Volleyball Announces Slate of Games for Program's 50th Season
COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina volleyball announced its 2023 fall schedule Friday morning, a milestone for the program as it kicks off the 50th season as a varsity sport. Along with VIP season tickets for $75, regular season ticket prices for adults remain $25 and $10 season tickets for fans under 17 years old.
The team’s annual Garnet and Black Scrimmage will be on Saturday, Aug. 12 at 2 p.m. with a road exhibition at the College of Charleston set for the following Saturday, Aug. 19 at 4 p.m. The team will be home for the first two weeks of the regular season, starting on Aug. 25-26 with a two-game series against Towson. The Tigers are coming off an outstanding 2022 campaign, finishing with a 29-2 overall record that included an upset of 7th-ranked Pittsburgh and a trip to the NCAA tournament.
The team’s first midweek match comes early and it renews the team’s long-standing rivalry with Clemson, set for Aug. 30 at 7 p.m. in the Carolina Volleyball Center. The season-opening home stretch wraps up in the first weekend of September, the 1st and 3rd, with the Gamecocks hosting Miami (Fla.) on Friday and Troy on Sunday.
The next two weekends will see the team hit the road, first for a return trip to Cincinnati that runs Sept. 8-9. The Bearcats came to Columbia last September for a two-game series. The following weekend will be a trip up Route 77 for the Gamecocks, who play in Rock Hill Sept. 15-16. The first day pits the team against another stout mid-major opponent in VCU, followed by a match against the host Winthrop Eagles on Saturday at 6 p.m. to close out the non-conference portion of the schedule.
Conference play begins on the road with matches out west at Arkansas (Sept. 22), Missouri (Sept. 24) and Ole Miss (Sept. 29). The team’s SEC home opener comes on Oct. 1 when the defending conference champion Florida enters the CVC for a 3 p.m. first serve. Other SEC home games include Auburn (Oct. 8), Georgia (Oct. 11), Alabama (Oct. 18), Arkansas (Oct. 27), Kentucky (Nov. 3), Ole Miss (Nov. 5), LSU (Nov. 12) and Tennessee (Nov. 25), which is also the regular season finale.
Entering its sixth season under head coach Tom Mendoza, the Gamecocks return seven veterans who played in 20 or more matches last season, buoyed by a recruiting class of four freshmen and one transfer.
For updates on the team heading into preseason practice in August, follow @Gamecockvolley on Twitter and Instagram.
