May 29, 2006

2006 USC Volleyball Schedule in PDF Format
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COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina coach Nancy Somera announced the Gamecock volleyball team’s 2006 schedule on Monday.

The Gamecocks have 32 regular-season matches next fall, which includes 14 homes matches at the Volleyball Competition Facility. Twenty of those matches will come versus Southeastern Conference foes, as the league implemented a new home-and-home format for 2006. Vanderbilt is the lone school that does not sponsor volleyball.

“Double round-robin is a more honest and true method in determining a conference champion because everybody plays each other the same amount of times,” Somera said.

The SEC also will not sponsor a postseason tournament for the first time in its history. SEC Tournament champions had been crowned since 1979, a string of 27 years. The league’s regular-season champion will earn the conference’s automatic NCAA berth.

USC begins its journey in Fort Worth, Texas, at a tournament hosted by TCU over Aug. 25-26. The Gamecocks open the season against Boise State and then take on the host Horned Frogs later in the day. The final day of the event pits the Garnet and Black against Loyola (Md.) and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

After returning from Cowtown, South Carolina will take a short bus ride to Clemson, S.C., to compete in the Tigers’ tournament. USC and Clemson square off in the tourney’s opening match Aug. 31, and the Gamecocks follow up with contests against Charlotte and Tennessee State the next day. South Carolina concludes its stay playing Western Carolina on Sept. 2.

Over Sept. 8-9, South Carolina hosts a tournament that includes St. John’s, Florida State and three-time NCAA champion Southern California. Play kicks off with USC and St. John’s meeting at 10 a.m. on Friday, followed by Florida State-Southern California at noon, Florida State-St. John’s at 5:30 p.m. and South Carolina-Southern California at 8 p.m. The Women of Troy face St. John’s at 11:30 a.m. in Saturday’s opening match, and the tournament concludes with the Gamecocks playing Florida State at 1:30 p.m.

“The philosophy in the non-conference scheduling is for it to be strong enough to prepare you for conference play but forgiving enough that you gain confidence,” Somera said. “We have a good balance in our matches to prepare us and help us get better. We’re less concerned with our win-loss record in non-conference and more interested in the feedback we receive, but certainly we need to have a winning record.

“We’re excited about our home tournament. We played Florida State last season and they were a young team like us and I expect them to be much improved. I know Southern California well, and they’re a perennially strong team and well coached. They’ll make us play our best and make us a better team. I don’t know much about St. John’s, but I’ll know more about them as we get closer to the match.”

Somera played for Southern California from 1985 to 1988 and earned her bachelor’s in journalism/broadcasting in 1989. She was a two-time All-Pac-10 selection as a junior and senior and still ranks among the top 10 on the school’s career records list in seven statistical categories.

SEC play begins Sept. 15 with USC hosting Auburn at 7 p.m. and Florida at 1:30 p.m. on Sept. 17. Three consecutive road contests await the Gamecocks afterward at LSU (Sept. 22), Arkansas (Sept. 24) and Georgia (Sept. 27). After a home tilt with Alabama on Oct. 1 at 1:30 p.m., South Carolina hits the road again to take on Tennessee (Oct. 6) and Kentucky (Oct. 8). The first half of the conference season ends with the Garnet and Black hosting Mississippi and Mississippi State on Oct. 13 and 15 at 7 and 1:30 p.m.

Half two of SEC competition begins with USC at Florida and Auburn on Oct. 20 and 22. Arkansas and LSU play the Gamecocks in Columbia, S.C., on Oct. 27 and 29 at 7 and 1:30 p.m. USC visits the Magnolia State on Nov. 3 and 5 to face Mississippi State and Mississippi before hosting Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia on Nov. 10, 12 and 15 at 7, 1:30 and 7 p.m. The SEC regular season ends Nov. 17 with South Carolina taking on Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

“I’m excited for my second year in the SEC,” Somera said. “My first year was spent getting to know the coaching styles and the teams’ strengths and weaknesses. Now, I have a better grasp of what each teams brings.

“Florida will be good again, and Tennessee lost a lot of its punch from last year’s Final Four team, but they shouldn’t be overlooked because they have people who have been waiting for their turn. Alabama will also be very good. LSU is the team people will have to keep their eye on. We saw them in a spring tournament and they looked very tough.

“There have been a lot of coaching changes in the SEC in the past few years, so several programs are on the upswing. A lot of programs are rebuilding and in another year they’ll all be better.”

South Carolina’s regular season ends Nov. 22 with a home match versus College of Charleston at 5 p.m.

The NCAA Tournament begins with first- and second-round action taking place from Nov. 30 to Dec. 3. Regionals begin Dec. 7 and end Dec. 10, and the Final Four takes place Dec. 14 and 16 at the Qwest Center Omaha in Omaha, Neb.