Volleyball Home for Matches Friday and Sunday

COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina volleyball is back home for a full weekend of action, starting Friday night with a matchup with No. 20 Missouri (20-4, 10-2 SEC) at 7. The Gamecocks (15-6, 6-5 SEC) are looking to snap a losing streak as well as end Mizzou’s eight-game win streak. The team closes the weekend on Sunday with a 1:30 match against Auburn (10-12, 3-9 SEC). Both events will air online through the SEC Network+.

Fans should note that, due to the women’s basketball scrimmage on Friday night, it will cost $10 for parking in Lot B (at the corner of Blossom and Lincoln Streets). Local garages will also be subject to event rates. Please see the parking map below for more information.

GAMECOCKS REMAIN IN RPI TOP 30
South Carolina remain at No. 29 in the fifth RPI ranking of the season, released by the NCAA on Monday afternoon. South Carolina ended the 2017 season ranked 156th in the RPI standings.

SCOUTING MISSOURI
Missouri lost four starters from last season’s NCAA tournament Sweet 16 team, but injected the roster with talent thanks to six college transfers and are now 20-4 overall and on an eight-match win streak. Kylie Deberg, Annika Gereau and Tyanna Omazic came in from Illinois, Jaden Newsome from Colorado, Katie Turner from William & Mary and Sun Wenting from Miami Dade junior college. Currently, Deberg leads the team with 3.53 kills per set, Omazic has added 2.09 kills and 1.05 blocks per set as a middle, and Newsome serves as a setter in Missouri’s 6-2 offense (4.36 assists/set). They’ve been strong additions to a team that also returned all-american middle blocker Alyssa Munlyn, who currently ranks sixth in NCAA for total blocks, and left side attacker Leketor Member-Meneh (3.04 kills/set, .280 hitting percentage).

LAST TIME VS. THE TIGERS…
The Gamecocks allowed Missouri to hit .402 back on Oct. 5, the highest allowed by the Gamecocks this season, and the Tigers swept on their home floor. South Carolina had just one total block, the fewest in any match since Oct. 30, 2015, and hit just .208 in the loss.

SCOUTING AUBURN
Auburn comes in with just a 10-12 overall mark this season, but have number of strong wins in the non-conference schedule and swept last weekend’s SEC matchups. The Tigers took down Florida State, Kansas, and mid-major powers Kennesaw State and High Point in the summer, but have struggled in SEC play. The team is just 3-9 entering the weekend, including a loss at home to Texas A&M on Wednesday night. Auburn did win both of its matches last weekend, beating Ole Miss and Arkansas at home. The team has one of the deepest offenses in the SEC, with five different hitters averaging well over two kills per set. On defense, Anna Stevenson ranks third in the SEC with 1.30 blocks per set, but the team is still developing its replacement for standout libero Jesse Earl, who averaged 5.19 digs per set before graduating last season.

LAST TIME VS. THE TIGERS…
South Carolina split the season series with Auburn last season, with the home team losing in both meetings. The Tigers won 3-1 in Columbia on Oct. 29, holding South Carolina to a .088 hitting percentage in the win. The Gamecocks had a season-high 14 blocks in the match, but allowed Auburn to double them up on kills over the final two sets, 30-15, to fall. After taking the first set, South Carolina lost 29-27 in the second despite having set point, and Auburn took advantage to roll to the win.

WEEK 6 NOTABLES

• With her 11 kills against Tennessee, Mikayla Shields became the fifth junior in the program’s 46-year history to reach 1,000 career kills. She is the fourth-fastest to reach the milestone, in this, her 79th career game. The last Gamecock to reach 1,000 kills was Juliette Thevenin in 2012.
• Jess Vastine led the team with 12 digs at Tennessee, her fifth match this season in double digits.
• Claire Edwards’ eight kills against the Vols were her most since Sept. 30, a span of six matches, and her .538 hitting percentage is her highest in SEC play this season.
• The team’s two total blocks at Tennesssee are the second-lowest total of the season.
• The loss snaps a four-game win streak against Tennessee.
• With a service ace in the first set at Kentucky, Aubrey Ezell set a rally-scoring era record for most in a single season, with 54. She broke a tie with Megan Hosp’s 2002 total, and now has the most in season by any Gamecock since Cally Plummer in 1998.
• Among SEC individuals, Ezell’s 54 aces are tied for the second-most in a single season over the last decade.
• The team enjoyed solid bench production from left sides Courtney Furlong and Alicia Starr against Kentucky. The pair came in and combined for seven kills on 16 attacks with zero errors.
• Kentucky was able to lock down Mikayla Shields Sunday, holding her without a kill until her 13thattack, and keeping her to six total with a .000 hitting percentage for the match. Shields would, however, have a pair of service aces in the match, moving her into the top-20 for most career aces for the rally-scoring era.
• Sunday’s win was the 11th straight overall for Kentucky in the all-time series. The Wildcats have not lost at home to South Carolina since 2003, a streak of 13 matches.
• With 12 more service errors Sunday at Kentucky, South Carolina now has 68 errors and just 22 aces over the last five matches.

