April 13, 2017

COLUMBIA, S.C. – The No. 12 South Carolina beach volleyball team (17-7, 8-5 CCSA) hosts its final tournament of the regular season this weekend, with the Palmetto Invitational running April 14-15 at Wheeler Beach. The Gamecocks play host to UNC-Wilmington, Tulane, Jacksonville State and College of Charleston. The 6 p.m. Friday dual with Tulane will also be South Carolina’s Senior Night, where the program’s seven seniors will be honored.

SENIOR SALUTE
The program bids a fond farewell to seven seniors this weekend in the final tournament of 2017. Graduating this spring are the program’s first class of freshmen ever, Erin Neuenfeldt, Helen Recaborde, Jade Vitt and Jordan Wilson-Talmadge, three-year member Abby Feruck, and graduate students Adrianna Culbert and Katie Zimmerman. The senior night ceremony will begin at 5:30 p.m. Friday night, ahead of the 6 p.m. match against Tulane.

SCOUTING UNC WILMINGTON
The Seahawks are 11-7 this season, with a 3-3 record so far in April. UNCW has a fairly consistent lineup, with the top two pairs unchanged so far this season. Tanna Aljoe/Nicole Lott have been in the top spot, and are 11-7 so far as a pair. The team’s top pair so far in 2017 has been Sydney Alvis/Sarah Kelly, who have 14 wins between the threes and fours pair. Wilmington is in its first season as a member of the CCSA, and second year overall as a beach volleyball program.

SCOUTING TULANE
Tulane enters the tournament with an 18-9 overall record, powered by a 3-1 weekend at the Houston Baptist Invitational. The Wave have flirted with the AVCA Top 15 rankings early this season, and is currently receiving votes in the coaches poll. Last season, Tulane went 20-15 overall and do return the top two players from last season in Tea Juric (26 wins at the number one pairing) and Madeline Mertz (20 wins at the number two pairing). Juric has locked down the 2s position with current partner Kaylie McHugh, entering the weekend with a 22-5 record as a pair. Mertz and Lan Nguyen have been mainstays in the top flight, and are 15-12 this season. South Carolina leads the all-time series 4-1.

SCOUTING JACKSONVILLE STATE
The Gamecocks are 5-23, but with three of those wins coming in the last two weekends. Sophomores Katie Will and Jae-Lyn Visscher have been the team’s top pair for the majority of the year. This is the second year for the program, and Saturday will be the second meeting ever between the two Gamecock squads. South Carolina won the previous meeting 5-0.

SCOUTING COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON
The program has already matched its 2016 win total, coming into the weekend at 9-5 after a 9-14 overall record last season. The Cougars returned its winningest 2016 pair in sophomores Allison Beckman and Devon Rachel (12 wins at #5). Also returning is the team’s main #3 pair from 2016, Krissy Mummey and McKala Rhodes (nine wins), but with both members of the top pair graduating, the Cougars will need to find a new grouping to lead the way for 2017. Rhodes and Mummey are together in the two spot now, and are 9-5 coming into the weekend. Beckman and Rachel moved into the fours position and are 7-4 so far this year, but the team is still looking for a standout top pair after Maddie Hills and Katja Ehlers have just a 2-12 record at the ones.

PRESEASON NOTABLES

• The Gamecocks return seven players who were mainstays in the top five pairs last season. All seven returners won 10 or more dual matches, and six won at least 15 matches.
• 2017 will be the final go-around for the program’s first-ever freshman class. The group is made up of Erin Neuenfeldt, Helen Recaborde, Jade Vitt and Jordan Wilson-Talmadge.
• Entering the fold this season are nine newcomers hailing from seven different states. Seven are freshmen, while two join the program as graduate transfers – Adrianna Culbert and Hannah Sorensen.

NIFTY 50
Two Gamecocks have crossed the 50-win plateaus for the their careers here in the early going of 2017. Senior Jade Vitt became the second player in school history to break 50 after her win against Mercer on March 11, and junior Macie Tendrich followed right after with win No. 50 later that night over No. 11 Grand Canyon. Tendrich became the program’s first junior to reach 50 wins, after Sarah Blomgren and Vitt made the milestone as seniors.

FRESHMEN PHENOMS
South Carolina’s seven-member freshman class has been one of the biggest keys to the team’s rise in the national polls. To this point in the season, the Gamecocks have a freshman locked in to four of the top five pairs: Ali Denney and Katie Smith have each spent time at the number one flight, Carly Schnieder has won 17 matches in the third/fourth flights, and Franky Harrison has 15 wins with the fives pair. On top of the starters, the team has also seen Hannah Edelman, Caroline Skaff and Sarah Nacouzi play in most of the matches out of the exhibition slot.

