Beach Volleyball Opens Season With Loaded Weekend Road Tournament

DELAND, FLA. – The 2021 beach volleyball season begins Friday for South Carolina. The 14th-ranked Gamecocks head south for the Stetson Spring Fling tournament, running Feb. 27-28 in Deland, Fla. The field features four other teams ranked in the national coaches preseason top-20 poll, led by the host Hatters, who are ranked No. 11. South Carolina earned the No. 14 spot in the polls after finishing an abbreviated 2020 season with a 5-7 record and return eight of its ten starters while adding one of the top recruiting classes in the country.

Live results will be available through the weekend, and fans can follow @GamecockBeachVB on social media for additional updates.

“We’ve put a lot of work in, the girls really dedicated a lot of time to their craft in trying to get better and figuring out a lot of different variations on partnerships because there is still so much unknown,” head coach Moritz Moritz said about the lead-up to the program’s eighth season. “We have to have a lot of flexibility so I think this year maybe more so than ever before we’re deeper, we have more availability and ability to be able to move pieces around as necessary. They’ve really bought into the fact that we need to have that flexibility but also to be ready to just jump out and compete, regardless of the circumstances.”

2020 SEASON NOTABLES

• The team played 12 matches before the spring season was ended due to the outbreak of COVID-19, accumulating a 5-7 overall record with 10 of those matches coming against nationally ranked opponents.
• Among those five wins, three came against teams ranked in the top-15 nationally: No. 4 Southern California, No. 14 Long Beach State and No. 10 Stetson.
• Katie Smith became the third member of the program ever to reach 75 career wins overall, teaming with Skylar Allen for a win in a 3-2 victory over No. 14 Long Beach St. on March 7.
• 2020 was the first time in program history that the team did not play a single home match; when the Gamecocks host the Carolina Challenge on March 13-14 it will be the first time at Wheeler Beach since April 13, 2019.
• Off the sand, the team had its strongest year to date in the classroom. The Gamecocks led the entire South Carolina athletics department in team GPA for both the fall and spring semesters, topping out with a spring GPA of 3.947 that was a program record. Only Georgia State and Stanford can match the Gamecocks’ current streak of AVCA team academic honors – currently six – dating back to the 2014-15 school year.
• South Carolina junior Jess Vastine was recognized by The National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) as an All-American Athlete for her efforts with the indoor and beach volleyball teams following the 2020 season. Vastine is the first-ever honoree for the Gamecock indoor program, and second for the beach volleyball program (Carly Schnieder in 2019).

SMITH NAMED TO PRESEASON ALL-CONFERENCE TEAM
Entering her final season as the team’s active career wins leader, Katie Smith has earned her place in the program’s record book. The West Chester, Ohio native has 72 dual wins, already ranking her third in program history, and her .667 winning percentage in duals puts her third all-time (min. 30 duals). What has been impressive about those totals has been how she has earned it; of Smith’s 108 career duals, 36 have come at the number one position and 71 have come at number two. Smith’s 20 career wins at number one is the second-most in program history, and her 51 wins at number two is the most in program history and more than the second- and third-place Gamecocks combined. Her success at the top of the lineup has garnered Smith AVCA Top Flight honors in 2018 and 2019. For her efforts, Smith made the 10-woman CCSA Preseason All-Conference team, which was announced on Feb. 24.

VETERAN STAFF GUIDES INTO 2021
As year eight of Gamecock beach volleyball gets underway, the team will have a new look to the roster. More than half of the 24-woman roster are either in their first or second season, including six true freshmen and one mid-year graduate transfer. What the team may appear to lack in experience on the roster is more than made up by the experience on its coaching staff. Head coach Moritz Moritz and assistant coach RJ Abella have been together since the program’s first season back in 2014. Across all of collegiate beach volleyball, the duo is currently tied only with defending champion UCLA (Stein Metzger and Jenny Johnson Jordan) in terms of longest tenure together as a staff.

SCOUTING #12 FAU
The Owls earned their highest ranking in program history in the preseason AVCA poll, coming in at No. 12, and have have high expectations after ending the shortened 2020 season with an 11-1 record. The team returns the winningest pair in program history with Erica Brok and Mackenzie Morris, the pairing of Ellie Austin and Savannah Pesante (9-1 at No. 2 in 2020) and the pairing of Kaila Dorish and Courtney Moon (9-3 overall in 2020). South Carolina leads the all-time series with FAU, 7-1, but the Owls claimed a commanding 4-1 win in the last meeting (3/1/19).

SCOUTING #13 FIU
FIU comes in at No. 13 after ending 2020 with an 8-1 overall record, though it did not play a single match against a team ranked higher than 17th in the AVCA polls. The team lost standout Margherita Bianchin, but still return four individuals who won six or more matches in the top three positions of the lineup. The returners are highlighted by Bianchin’s partner from 2020, Federica Frasca, who enters the year with a legitimate shot at reaching the rare 100 career wins despite playing at the top of the Panther lineup. The FIU roster is full of young talent, with 18 of the 27 total members of the team coming in as either freshmen or sophomores.

