks 2-1.
– ULM won the first-ever meeting between the teams on March 23, 2014 at the Gamecock Invitational 4-1.
– The teams split matches in 2015 when Carolina won 3-2 in the Carolina Classic on March 8 and Louisiana-Monroe won 4-1 on April 18 at the Battle on the Bayou.

Scouting Florida Atlantic
– Florida Atlantic enters their fifth season as a program and second season under Capri Grotowski.
– FAU enters the Carolina Classic at 3-1 on the year. The Owls opened their season at the Burrow Beach Bash. Florida Atlantic defeated North Florida (4-1), Georgia State (4-1) and Webber International (5-0), but fell to North Florida (3-2) in their second meeting in the tournament.
– Owls’ graduate student Delaney Clesen was named to the CCSA preseason Watch List. Clesen marked a 10-5 record last season.
– Clesen and partner Gabrielle Dischler are 4-0 this season and have won three out of four matches in straight sets.

Series History vs. Florida Atlantic
– The Gamecocks lead the all-time series with the Owls 2-0.
– Carolina faced FAU for the first time in the 2014 season and won 4-1 at the North Florida Invitational. The Gamecocks faced the Owls again in 2015 at the UNF Sand Invitational and won 5-0.

Scouting North Florida
– The Ospreys enter their fifth season and are under the direction of Samantha Dabbs.
– UNF enters the Carolina Classic at 5-2 on the year. North Florida opened the season at the Burrow Beach Bash where they dropped matches to Georgia State (4-1) and Florida Atlantic (4-1) but defeated Webber International (5-0) and won a rematch with Florida Atlantic (3-2).
– The Ospreys later picked up wins over UNC-Wilmington (5-0), Principia (5-0) and Spring Hill (4-1).
– UNF sophomore Jessalyn Kinlaw was tabbed to the Atlantic Sun Beach Volleyball preseason All-Conference Team.
– Osprey senior Megan Crawshaw was named to the Atlantic Sun 2016 Watch List.

Series History vs. North Florida
– The Ospreys lead the all-time series with the Gamecocks 2-0.
– The two teams first met in 2014 on March 8 when UNF defeated Carolina 4-1 and the teams met for the second time in 2015 on March 14 at the UNF Sand Invitational where North Florida edged South Carolina 3-2.

Scouting Jacksonville State
– The Gamecocks are entering their inaugural season, becoming the school’s 17th varsity sport.
– Jacksonville State is lead by head coach Terry Gamble, who is in his second season as the head coach of the indoor volleyball program.
– JSU has 12 players on the roster, including one junior, four sophomores and seven freshmen.

Gamecocks on the SEC Network+
– Five Gamecock duals will be featured on the SEC Network+ digital platform during the 2016 season.
– Carolina’s home duals against College of Charleston on March 22, UAB and TCU on March 26 and Carson-Newman and Jacksonville on March 27 will be streamed on SEC Network+.
– SEC Network+ is exclusively available on SECNetwork.com and via WatchESPN through participating cable and satellite providers.

Schedule Gets Tougher
– Carolina will face eight teams ranked in the top 20 in the DiG Magazine Preseason Poll in 2016, including six teams that played in the 2015 AVCA Sand Volleyball National Championships.
– No. 1 Southern Cal, No. 5 FIU, No. 6 Florida State, No. 8 Georgia State, No. 10 Stetson, No. 15 Grand Canyon and No. 18 are all on Carolina’s schedule this season.

NCAA Championship
– Division I, II and III have approved beach volleyball as a championship and have made it a full-fledged NCAA Championship. This is the 90th NCAA championship.
– The NCAA also made the decision to change the name of the sport from sand volleyball to beach volleyball based on membership support from all three divisions’ championship committees, AVCA and USA Volleyball.
– The fastest emerging sport in NCAA history had 50 schools sponsoring the sport as of January 2015.
– The sport had just 16 teams in its inaugural season in 2012. Carolina was the first school in the SEC to add the sport, followed by LSU.
– The 2016 championship will feature an eight-team bracket with a double elimination format and will be held in early May in Gulf Shores, Ala.

There’s a Difference?
– Although beach 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 beach volleyball.
– The block touch does count as the first of three allowable touches in beach 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.
– Beach coaches are only allowed to give instructions to players during timeouts and between sets.