Volleyball Earns No. 24 Rank in National Poll; Robinson and McCutcheon Earn SEC Honors
The Gamecocks defeated two top-25-ranked opponents in the season opening weekend
COLUMBIA, S.C. – Fresh off a weekend where it recorded the nation’s only two wins over top-25 opponents by an unranked team, South Carolina volleyball joined the national polls Monday afternoon. The Gamecocks came in at No. 24 in the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) ranks, the first time the team made the top-25 since 2002. Individually, Mikayla Robinson and Lauren McCutcheon were recognized by the SEC for the contributions through the weekend. Robinson earned the conference’s Offensive Player and overall Player of the Week honors, and McCutcheon was tapped as Freshman of the Week.
South Carolina last came in ranked in the national top-25 on Dec. 2, 2002, earning the No. 24 spot in a season where it finished with a 23-7 record and made the second round of the NCAA tournament. The team did earn a spot in the AVCA’s top-15 poll in November of last season, but the poll accounted for only the four conferences competing that fall.
Hosting the Carolina Classic and a field of three ranked foes, South Carolina started the season with a come-from-behind victory over No. 18 Washington State on Friday afternoon. After falling behind 2-0 to the Cougars, the team came all the way back for a five-set win. Saturday morning, the team secured its second win over a ranked opponent when it took down No. 23 Rice, 3-1.
“I think going into the weekend we knew we had a pretty good team, I think we feel the same coming out, maybe with just a little more proof of some things that, when we do them well, we can compete with anybody,” head coach Tom Mendoza said. “When you play three really good teams, they’re going to expose things in your game and you’re not gonna be able to hide stuff and that’s the same reason we love playing in the SEC. To get those three matches early in the year sets us up for great position regardless of the results.Those three teams that we just played, we could have played well and still gone 0-3, so to get to those wins against top-25 teams is huge for us as we’re trying to build a resume.”
Robinson hit .410 with 34 kills over 12 sets and added 14 blocks. In the season opener, Robinson hit .500 with 16 kills along with eight total blocks (two solo) and the Gamecocks came back against the Cougars and won in five sets. Saturday morning, she hit .348 with five more blocks and 12 kills as the team secured it’s second top-25 win in a 16-hour span by beating Rice. The team’s only setback on the weekend came to No. 9 Pittsburgh, but Robinson still was efficient, hitting .357 with six kills in the three sets vs. the Panthers.
Robinson also collected two major career milestones over the course of the weekend. Against Washington State, she broke the program record for career blocks in the rally-scoring era (now with 436). Against Rice, she recorded her 1,000th career kill, making her the 16th member of the program to reach the milestone. She is one of just four Gamecocks in the program’s 49-season history to have both 1,000 kills and 400 blocks in a career.
McCutcheon played like a season veteran in her first matches as a Gamecock. The Palmetto State native started all three matches and stuffed the box score all weekend, ending with 29 kills, 23 digs, four aces and eight blocks over 12 sets. In her college debut, she hit .438 with seven kills, 12 digs and two blocks against Washington State. Her best performance of the tournament came against Rice, when she led the team with 15 kills without a single attack error, hitting .517 with seven digs, three blocks and two key aces in a four-set win over the Owls. Facing an imposing block in the tournament final against Pitt, McCutcheon still recorded seven more kills, four digs and three blocks in three sets against the Panthers.
Next up for the team will be the Palmetto Showdown, hosting UCF and Clemson Sept. 2-3. The tournament starts with a 7 p.m. match against the Knights on Thursday night on SEC Network+. Then on Friday, the team plays on the SEC Network against Clemson at 1 p.m. and then rematches with UCF at 7:30 Friday evening.
