Shields Named to Academic All-District Team

Nov. 16, 2017

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Sophomore right side hitter Mikayla Shields was named to the 2017 College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-District Team Thursday afternoon. The teams recognize the nation’s top student-athletes for their combined performances athletically and in the classroom.

Shields carries a 3.71 grade point average as a Biological Sciences major, is the 13th Gamecock in program history to make an All-District team, and just the fourth sophomore.

On the court, the Orlando, Fla. native has enjoyed one of the best starts to a career of any player in program history. In 2016, she made the SEC All-Freshman team and made the AVCA’s All-Region honorable mention team after becoming the first Gamecock in 10 years to lead the team in both kills and hitting percentage. After spending the summer with Team USA’s U19 team, winning gold at the Pan American Cup, she returned to campus and has seen her career soar even higher.

So far this season, Shields has increased her kills per set from 3.25 as a freshman to 3.65, and already doubled her entire 2016 total for digs and ranks second on the team with a 2.47 average per set. Through 26 matches, she has 10 double-doubles, the fifth-most of any SEC player.

On Nov. 8 against Missouri, Shields set a career high with 29 kills, and on Nov. 12 she broke 700 career kills. She is just the third sophomore in the program’s 45-year history to make it to 700 kills in just her first two seasons. The others were all-time kills leader Lori Rowe (in 1984), and current associate head coach Shonda Cole (in 2004).

The team begins its penultimate weekend of the season on Friday night, hosting Alabama at 7 p.m. for Alumni Night. Gamecock greats from years past will be honored before the match. To close out the weekend, Carolina travels out to Texas A&M for a noon first serve with the Aggies.