Skip to main content
Partner logo
Mobile Icon Link Mobile Icon Link Mobile Icon Link

March 19, 2017

PAIR RESULTS: FLORIDA GULF COAST DUAL

1: Culbert/Denney def. FGCU, 15-21, 21-15, 15-10

2: Smith/Zimmerman def. FGCU, 14-21, 21-11, 15-12

3: Mannisto/Schnieder def. FGCU, 20-22, 23-21, 15-7

4: Tendrich/Williams def. FGCU, 21-11, 21-19

5: Harrison/Vitt def. FGCU, 21-17, 21-12

Order of Finish: 4,5,2,3,1

PAIR RESULTS: UAB DUAL

1: Culbert/Denney def. UAB, 13-21, 21-16, 15-10

2: Smith/Zimmerman def. UAB, 21-15, 21-10

3: Mannisto/Schnieder def. UAB, 21-15, 21-15

4: Tendrich/Williams def. UAB, 21-15, 21-16

5: Harrison/Vitt def. UAB, 21-15, 21-14

Exhib: Edelman/Skaff def. UAB, 21-17, 21-18

Order of Finish: 4,5,3,2,1

BATON ROUGE, LA. – The Gamecock beach volleyball team bounced back from their first loss of the season with a pair of wins Sunday to close out the LSU Tiger Beach Challenge. South Carolina swept Florida Gulf Coast (6-1), 5-0, and ended the day with another sweep, this time coming against UAB (4-8). The 10th-ranked Gamecocks are now 11-1 this season, 4-1 in the CCSA.

The 5-0 victory over FGCU hid the true intensity of the match. South Carolina went up 2-0 after wins with the fours and fives pairings, but the Eagles stormed back and won the opening set at the one, two, and three positions to swing the momentum. Suddenly on the defensive, the Gamecocks were able to sweep all the second sets to put the overall team dual into a virtual sudden-death round.

The team of Katie Smith and Katie Zimmerman were able to come through first and clinch the match with a 15-12 win in the third to push the team score to 3-0. Carly Schnieder and Julia Manniston then won the threes pair 15-7, and Ali Denney and Adrianna Culbert won the ones pair soon after, 15-10, for the fortunate sweep.

After a short turnaround, the Gamecocks matched up with UAB. The fours team of Macie Tendrich and Shannon Williams, and the fives pair of Franky Harrison and Jade Vitt, both helped make the transition easy thanks to sweeps for a quick 2-0 advantage. Schnieder and Mannisto clinched the match with a sweep, the Katies sewed up the twos pair with a 21-15, 21-10 win, and Culbert and Denny capped the sweep with a three-set victory. The duo overcame a 21-13 loss in the first set, but won 21-16, 15-10 to make the comeback.

Notable

  • This is the fastest the program has ever reached double-digit wins. The 20-win team from last season reached its tenth win on March 22.
  • The Gamecocks are now 7-0 in the all-time series with UAB, and earned their first win ever against FGCU.
  • With her comeback win against FGCU, Julia Mannisto became the fifth Gamecock in program history to reach double-digit three-set wins in a career.

Quotable: Head Coach Moritz Moritz

“It was a very hard-fought weekend where we showed a lot of patience, composure, and tenacity. We are very happy with the way the whole team competed. We knew that none of our opponents would give us an inch, and that really stretched us to continue to improve throughout the weekend. Tulane is a very well-coached and skilled team so we had our work cut out for us right from the get go. LSU is a super physical and dynamic team, and while we didn’t come out on the winning side of it, our team gave a great effort.

Against both FGCU and UAB we came out strong in the four and five positions to establish a strong foothold and really put together some tough performances to win. We are continuing to learn more and more about ourselves through competition and will continue to be tested in the next several weeks. We have a great group that are giving each other everything they have and that is exciting to be a part of. Our central focus remains to get better every chance we can.”

Up Next

The Gamecocks now will prepare to host perhaps the strongest field of any east coast tournament this year, as the best of the best in NCAA beach volleyball decend on Wheeler Beach next weekend. The Gamecock Grand Slam, running Saturday, March 25-26, features defending national champion Southern California, national runner-up Florida State, Stetson (currently No. 12 in the country) and Georgia State (currently No. 8). Saturday will feature matches with Stetson at 1 p.m. and Southern Cal at 5. Sunday, the team takes on Florida State at 1 and Georgia State at 5.