Volleyball Faces Two Top-15 Teams to Close Regular Season

COLUMBIA, S.C. – The final weekend of the regular season brings two of the biggest challenges South Carolina volleyball will face all season, as the team squares off with two teams ranked in the top 15 nationally in the span of three days. The Gamecocks host No. 11 Kentucky for the 2018 home finale Wednesday night at 7 p.m., and after a travel day on Thanksgiving the team will play at No. 13 Florida Friday at 7 p.m.

South Carolina is looking for one more win to achieve its first 20-win season in 10 years, but is currently in an 11-game losing streak to the Wildcats (since 2010) and a 23-game losing streak to the Gators (since 2006).

GAMECOCKS CHECK IN AT NO. 32 IN WEEKLY RPI RANKINGS
South Carolina dropped back to 32nd in the eighth RPI ranking of the season, released by the NCAA on Monday afternoon. The Gamecocks have a 9-6 record against team’s currently ranked in the top 100 of the RPI, with two wins over top 50 teams. South Carolina ended the 2017 season ranked 156th in the RPI standings.

SCOUTING NO. 11 KENTUCKY
The Wildcats are the only unbeaten team in SEC play, entering the week on a 19-game win streak and the number 11 ranking in the latest AVCA Top-25 coaches poll. Kentucky owns the top offense in the conference, and ranks third nationally with a .304 hitting percentage as a team. Reigning SEC setter of the week Madison Lilley guides the offense, and the sophomore is second in the SEC with 11.25 assists per set. She has one of the best left-side hitting duos at her disposal with junior Leah Edmond and freshman Alli Stumler. Edmond, a returning All-American, comes into the week with an average of 4.56 kills per set and a .290 hitting percentage and Stumler has stepped right into the starting lineup as a six-rotation hitter who averages 2.64 kills and 2.28 digs per set in SEC play. Defensively, the Wildcats had to replace two middles (Kaz Brown and Emily Franklin) who accounted for over 90 percent of their total blocks from 2017 and one of the nation’s top liberos in Ashley Dusek (4.44 digs/set). Gabby Curry has stepped into the libero role and averages 4.41 digs per set, and new starting middles Kendyl Paris and Brooke Morgan have combined for 1.90 blocks per set.

LAST TIME VS. THE WILDCATS…
The SEC-leading Wildcats held the Gamecock offense to its lowest hitting percentage of the season in a 3-0 sweep in Lexington on Oct. 28. Kentucky had 11.5 blocks as a team for the match, holding Mikayla Shields to just six kills on 32 attacks. Claire Edwards led the team with eight kills and four total blocks, but Kentucky had double-digit kill performances by Leah Edmond (11) and freshman Alli Stumler (10).

SCOUTING NO. 13 FLORIDA
The Gators lost a significant amount of contributors from last season’s NCAA championship finals team, but that hasn’t slowed the SEC leaders one bit. Florida lost over 1,000 kills from the 2017 roster, along with its libero, one of its two starting setters, and two of its three top blockers, but enter Friday with a 23-5 overall record and a 14-2 mark in conference play. The team is missing star freshman hitter Thayer Hall, who was leading the team with 3.00 kills per set but has been out with an injury since Oct. 21, but it has been an offense by committee all season, with five different hitters around two kills per set. A dominant pair of middles spark the team’s number-one-ranked defense, with junior Rachel Kramer and senior Taelor Kellum combining for 3.93 kills and 2.30 blocks per set. Combined with libero Allie Gregory’s four digs per set, the Gators are holding opponents to a .154 hitting percentage.

LAST TIME VS. THE GATORS…
South Carolina volleyball came just a few points shy of a signature win in the last meeting, falling to No. 11 Florida in five sets on Oct. 12. The Gamecocks rallied back from a 2-0 deficit but weren’t able to complete the comeback against the Gators. South Carolina had not won a set against the Gators since 2014, a span of five matches, but with 32 combined kills from Britt McLean and Jess Vastine, the team was able to claw back in to the match late but fell 15-12 in the fifth.

TEAM NOTABLES (OLE MISS, LSU)

• The win Friday snaps Ole Miss’ three-game win streak in the series.
• Aubrey Ezell surpassed 200 career service aces in the win over Ole Miss, finishing with six for the match. Just two other women in program history have reached the milestone: Cally Plummer (1998-2002) and Teri Montoya (1983-84).
• Ezell’s 20 digs vs. Ole Miss are a three-set high for the team this season and is her third 20-dig match of the season. The team’s 54 digs Friday are a season high for a three-set match.
• Mikayla Shields’ 15 kills against the Rebels are the most for a three-set match this season for South Carolina. During the team’s current four-game win streak, Shields is hitting .303 with 3.82 kills per set.
• South Carolina falls to 3-11 at LSU during the rally-scoring era, with the Tigers winning 10 of the last 11 meetings in Baton Rouge.
• South Carolina had three hitters finish with 15 or more kills for the night: Shields (19), McLean (18) and Furlong (18). The last time the team accomplished that feat was on Sept. 5, 2008 against Rhode Island.
• Not only were the team’s left-side attackers potent at LSU, they were efficient. McLean and Furlong combined for a .321 hitting percentage with 36 kills.
• Furlong set a career high with her 18 kills at LSU. Her previous best was 13 against Winthrop during her freshman season.
• After 10 kills vs. Ole Miss Friday, Furlong has back-to-back matches with double-digit kills for the first time since Sept. 12, 2015 – her freshman season.
• With her 68th service ace of the season Sunday, Aubrey Ezell moved into sole possession of sixth place for most in a single season in program history.
• Shields overcame early errors to finish with 19 kills and 15 digs in the match at LSU. That’s the junior’s seventh double-double of the season and 23rd of her career, good for 14th-most in program history.
• Courtney Koehler would also post a double-double, her 57 assists are a career high and her 13 digs marked her fifth double-double of the season. The junior now has 16 for her career.
• Shields’ 61 attacks at LSU are the most by a Gamecock since Juliette Thévenin’s 61 against Arkansas on Oct. 4, 2013.

