Gamecock Beach Volleyball Holds Team Scrimmage

COLUMBIA, S.C. – The South Carolina beach volleyball team wrapped up its preseason training with its annual Garnet vs. Black intra-squad scrimmage on Saturday. The Gamecocks showed their depth in another competitive dual, with Team Black coming back for a 3-2 victory over Team Garnet.

“I think we learned some good stuff today, we’re still looking for a little bit for our identity but I think we answered a couple more questions over the last few weeks,” head coach Moritz Moritz said. “It does get tough when you train against each other because you learn their tendencies so much, so really the test will come when we get to play someone else and see where we stack up.”
 
Garnet built an early lead in the first round, with straight-set wins from Delaney Wood and Sarah Nacouzi, and Quinn Fulton and Cadie Bates. In the second wave, Black fought its way to three tight wins to erase the 2-0 deficit. Franky Harrison and Carly Schnieder started the comeback with a 21-19, 21-18 win, and Whitley Ballard and Lauryn Gillis followed soon after with a 21-19, 21-19 victory. Katie Smith and Lydia Dimke capped the win with a three-set win over Shannon Williams and Bates. After splitting the first two sets, Smith and Dimke won 15-12 in the third to cap the scrimmage.
 
Moritz was pleased with the level of play on Saturday, as the team prepares for opening weekend next Saturday.
 
“We have a lot of great tools and potential combinations that really give us a lot of depth and competitiveness,” he said. “There’s definitely a lot of fine-tuning we still need to do but again that’s not something we’ll be able to see competing against ourselves, that’ll be something we really flush out when we get to play somebody else.”
 
To open the season, the team travels to Tallahassee for a two-day tournament at Florida State, Feb. 23-24. It will be a stacked field, with the Gamecocks scheduled to face sixth-ranked Cal Poly, No. 7 LSU and the host Seminoles, who were the national runners-up in 2018 and come into the season ranked third in the country.
 
RESULTS
Delaney Wood/Sarah Nacouzi (Garnet) def. Louise Kooiman/AJ Baumann (Black), 21-15, 21-15
Quinn Fulton/Cadie Bates (G) def. Lauryn Gillis/Carly Schnieder (B), 21-12, 21-19
Katie Smith/Lydia Dimke (B) def. Bates/Shannon Williams (G), 21-19, 19-21, 15-12
Gillis/Whitley Ballard (B) def. Hannah Edelman/Caroline Skaff (G), 21-19, 21-19
Franky Harrison/Schnieder (B) def. Jess Vastine/Avery Davis (G), 21-19, 21-18