Beach Volleyball Begins Conference Tournament Run Friday Morning

HUNTSVILLE, ALA. – South Carolina beach volleyball begins its postseason journey Friday, facing Tulane at 11 a.m. ET in the opening round of the Coastal Collegiate Sports Association’s conference tournament. In its first year held at John Hunt Park in Huntsville, Ala., the tournament puts the Gamecocks into an eight-team, double-elimination bracket. The winner of South Carolina and Tulane will face the winner of Florida State and UNCW on Saturday, the losers of both duals face each other in an elimination match at 2:30 p.m. Friday with that winner moving on to Saturday consolation bracket play.

South Carolina finished the regular season with a 21-7 overall record and 12-5 record against CCSA opponents – a single-season record for the program in its sixth season in the conference. Earning the fourth seed, the Gamecocks face fifth-seed Tulane for the first time this season. The two rivals last met in 2019, also in the conference tournament, with South Carolina claming a 5-0 victory. In the all-time series, the Gamecocks lead 9-2 over the Green Wave. This season, Tulane enjoyed a 21-13 record under first-year head coach Eyal Zimet, leaning on strong performances from veterans Addison Hermstad (27-7 as an individual), Avery Arellano (22-11) and Tarin Mergener (19-15) as well as young breakout stars Samantha Mehlman (27-7) and Lara Toruella (23-8).

In five seasons of the conference tournament, the Gamecocks are 10-8 overall. The previous four tournaments consisted of pool play leading into a bracket, this spring will be the first bracket-only format.

SMITH SISTERS EARN POSTSEASON HONORS
Jordan and Katie Smith made the 10-woman All-Academic team on Thursday afternoon, as announced by the CCSA. They are first-time honorees for the award, giving the program six honorees total and first since Carly Schnieder and Shannon Williams in 2018. 

Katie holds a 3.833 cumulative GPA as a graduate student, pursuing her master’s degree in Entry to Practice Nursing. On the court, she holds a season record of 20-8, with 13 wins in the number one pairing and a 7-1 record in the number two pairing Jordan carries a 3.922 cumulative GPA as a Finance major, and enjoyed a breakout year on the sand. She is tied for the team lead with 24 wins for the season to date (8-1 at number two, 7-0 at number three and 9-1 at number four). Of those 24 wins, 10 are against ranked opponents and 14 are against CCSA rivals; her .923 winning percentage has shattered the previous individual record by a Gamecock.

MAJOR RECORD WITHIN GRASP
Katie Smith enters the CCSA tournament tantalizingly close to the program’s biggest individual record. Current with a 92-44 career record in duals, Smith is just one win away from matching Macie Tendrich‘s program record for an individual. Smith is currently tied with Tendrich for overall wins (which includes pairs play and duals), with 95. The West Chester, Ohio native has had to earn it the hard way; of her 136 career duals, all but one of those starts came outside of the top two positions in the lineup. Smith’s 33 career wins at number one is the second-most in program history, and her 58 wins at number two is the most in program history and more than the second- and third-place Gamecocks combined. 

NO SENIORITIS HERE!
Entering the postseason, South Carolina’s lineup features six individuals who are in their final season with the program. The group is going out on top, with four of the six already at 20 or more wins as individuals. Leading the way is Jess Vastine‘s 24-4 record, tied for the team’s overall lead. Right behind her is Carly Schnieder‘s 23-5 record, then Morgyn Greer‘s 20-4 mark and Katie Smith‘s 20-8 record that features 13 wins in the number one pairing.

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. The Gamecocks peaked at No. 8 in the polls in 2018 and check in at No. 17 for the April 20 poll, marking 48 weeks in a row as a ranked team. 

SMITH RUNS WIN STREAK TO RECORD-SETTING HEIGHTS
Junior Jordan Smith‘s program-record 17-game win streak ended during the Gamecock Grand Slam weekend, though she does still lead the team with a 24-2 overall record. Her win streak was a program record, surpassing the previous 11-game streaks held by four different individuals: Leah Perri (March 3-24, 2018), Macie Tendrich (March 3-24, 2018), Sarah Blomgren (March 12-27, 2016) and Aubrey Ezell (March 12-27, 2016). Entering the final weekend of the regular season, Smith’s 24 wins is the fifth-highest win total in a single season by any Gamecock individual. Of Smith’s team-leading 24 wins, 14 have come against conference rivals. That breaks Tendrich’s 2017 total for the program record for most CCSA wins in a single season.

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 success in the beach game. Since Hayes’ arrival, the team has trained up 10 individuals who have combined for a record of 229-113 (.670) and played key roles on both of the team’s NCAA tournament runs in 2017 and 2018.

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. So far this season, the two are a combined 37-15.

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.

SENIOR DUO CHASING HISTORY (AND ONE OTHER)
Carly Schnieder and Katie Smith came to South Carolina after a stellar high school club career as a pair, winning the AAU National Championship and USA Beach Volleyball National Championship together in the summer of 2016. Now in year five with the Gamecocks, the two are again together – but this time it’s in the program record book. Smith and Schnieder reached 80 career wins in back-to-back weekends earlier this season, and both are within range of Macie Tendrich‘s program record of 93 career dual wins as an individual. Smith and Schnieder currently rank second and third, respectively, for career wins, but the record book assault doesn’t end there. Smith is the program leader for career conference wins (45), career wins versus ranked opponents (30) and career matches played (144). Schnieder is part of the program’s all-time wins leader for pair (43 wins with Julia Mannisto) and ranks second for conference wins, ranked wins and trails only Katie in overall matches played.

YOUTH MOVEMENT
The last two seasons have seen an injection in high school signees making an impact right away for South Carolina. Skylar Allen headlined the group in 2020 with a 5-7 overall record playing in the top positions of the lineup, and classmate Kaeli Crews also saw time in the lineup and as a main exhibition participant. This season, Allen is 18-10 overall and Crews earned her first collegiate win against College of Charleston on March 6. Adding to the depth has been the growth of fellow sophomores Peyton Gray and Sophie Manson, who have solidified the exhibition pairing and Manson made her first career start in the lineup on March 27 against TCU.

Also this spring, the team has seen two true freshmen crack the starting five. Alyssa Keller is 15-13 overall, including a 5-5 record in the number one pairing. Hannah Mackenhausen is 18-10 to date, going 7-4 at number three and 11-4 at number four.  

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.”

ALL-TIME RECORDS

• South Carolina holds a 132-80 (.622) 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 45-28 (.616).
• In matches at Wheeler Beach, Carolina is 59-20 (.747).
• 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.