COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina volleyball hosts Missouri for a two-game set this weekend with matches at 2 p.m. on Saturday and 4 p.m. on Sunday. Both sides are coming off midweek losses, the Tigers lost at home to Kentucky and the Gamecocks dropped a five-set match at Georgia. Saturday’s match airs on the SEC Network+, Sunday will have a national broadcast on the SEC Network.
South Carolina is on a three-game winning streak over Missouri, tied for the longest streak by either team in the all-time series. Last year, the Gamecocks went to CoMo and won at Missouri for the first time ever in the series, dropping just one set in a two-game series sweep.
RANKING UP!
The team’s win over No. 12 Florida on Sept. 25 secured the fifth season in a row with at least one win over a top-25-ranked opponent. It is the longest streak since joining the SEC in 1991; the next closest streak was three years, from 2001-03. The team has eight top-25 wins in head coach Tom Mendoza’s five-year tenure; prior to his arrival in 2018, the program had just nine ranked wins in total in the 26-year span since joining the SEC in 1991, going 9-110 (.076) between 1991-2017.
ELLIE-VATING HER GAME
Junior Ellie Ruprich earned SEC Defensive Player of the Week honors on Monday, Sept. 12, coming on the heels of a two-game stretch where South Carolina swept a pair of matches with Cincinnati. It is Ruprich’s first defensive player of the week honor from the conference office, she previously was a two-time freshman of the week during the 2020 season.
Ruprich currently leads the SEC and ranks 18th nationally with an average of 1.41 blocks per set. It hasnt been just her defense that’s impressed this season, she also leads the team with a hitting percentage of .333. It’s a solid jumping-off point heading into SEC play; last fall Ruprich was hitting just .231 with 0.76 blocks per set in non-conference play before ramping up to a .277 hitting percentage with 1.29 blocks per set in 18 conference matches.
GRADUATE TRANSFERS MAKING AN INSTANT IMPACT
Along with a quartet of true freshmen, South Carolina’s coaching staff added a veteran presence to the roster for the fall. Joining the Gamecocks are graduate transfers Jenna Hampton (Penn State) and Dalaney Hans (Georgia) who combined for 182 games played at their former schools.
Hampton made the AVCA all-region team and was second team All-Big 10 last fall as the libero for the Nittany Lions, leading the Big 10 with 4.83 digs per set. Her…