Volleyball Hosts Dig Pink Match Sunday

COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina volleyball faces its first road match of conference play on Friday, when the Gamecocks travel to Lexington to take on No. 15 Kentucky (9-4, 2-0 SEC) at 7 p.m. The team returns home on Sunday to host Mississippi State (11-3, 0-2 SEC) for its annual Dig Pink match at 1 p.m., airing nationally on ESPNU. South Carolina stands at 9-5 overall and 1-1 in SEC play.

General single-game tickets are on sale, $5 for adults and $3 for youth; fans attending Sunday’s match can receive $1 tickets if they wear pink. Fans can also purchase season tickets at the General Admission rate for adults ($25) or youth age 17 and under ($10), or the VIP season ticket. Contact the South Carolina Ticket Office at 800-4SC-FANS (800-472-3267) or CLICK THIS LINK for more information.

A reminder, students attending matches at the Carolina Volleyball Center should note that their entrance to the facility has changed for 2019. Instead of entering through the Park Street side of the gym, students should now enter at the top of the building, located by the Blossom and Assembly Street intersection. Ticket holders should still plan to enter via the Park Street entrance.

Please refer to the PARKING MAP for a bird’s-eye view of the Carolina Volleyball Center and surrounding areas.

WEEKEND NOTABLES (GEORGIA, AUBURN)

• Three of the last four meetings with Georgia have gone to five sets.
• Mikayla Robinson reached 50 career solo blocks against the Bulldogs, finishing with nine blocks total in the match. She is the first Gamecock to reach 50 solo blocks since Belita Salters in 2008, and she is now 13 more solo blocks from passing Salters for the rally-scoring era record in the category.
• Mikayla Shields passed 1,300 career kills in the match against Auburn, finishing with five total. She is just the fourth Gamecock in the program’s 47-year history to pass the milestone.
• Auburn’s offense hit just .033 for the match, it was the lowest percentage allowed by the Gamecocks in a SEC match since Nov. 7, 2004, when Arkansas hit .025.
• Over eight sets this weekend, the Gamecock defense recorded 26 total blocks.
• Along with her team-high 10 kills, Claire Edwards also notched three service aces against Auburn, tying a career high. She now has 14 for the season, which already matches the best single-season total of her career.
• Auburn entered the match with a 12-5 record in the last decade of the series, including a 6-3 record in Columbia. This is South Carolina’s first sweep of Auburn since Nov. 6, 2009, a span of 16 matches.

SCOUTING MISSISSIPPI STATE
Mississippi State have already doubled its win total from 2018 under second-year head coach Julie Darty but struggled in the opening weekend of conference action with losses to Kentucky and LSU, being out-hit .292 to .161. The team’s offense has been at its best running through its middle hitters, with Gabby Waden (3.50 kill per set) and Amarrah Cooks (2.12 kills/set) pacing the offense. Freshman Callie Minshew has carried the bulk of the offense, with 144 more attacks than any other Bulldog, but is hitting just .090. Mississippi State’s defense has been its strength so far, ranking 3rd in the SEC in digs per set (14.70) and fourth in blocks (2.45).

EDWARDS ENJOYING STRONG START TO SENIOR CAMPAIGN
Year four has started well for middle blocker Claire Edwards, who is on an early pace for a career year on offense and defense for South Carolina. Through 14 matches, Edwards already is averaging highs for points per set (2.54), aces (0.27), blocks (1.04) and hitting percentage (.374). Her efforts were recognized by the SEC on Sept. 9, when she earned Defensive Player of the Week honors from the conference after putting down 17 total blocks in 10 sets at the UCF Challenge tournament. It was not just her defensive prowess that helped the team in Orlando, though, Edwards also had eye-popping efficiency on offense in the three matches. She averaged 2.30 kills per set out of the middle and hit .463, committing just four attack errors total for the tournament.

TRENDING TOPICS
In the last five matches…

• The Gamecocks are out-hitting opponents, .262 to .164.
• The offense has been spread out, with five different hitters posting 40 or more kills in the span.
• The team has 28 service aces (1.40 per set), compared to 39 over the first nine matches of the season (1.18/set).
• The team’s blocking numbers have soared, with 47 in the last two weekends. 

SHIELD BEARER
Last season, Mikayla Shields became the fifth junior in the program’s 47-year history to make it to 1,000 career kills in three seasons or less. Overall, she is 15th member of the program ever to reach 1,000 kills, and the fourth-fastest (making it in her 80th career game). Currently, Shields ranks fourth overall for career kills (with 1,303) in the overall program record book, 20th among active Division I attackers, and third among rally-scoring-era attackers. She passed Gamecock hall of famer Heather Larkin (1994-97) and soon-to-be hall of famer Cally Plummer (1998-02) in the Georgia match Friday.

It isn’t just her production that has been impressive, Shields is also in rarified air when it comes to efficiency. During the Gamecock Invitational tournament (Sept. 20-22), she passed 3,000 career attacks, something only six other members of the program have achieved. Despite the historic workload, Shields still maintains a career hitting percentage of .289, good for seventh in program history (with a minimum of 1,000 attacks). Among those six other hitters with over 3,000 attacks, only program legend Lori Rowe (1983-86) also ranks in the top ten all time for hitting percentage.

