Gamecocks look forward to start of new year
You wouldn’t have known it was a scrimmage had you looked into the crowd and gazed at the mass of people who all turned out to support the Gamecock volleyball team Saturday.
The annual Garnet and Black game featured a bevy of fresh faces and impact players that could help the Gamecocks reach new heights this season in the SEC. After going down in the first set, the Garnet team rallied to win three straight and take the match 3-1.
Junior middle blocker Darian Dozier also had a big day, especially on the defensive end, totaling eight blocks in addition to her 12 kills. Head coach Scott Swanson spoke highly of a few players today who he thought made a valuable impact.
“I thought Taylr McNeil, for a freshman, came in and played exactly like we needed her to play, she passed, she played defense, she served the ball in, she got a lot of kills,” Swanson said. “I thought both our setters played great. We’re in great hands, literally, with both of those kids. I thought Sarah Blomgren played smart, hit the ball in when it wasn’t good. I was pleased with a lot of different performances but those kids really stood out to me.”
Swanson also spoke at great lengths about Dozier. Dozier is expected to be one of the leaders for this Gamecock team and act as a beacon of consistency for many younger teammates. After the game, Swanson was quick to point out the junior’s impressive performance.
“Darian played really, really well today both offensively and defensively. Her blocking was lights-out,” Swanson said. “She’s been nominated and voted to be one of our captains and she’s very invested in what we’re doing. She’s gone through a couple tough seasons where we were either nursing injuries or not good enough to be where we wanted to be in the SEC, but now it’s her junior year. It’s kind of her time and I think she’s fully committed to doing everything she can, not only for herself but getting her teammates on the same page with what we’ve got going on.”
As for her own expectations of herself and the team, Dozier believes that everything is falling into place and with a few more good practices, the team will be competing at a very high level.
“I always think there’s room for improvement, but we’re doing really well,” Dozier said. “We have a lot of returning players and a good group of freshman coming in that are impacting our team in a really positive way, and I definitely think were going surprise some teams in the SEC.”
Moving forward, Swanson said that the team has already started to focus less on simple fundamentals and more on strategy and individual position training which is a good sign at this point in the season.
“Everyone knows where to be on the court,” Swanson said. “They know what to do, they know what to say. I think we’re going to surprise some people in the conference this year and I think that if we play well, we can have a winning season, and I’m definitely expecting that and the girls are, too.”