South Carolina’s volleyball roster is top heavy with players who have one or less years of collegiate playing experience.
Most got their first taste of SEC volleyball last season in the midst of a 12-19 (3-15 SEC) effort, while others were still in high school.
On top of that, the Gamecocks lost senior outside hitter Juliette Thevenin to graduation. Thevenin, one of the most decorated players in South Carolina volleyball history, left Columbia as only the second player to ever record 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs in a career.
But head coach Scott Swanson isn’t worried. In fact, the fourth-year coach is excited to see the players whom he recruited take the court.
“We’re as athletic as we’ve ever been here, if not more,” Swanson said. “We have more skill players, and we’re turning some of those people who are not quite there yet into better skill players. And now it’s just a matter of putting it all together.”
After injury crippled his team at the setter position last season, Swanson has brought in Allie Monserez, a freshman setter from Windermere, Fla.
Monserez helped lead Bishop Moore Catholic to the 2013 Florida Class AAAAA state title as well as the 2012 Florida Class AAAA state title on her way to a 2013 Florida Volleyball AAAAA Player of the Year nod.
Right away, Monserez will provide the depth Swanson was looking for last season when starting setter Kellie McNeil injured her foot against Coastal Carolina.
“It was definitely really hard to lose Kellie just because she’s such a great player,” senior libero Mikaela Christiaansen said. “You know, we had been practicing with her all season, so to kind of just change the lineup was kind of difficult.”
Swanson noted that their team could feature a system where both McNeil and Monserez factor in at the setter position.
It’s also very likely that there will be two McNeils on the court at the same time this year for the Gamecocks.
Taylr McNeil, who was a part of Swanson’s highly regarded 2014 recruiting class, is the sister of setter Kellie McNeil. Like Kellie, Taylr also pulled in Minnesota’s Gatorade Player of the Year award on her way to a Class AAA state title.
McNeil arrived on campus in January and has been able to train all spring.
Swanson had high praise for the freshman, even considering her monumental task of replacing Thevenin as an outside hitter.
“She can do things that Juliette couldn’t do,” he said. “I’m not going to go out on a limb right now and say she’s better than Juliette right now because she hasn’t played in the SEC, but as a freshman, she’s probably better than Juliette was as a freshman.”
Aside from Thevenin, the Gamecocks return all of their big names from a year ago. Six-foot-two sophomore Jacqy Angermiller will be a force to be reckoned with in the middle, as will six-foot-one junior Darian Dozier.
Christiaansen, one of two seniors on the roster, will return at libero, a position where she averaged over three digs per set. Her 386 digs placed her at the top of the team in that category, as well as 10th in the SEC.
Junior Sarah Blomgren returns after registering 214 kills last season, a mark bested only by Thevenin’s 466.