GAMECOCKS SIGN THREE IN FALL SIGNING PERIOD
Tom Mendoza welcomed three signees for the 2019 season on Nov. 15, signing Holly Eastridge (Avon, Ind.), McKenzie Moorman (Elmhurst, Ill.) and Kylee Stokes (Phoenix, Ariz.) in the fall signing period. All three newcomers are on the Senior Aces Top 150 list, and each have seen high levels of success at the high school and club level.

“We’re really excited about this class,” Mendoza said. “I think they bring a combination of competing for playing time right away and pushing our returners, and also having the ability to be future leaders for us. Most importantly, we’re excited about what they bring from a culture standpoint and how high-quality they are as young women.”

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 15th member of the program ever to reach 1,000 kills, and the fourth-fastest (making it in her 80th career game). The last Gamecock to reach 1,000 kills was Juliette Thévenin in 2012.

AUBREY ACE-ZELL
Senior libero Aubrey Ezell has multiple service aces in 18 of the team’s 26 matches this season, and ranks third in the program’s all-time history for her career with 205. She currently leads the SEC and ranks second nationally with 0.70 aces/set, and is the NCAA’s active career leader. Her 68 aces this season are a career high, and are the most by any Gamecock since 1998. Accounting for every season where stats were kept – 1983 – Ezell currently ranks sixth overall. In her career, Ezell has two of the top 10 season totals in the SEC over the last decade.

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. Following the 2017 season, Mendoza was named the Big South’s and AVCA Southeast Region’s Coach of the Year. Already this year, South Carolina’s 19 wins are the most since 2008, have the most SEC wins since 2008, and have clinched at least a .500 record in conference play for just the fourth time in the rally-scoring era.

GAMECOCKS FIGHT THROUGH TOUGH SEC SLATE
South Carolina has reached its highest SEC win total in a decade, despite facing perhaps the toughest conference schedule of any school. Currently in fifth place, the Gamecocks have home-and-away series with five of the other top six teams in the conference standings. The combined record of the six SEC opponents South Carolina faces twice this season is 61-36 (.629), compared to a 34-63 (.350) record for the six teams the Gamecocks face just once.

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 a season for the era, her 963 going into the final week ranks 8th for a season, and she currently ranks fifth in the SEC with 9.93 assists per set.

IMPROVED LEFT SIDE ATTACK GUIDING OFFENSE
Junior Britt McLean and sophomore Jess Vastine have 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 (4.28 kills per set, .205 hitting percentage, .357 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). Since Nov. 2, the team has moved Courtney Furlong in as a front row substitution for Vastine, and the senior responded with one of the best stretches of her career. Furlong is hitting .239 with 2.20 kills per set over the last five matches, including a career-high 15 kills at LSU on Nov. 18.

IRON WOMAN 
Aubrey Ezell is on an impressive streak for the Gamecocks. The senior has not missed a single set in her career, entering the final week of the season on a stretch of 117 matches played. Currently, her 433 total sets are the most by any player in the rally-scoring era and her 117 matches rank third, but no other player has played as many consecutively.

WHEN THE GAMECOCKS WIN…

• The team is out-hitting the opposition .258 to .172, and are limiting opponents to 10.90 kills per set.
• Serving numbers are positive, with an average of 1.76 aces per set, 1.61 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 4.21 kills per set, a .324 hitting percentage and a .467 kill percentage.

WHEN THE GAMECOCKS LOSE…

• The offense is hitting just .195 in losses, opponents are hitting .290.
• Opponents have exploited the serve game, averaging 1.65 aces per set and just 1.41 service errors per ace (compared to 2.63 errors per ace in Gamecock wins).
• Production from Carolina’s middles dips dramatically. Robinson and Edwards combine to average just 2.94 kills per set with a .119 hitting percentage and .377 kill percentage in six losses.
• Mikayla Shields’ kill totals are comparable win or lose, but her efficiency drops considerably in losses. She hits .193 in the team’s seven losses compared to .309 in wins.
• Opponents are out-blocking South Carolina 2.52 to 1.42.

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.

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 32nd nationally for cumulative and 29th for average attendance and are 11-1 in the CVC. On Nov. 4, the team won the 200th home match in CVC history when it took down Auburn, 3-1.

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 seasons 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 816-637 (.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 193-269 (.418).
• In matches in the Carolina Volleyball Center, Carolina is 201-112 (.642) overall and 102-95 (.518) 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 66-25.