Thevenin will play against Missouri, Tennessee despite ailing ankle
The Gamecocks volleyball team is set to hit the road Friday to open up its conference season with a two–game road trip.
South Carolina will look to improve on last year’s 6–14 conference record as they head to Missouri Friday, then head straight to Knoxville, Tenn., for a clash with the Volunteers.
“We’ve got a really tough starting weekend on the road against Missouri, who is undefeated right now and are pretty veteran in some areas,” coach Scott Swanson said. “So it will be a challenge, but I’m looking forward to it.”
After this weekend, the Gamecocks will come back home for a four–game stretch. So far this season, the team is 6–0 when playing at home, and 17–6 at home since last year.
“To be honest, I want to go in there and compete the best we can,” Swanson said. “If we can come away with a split on the road with some of these tough SEC weekends, I would be pretty happy with that. Our goal is to win everything we can, but ultimately I would love to come back 1–1 and build off that at home.”
Missouri, who is an impressive 15–0, is expected to give the Gamecocks all they can handle Friday. The Tigers return outside hitter Lisa Henning and middle blocker Whitney Little from last year’s 3-0 sweep of the Gamecocks. Henning recorded a double–double with 17 kills and 10 digs, while Little added 12 kills and shot .667 during last year’s contest at Missouri.
“Missouri is definitely a very good team,” senior outside hitter Juliette Thévenin said. “They were in a different conference before, so this is only the second year we’ve played them. I think we always have a chance, no matter who the team is.”
The road doesn’t get any easier for the Gamecocks as a match against Tennessee awaits them on Sunday. South Carolina dropped a 3–1 decision last year in Knoxville and then fell victim to a 3–0 Tennessee sweep on the Gamecocks’ home court.
This year’s Tennessee squad is much different than last year’s team that went 22-8 en–route to an NCAA Tournament appearance. Since last year, the Lady Volunteers have graduated four seniors who, as a quartet, set a school-record .786 win percentage by going 99-27 during their time at the school.
Thévenin is coming off an ankle injury that she sustained Saturday night in a 3–0 victory over Presbyterian. After Swanson gave the players Sunday and Monday off to rest, Thévenin was held out an additional day to give her ankle a chance to heal. The time off appears to have done the trick, as the senior returned to practice on Wednesday and is expected to play Friday.
Thévenin just picked up the third SEC Offensive Player of the Week award of her collegiate career. The senior tri–captain ranks fourth all–time in kills at South Carolina with 1,343 and remains a vital part of the Gamecocks’ attack. The Gamecocks have gone 8-4 against nonconference foes to start their season, but Thévenin knows how different SEC play can be.
“It’s more physical players and better volleyball,” Thévenin said. “You need to pay attentißon to the little things. We need to be focused on touches; we need to be focused on how we play and how we want to communicate during the game. So we’re really focused on taking care of all the little things that are on our side and that we can control.”