SHIELD BEARER
Last season, Mikayla Shields became the third sophomore in the program’s 46-year history to make it to 700 career kills. In the Oct. 24 match at Tennessee, Shields cracked the 1,000 kill plateau, making her the fifth Gamecock in program history to reach 1,000 as a junior. She is the fourth-fastest to reach the milestone, making it in her 80th career game. The last Gamecock to reach 1,000 kills was Juliette Thevenin in 2012.

AUBREY ACE-ZELL
Senior libero Aubrey Ezell has at least three aces in 10 of the team’s 21 matches, and ranks third in the program’s all-time history for her career with 191. She currently leads the SEC and ranks second nationally with 0.72 aces/set, and is the NCAA’s active career leader. Her 54 aces this season are a career high, and are the most by any Gamecock since Cally Plummer’s total of 86 in 1998, coming in the sideout-scoring era. Among SEC rivals, only three other individuals have reached 50 aces in a single season over the last decade. Only Carli Snyder (57, 2017) and Evie Grace Singleton (54, 2016) have more than Ezell’s current total. For her career, Ezell has three of the top 10 single-season totals in the SEC over the last 10 seasons.

MENDOZA ENJOYING STRONG 1ST SEASON at SC
Tom Mendoza became the 13th head coach in Gamecock volleyball’s 46-year history on Jan. 3, 2018. Mendoza spent 2016 and 2017 as head coach at High Point University, where he led the Panthers to back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances. In 2017, the Panthers were in rare company as a mid-major program earning an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. In the postseason, Mendoza was named the Big South’s and AVCA Southeast Region’s Coach of the Year. Already this season, South Carolina has surpassed its overall, SEC, and home win total from 2017.

EZELL IN A CLASS OF HER OWN
Aubrey Ezell passed 175 career aces during the team’s win over Mississippi State on Friday, Sept. 21, making her the only player in the program’s 45-year history to reach 2,000 assists, 1,000 digs and 175 aces in a career.

KOEHLER SETTING HER SIGHTS ON SC RECORDS
Junior Courtney Koehler has guided the team’s offense as its lone setter for the past two seasons, and her production has her leaping up the program’s record book. The Asheville, N.C. native moved into the program’s all-time top 10 for career assists this season and she currently sits eighth overall in Carolina’s 46-year history and second among setters in the rally-scoring era (since 2001). Koehler’s 2017 total of 1,123 assists put her third in for most in the era, and she currently ranks fifth in the SEC with 9.71 assists per set this season.

MCLEAN, VASTINE REMEDY LEFT SIDE ATTACK 
Junior Britt McLean arrived in Columbia this summer after two seasons with Minnesota, and sophomore Jess Vastine saw considerable playing time as a freshman at Carolina, but was relegated to a largely back-row role. The duo has already given a facelift to one of South Carolina’s weaknesses in 2017 – consistent offensive numbers from the left-side attack. McLean and Vastine’s combined numbers (4.58 kills per set, .204 hitting percentage, .360 kill percentage) compare favorably to the combined numbers of the Gamecocks’ four main left-side hitters from 2017 (5.54 k/s, .153 hitting percentage, .308 kill percentage). 

IRON WOMAN 
Aubrey Ezell is on an impressive streak for the Gamecocks. The senior has not missed a single set in her career, entering Friday on a stretch of 112 matches played. Currently, her 411 total sets ranks 8th in the rally-scoring era and 111 matches rank 10th, but no other player has played as many consecutively.