SCOUTING #15 TCU
TCU will have a young but talented squad going into the opening weekend of 2021. The Frogs were 11-4 in 2020, including a 3-2 win over the Gamecocks on Feb. 23, and return key starters Olivia Blackburn (9-2 record at No. 1) and her partner Taylor Bradley as well as a pair of sophomores who were instant impacts in 2020 – Daniela Alvarez (4-2) and Trinity Cavanaugh (7-3). The key will be contributions from a recruiting class that was ranked eighth in the country, led by AVCA Junior Beach All-Americans Maria Gonzalez and Josie Miller, and Tania Moreno Mateeva, who won gold in a pair of international tournaments in 2019 out of her home country of Spain.

SCOUTING #11 STETSON
The host Hatters return two important pieces in 2021, with Ana Costa and Carly Perales returning for an extra season atop the lineup. Costa earned preseason ASUN player of the year recognition after going 11-3 in 2020, Perales was 12-2, but both lost their respective partners from last spring with the departure of Kyce Martins and Sunniva Helland-Hansen, respectively. Stetson will lean on growth from sophomores Kamryn Johnson, Shae Henson and Madison Bobes, who all were instant starters in the first years in the third, fourth and fifth flights. It will also look to a large group of newcomers, which includes former Gamecock indoor standout Brittany McLean.

GAMECOCKS IN THE NATIONAL RANKS
The team earned its first-ever ranking by the AVCA on March 6, 2017, and have not left the polls since. South Carolina entered the 2021 season with the No. 14 spot in the Jan. 27 coaches preseason poll, marking 37 polls in a row. The Gamecocks peaked at No. 8 in the polls in 2018 and have been ranked in 57.8 percent of all the AVCA’s polls since the sport started in 2013.

GRAD CHANCE U
South Carolina welcomed its first grad transfer in 2015, when Jade Hayes came to Columbia from UCF. In the years since, the Gamecocks have one of the best track records in the country when it comes to developing indoor players for the beach game.

This season, three indoor standouts will compete for the Garnet and Black. Madison Brabham was a crossover athlete with Texas A&M-Kingsville, earning All-America conference player of the year honors as a senior for the indoor team but also claiming AVCA Top Flight honors after going 22-8 overall and 21-5 in the No. 2 flight for the Javelinas’ beach team in 2019. Morgyn Greer has a juniors beach volleyball background, but played indoor exclusively for four seasons at Florida, playing in 54 career matches.  The duo made the starting lineup from day one in 2020, combining for 11 wins in an abbreviated spring and moved the group past an impressive milestone – 200 combined wins for the nine. Nicole Deobler is the third graduate on the roster, joining in December after three seasons at Siena College in upstate New York. Deobler, a California native, played in 62 games at Siena, totaling over 400 kills and 350 career digs over three seasons.

FRESHMAN CLASS GARNERS NATIONAL PRAISE
South Carolina beach volleyball’s 2020 recruiting class received national recognition over the summer, as the Gamecocks’ six-woman class was ranked tenth in the country by Volleyball Magazine. Additionally, three individuals from the class earned a spot in the magazine’s Girl’s Fab 30 team.

Joining the Gamecocks for the 2020-21 school year are Samantha Ansel (Columbia, Ohio), Sophie Bengoechea (San Antonio, Texas), Jillian Gleason (North Bay, Ontario), Alyssa Keller (Winter Garden, Fla.), Hannah Mackenhausen (San Diego, Calif.) and Lizzie Thompson (Roswell, Georgia). Bengoechea, Keller and Mackenhausen all made the Fab 30 team. 

In September, Bengoechea and Keller were also named to the AVCA’s High School Beach All-America second team. The Gamecocks now have seven past honorees on the roster and have eight total in the seven years the award has existed.

“It’s exciting to see to see how fast the youth game is growing in beach volleyball, I think this class is talented and ready to make an instant impact on our roster,” head coach Moritz Moritz said. “We love the mix of size, speed and volleyball IQ that these young women bring to the table. This upcoming season may feature the deepest roster our program has ever had, I’m hopeful that our returners will push this group as much as I know this group will push our returners.”

AMBITIOUS 2021 SCHEDULE SET TO CHALLENGE CAROLINA
The opening weekend of the season sets the tone for another challenging schedule for South Carolina in 2021. All four opponents at the Stetson Spring Fling are inside the top 15 of the AVCA coaches preseason poll. Among the team’s current 27-game schedule, 11 games are against teams in the current poll.

QUOTABLE: HEAD COACH MORITZ MORITZ
On the team’s 2021 schedule
“This schedule was challenging to put together, we had to maintain a level of quality opponents that best prepare us to pursue our goal of winning in the postseason while also keeping our team as safe as possible,” head coach Moritz Moritz said. “As we get ready for this season, we are preparing to be the best versions of ourselves because this year, more than any, we need to be ready for unpredictability across the net from us. 

It’s still fresh in our minds how we were progressing last season before we were stopped. I think it will be cathartic for us when we’re finally standing with our feet in the sand ready to play a match. We are really going to cherish that moment, because we truly can appreciate how fortunate we are to be together as a family playing a sport we all love so much.”

ALL-TIME RECORDS

• South Carolina holds a 111-73 all-time program record, dating back to 2014.
• The Gamecocks joined the CCSA for volleyball in 2016, and have an all-time conference record of 33-23.
• In matches at Wheeler Beach, Carolina is 51-17 (.735).
• Moritz Moritz is entering his eighth season as head coach of the Gamecocks, spanning the entire young history of the program. He earned his 100th career win against Texas A&M-Kingsville on April 6, 2019.