GAMECOCKS IN THE NATIONAL RANKS
For the sixth straight week, the Gamecocks made the AVCA national rankings. After debuting at No. 15 on March 6, the team went as high as ninth in the poll. After a 2-2 weekend at the Staybridge Suites Invite, South Carolina is ranked 12th. In the weekly DiG Magazine Top-20 poll, Carolina also comes in at the No. 12 position.

CRUNCHING THE NUMBERS

• For the season, the Gamecocks as a team are out-hitting opponents .356 to .275.
• In sets won, the team is hitting .422, but in sets lost the percentage drops out to .233. Errors per set go from 5.7 in sets won up to 8.5 in sets lost.
• Offensively, South Carolina’s five pairs combine to average 26.3 kills and 4.1 aces per match, opponents stand at 22.1 and 2.9, respectively.
• The single-match high for kills this season is 41, put together by Macie Tendrich and Katie Zimmerman against Georgia State on April 9.
• The Gamecocks have four matches this season where a pair recorded double-figure aces: Macie Tendrich and Shannon Williams against North Florida (10, 3/6), Carly Schnieder and Julia Mannisto twice (11 vs. Jackonville, 10 vs. Tulane) and Adrianna Culbert and Ali Denney against Florida State (10, 3/28).

SOUTH CAROLINA STAT LEADERS (As of 4/12)

• Kills: Katie Smith (382)
• Attacks: Katie Smith (830)
• Hitting Percentage (Min. 450 Attacks): Shannon Williams (.416)
• Assists: Katie Zimmerman (333)
• Digs: Katie Smith (352)
• Service Aces: Julia Mannisto (68)
• Blocks: Adrianna Culbert (53)

WELCOME TO THE GREAT OUTDOORS!
After finding tremendous success converting Wichita State indoor volleyball standout Katie Zimmerman to the beach last season, the coaching staff will try that same formula this season with Adrianna Culbert. While playing indoors for Colorado State, Culbert earned 2015 Mountain West Player of the Year honors and was a three-time AVCA All-Pacific Northwest Region Team member for the Rams. Her experience indoors as a setter and pin hitter has prepared her well for the outdoor lifestyle, as Culbert has racked up an 18-6 record so far this season (11 wins in the 1s pair, seven in the 2s). Additionally, she leads the team in blocks (averaging one per set) and is hitting .411 with 4.8 kills and 6.15 assists per set.

YEAR TWO OF CONFERENCE ACTION HEATS UP
South Carolina’s 2017 slate will feature a number of brewing rivalries thanks to an expanded conference this season. The Coastal Collegiate Sports Association added two more programs this past fall, welcoming College of Charleston and UNC Wilmington to push the conference up to 10 teams. The Gamecocks finished 5-5 in CCSA matches during the regular season, and made the semifinal round of the conference’s first-ever postseason tournament. Carolina is currently 8-5 in conference matches so far this season.

CHALLENGING SCHEDULE AWAITS GAMECOCKS IN 2017
As the program heads into its fourth year, the competition level has been stepped up to another level. The Gamecocks have lined up seven regular season tournaments that will cover 28 duals. Of those 28 matches, 11 already have come against opponents in the AVCA Coaches top-15.

STRONG SUMMER EARNS GAMECOCK DUO ALL-AMERICA HONORS
Freshmen Carly Schnieder and Katie Smith come to Carolina with accomplished prep careers on the beach. The duo won the AAU Jr. National Beach Volleyball Championship as well as the USA Volleyball Junior Beach Volleyball Tour Championship. For their efforts, Carly and Katie made the six-member AVCA High School Beach All-America Team. South Carolina Beach Volleyball now has three first-team All-Americans on the roster, as the two freshmen joined junior Julia Mannisto, who was on the four-member 2014 All-America team. South Carolina is the only school in the country to have three AVCA Beach All-Americans on their roster.

ALL-TIME RECORDS

• South Carolina holds a 56-42 all-time record, dating back to 2014.
• The Gamecocks joined the CCSA for volleyball in 2016, and have an all-time conference record of 13-10.
• In home matches at Wheeler Beach, Carolina is 27-12.
• Moritz Moritz is entering his fourth season as head coach of the Gamecocks, spanning the young history of the program. He earned his 50th career win against UAB on March 19, 2017.