WHEN THE GAMECOCKS WIN…

• The team is out-hitting the opposition .262 to 169, and committing 1.11 fewer attack errors per set than in losses.
• Serving numbers are positive, with an average of 1.83 aces per set and just 1.56 service errors per ace and a team serving percentage of .879.
• The team sees significant numbers from its middle hitters, as Claire Edwards and Mikayla Robinson combine for 4.28 kills and a .315 hitting percentage.

WHEN THE GAMECOCKS LOSE…

• The offense is hitting just .183 in losses, opponents are hitting .295.
• Opponents have exploited the serve game, averaging 1.81 aces per set and just 1.42 service errors per ace (compared to 2.74 errors per ace in Gamecock wins).
• Production from Carolina’s middles dips dramatically. Robinson and Edwards combine to average just 3.00 kills with a .119 hitting percentage in six losses.
• Opponents are out-blocking South Carolina 2.64 to 1.43.

DOUBLE-DOUBLE THE TROUBLE
After going for 11 kills and 13 digs against Florida on Oct. 12, Mikayla Shields moved past Kelly Morrow (1993-96) and up to 17th in program history for career double-doubles. Teammate Aubrey Ezell ranks 15th on the career list with 22 – only six Gamecocks total have gone over 20 career double-doubles in the last 15 years.

ROBINSON TALLIES 2ND SEC HONOR FOR 2018
Sophomore Mikayla Robinson earned her second Defensive Player of the Week honor of the season on Monday, Oct. 1, after the middle blocker averaged 2.12 blocks and 2.50 kills per set in wins at Alabama and at Georgia. She is the first Gamecock since Paige Wheeler in 2011 to earn defensive honors twice in a single season. Robinson leads the team with 1.00 blocks per set and a .297 hitting percentage.

SEPTEMBER TO REMEMBER
The Gamecocks finished the month of September with a perfect 9-0 record that included three road wins. The last team to go undefeated through the entire month of September was the 1983 squad under head coach Elain Mozingo, who went on to finish the season 34-4.

SOBER OCTOBER
The Gamecocks followed up with a 2-5 mark in October, adding to an spooky trend for the team. Over the last decade, South Carolina’s record for the month of October is just 23-62 (.271). The team’s best record during this stretch was a 4-5 mark during the 2014 campaign. The team has not won more than two matches in October since then.

MCLEAN BRINGS POSTSEASON EXPERIENCE TO SC
Britt McLean transferred to South Carolina after two seasons at Minnesota. She comes to the team after ending the 2017 on a high note with the Gophers, playing every set of their three NCAA tournament matches. In the opening round against North Dakota, McLean led the team with 13 kills and a .355 attack percentage in a sweep. In her two seasons at Minnesota, McLean played in nine matches.

HOME-COURT ADVANTAGE
The Gamecocks have made the Carolina Volleyball Center one of the toughest venues in the country over the last three seasons. Of the program’s top ten crowds all time in the CVC, nine have come in the last three years and three of the top five have come this season, including a program-record crowd of 3,458 at the Clemson match on Aug. 25. This season, the Gamecocks rank 30th nationally for cumulative and 28th for average attendance and are 8-1 in the CVC.

GAMECOCKS EARN WIN #800
South Carolina’s 3-0 sweep of Clemson on Aug. 25 was the 800th victory in the program’s history. Along the way, the team has 17 season with 20 wins or more and seven appearances in the NCAA tournament.

PHEISTER ROUNDS OUT GAMECOCK STAFF
Joining first-year head coach Tom Mendoza and fourth-year assistant coach Shonda Cole on the bench this fall will be Ethan Pheister, who spent the last three seasons as an assistant at LSU, working with the setters and helping coordinate the offense. The Tigers turned themselves around in 2017, going from nine wins in the previous season to 20 wins and an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. Pheister had prior experience coaching in the SEC in 2012, helping Arkansas make the NCAA tournament.

ALL-TIME RECORDS

• South Carolina holds an 812-636 (.562) all-time record, dating back to 1973. The team’s 800th win of all time came on Aug. 25, 2018 against Clemson.
• The Gamecocks joined the SEC for volleyball in 1991, and have an all-time conference record of 191-268 (.418).
• In matches in the Carolina Volleyball Center, Carolina is 198-112 (.639) overall and 99-95 (.510) in SEC matches.
• Tom Mendoza became the program’s 13th head coach on Jan. 3, 2018. This is his third season overall as a head coach, with a career record of 62-24.