Beach Volleyball Splits Opening Day of Gamecock Grand Slam
March 17, 2018
COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina’s beach volleyball team overcame adversity to kick off its Gamecock Grand Slam tournament on a positive note Saturday. The team defeated No. 11 Georgia State 4-1, then took top-ranked Pepperdine (13-2) to the wire in a 4-1 loss. The Gamecocks are now 10-2 overall for the season.
In the early match with Georgia State, South Carolina had to regroup emotionally after losing sophomore Hannah Edelman to injury during her match in the fives pairing. She and partner Franky Harrison had taken the opening set before she was injured in set two and forfeited the point to Georgia State (11-4). The Gamecocks split the opening round of matches thanks to a straight-set win from Macie Tendrich and Leah Perri.
The Gamecocks rallied for their teammate in the top three flights to pull out the win. Cadie Bates and Katie Smith kicked it off with a solid 21-18, 21-15 win in the second flight, but the Panthers would force third sets on courts one and three. Ali Denney and Shannon Williams pulled out another three-set victory — their fifth of the season — to clinch the overall team win, and Julia Mannisto and Carly Schnieder put an exclamation point on the win with a 21-16, 14-21, 15-5 win on court three.
The evening match pit South Carolina against a Pepperdine team that came in on an 11-game win streak, with 10 of those 11 wins coming over ranked opponents. Tendrich and Perri put the Gamecocks in good position early after securing a 23-21, 21-13 win in the fifth flight, but the Waves were able to hold off strong efforts by the second and third pairs for Carolina to squelch any chance of upset.
NOTABLE
- The Gamecocks are now 6-2 against AVCA Top-20 opponents this season.
- This was South Carolina’s third dual ever against a national number-one-ranked team. The two previous meetings were with Southern California last season; once in the regular season and once in the opening round of the NCAA tournament.
- Prior to Saturday, Katie Smith and Pepperdine’s Corinne Quiggle faced off last May in the USA Volleyball Collegiate Pairs Championship. Smith, paired with Adrianna Culbert, lost to Quiggle and Brittany Howard, 15-21, 21-15, 15-10.
- The Gamecocks have won three-straight duals with Georgia State, over a span of four weekends, after going through the first four seasons in program history without a win over the Panthers.
- Shannon Williams and Ali Denney have gone three sets with Georgia State in all three meetings this season, winning all three. The pair are now 8-4 overall this season, with five of those wins coming in three sets.
- Caroline Skaff and Jess Vastine moved into the starting five for the team’s dual with Pepperdine. It was Vastine’s fourth time in the starting lineup, and Skaff’s first start this season.
UP NEXT
The team will matches up with No. 7 LSU and Jacksonville State on Sunday at 1 and 5, respectively, to close out the weekend. Attendance at Wheeler Beach is free all season long.