KOEHLER SETTING HER SIGHTS ON SC RECORDS
Senior Courtney Koehler has rocketed through the record book as she begins season four running the offense. Against Charlotte on Sept. 10, she surpassed Taylor Bruns’ record for most assists in the rally-scoring era (since 2001), and against High Point on Sept. 22 she passed 3,000 career assists. Only five other Gamecocks in the program’s 47-year history have reached 3,000. Scratching the top three marks from the sideout-scoring era will be a challenge, but Koehler is now 165 assists from jumping Jodi Thompson (1991-94) for the number five spot in the program’s all-time history.

HOME-COURT ADVANTAGE
The Carolina Volleyball Center has been 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 since 2016 and three of the top five came in 2018 alone. Last season, the Gamecocks went 11-2 in the CVC – its highest home win total since 2008. Through five home matches this season, the average attendance of 1,266 ranks 35th in the NCAA and sixth among SEC schools.

VASTINE’S GROWTH BOOSTS LEFT SIDE ATTACK
Junior Jess Vastine saw her role expand greatly in head coach Tom Mendoza’s first year leading the program, developing more into a six-rotation left side attacker. Now in her second year with the defined role, the Wittmann, Ariz. native has made another big jump in production across the board. Already with a new career high for service aces in a season, with 14, Vastine is also on pace for personal bests in kills and digs. Vastine also leads the team’s serve receive defense with 309 receptions and a .958 reception percentage.

REPLACING ACES WILL BE KEY FOR 2019
Despite bringing back all six position players for the fall, South Carolina will have to replace a key member of last year’s tournament team. Libero Aubrey Ezell graduated as the program’s third-ranked contributor for service aces, pitching in 212 during her four years on campus, including a career-high 75 last fall. Her career total was double that of any other member during the program’s rally-scoring era, and she guided 2018’s team to its highest combined ace total since 2006 (173). With her departure, the team is looking for who can help fill her shoes. Of the six starters returning this year (Edwards, Koehler, McLean, Robinson, Shields, Vastine), only Shields and Koehler have a career ace total above 60.

Through 14 matches, South Carolina is on the wrong side of both serving statistics – aces and errors. Entering Friday, the team has been out-aced 84-67 and committed 19 more errors on serve (135-116). Against Pitt on Aug. 31, the team recorded zero aces for the first time since Nov. 11, 2016 that the team went without an ace in a match – a span of 67 matches.

SHIELDS NAMED TO SENIOR CLASS WATCH LIST
Mikayla Shields made the list of 30 NCAA women’s volleyball student-athletes who  were selected as candidates for the 2019 Senior CLASS Award, it was announced on Oct. 2. To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be a senior with notable achievements in four areas: community, classroom, character and competition. The candidates will be narrowed to 10 finalists midway through the regular season.

GAMECOCKS BOOST DEPTH WITH 2019 RECRUITS
With all six starters from the the team’s NCAA run in 2018 returning, head coach Tom Mendoza has been able to boost the team’s depth under less pressure to step in right away. The Gamecocks welcomed three scholarship players and three walk-ons for the fall, hailing from all corners of the U.S.

The team added help across the net, starting on the left side with McKenzie Moorman (Elmhurst, Ill.), moving to the middle with Kylee Stokes (Phoenix, Ariz.) and to the right with Holly Eastridge (Avon, Ind.). All three made the Senior Aces Top 150 list and will be competing for playing time straight away. Right side hitter Gabby Brown (Summerville, N.C.) is following in her sister Callie’s footsteps at Carolina, and will have a leg up after enrolling early and spending the spring semester in the gym training with the Gamecocks. Mendoza rounded out his class with two defensive specialists, Anna Holman (Murrieta, Calif.) and Camilla Covas (San Juan, Puerto Rico), who hope to solidify the ball control the same way that Lauren Bowers and Addie Bryant were able to do as first-year players in 2018.

PROGRAM GREAT CALLY PLUMMER NAMED TO 2019 HALL OF FAME CLASS
The University of South Carolina Athletics Hall of Fame class of 2019 was announced in July, and volleyball alumna Cally Plummer (1998-2002) made the nine-member class. She is the fourth member of the program to be honored, and one of just 187 members total in the Hall of Fame’s 52-year history.

Plummer is one of just four Gamecocks in program history to be a four-time All-SEC performer. As a right-side attacker, Plummer is still the program’s all time in career aces, and ranks fourth in career kills and fifth in career attacks. For her career she finished with 1,295 kills, 233 aces, 956 digs, and 270 blocks, and the Gamecocks made the NCAA tournament in all four of her seasons on the court.

The class will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on Thursday, October 17, at Colonial Life Arena, and recognized at the South Carolina-Florida football game on Saturday, October 19. Previous alumnae in the Hall of Fame are Ashley Edlund (1995-98), Heather Larkin (1994-97) and Shonda Walllace (Cole) (2003-06).

ALL TIME RECORDS

• South Carolina holds an 826-645 (.561) 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 194-272 (.418).
• In matches in the Carolina Volleyball Center, Carolina is 206-114 (.645) overall and 103-97 (.518) in SEC matches.
• Tom Mendoza became the program’s 13th head coach on Jan. 3, 2018. This is his fourth season overall as a head coach, with a career record of 76-33.