Volleyball | August 29, 2023

Each week, the University of South Carolina Aiken will provide weekly notes. This week, USC Aiken opens the season at the Lenoir-Rhyne Tournament with matches against Mount Olive, Converse and Lenoir-Rhyne. 

She's Still Here

It may seem like the name Mercer goes right with USC Aiken. First, Danielle Mercer played for USC Aiken from 2013-16, helping the program to the Elite Eight well setting a single-season school record for digs with 772. Now, Kari Mercer, will compete in her final season as a Pacer. Having started her collegiate career in 2019, Mercer will compete for the fifth season (due to the 2020 COVID year). During her career, Mercer has been a three-time all-PBC selection, a two-time first-team all-region honoree, a two-time PBC Libero of the Year, a third-team All-American and a third-team Academic All-American. Mercer is third in USC Aiken's history for career digs (25-point rally scoring era) and is eighth in the PBC for career digs with 1,863.

Barash's Banner Season

Mallory Barash started her career at USC Aiken in 2019. After missing the 2020 campaign, Barash returned and played sparingly in 2021. However, things changed during the 2022 campaign. Midway through the year, Barash exploded onto the scene and performed at a high level. She registered a 52-assist match and had seven kills against Flagler in the PBC Championship. Barash accounted for 7.11 assists per set and added 1.97 digs per frame. She played well enough to be named to the PBC all-tournament team.

Abundance Of Experience 

This year, USC Aiken has four returning seniors and seven returning juniors on the roster. This includes Mallory Barash, Sophie Meredith, Kari Mercer and Brooke Wroten as the seniors while Cat Bodick, Izabella De lima, Sophia Hoffman, Emily Lammers, Sadie McKay, Alisha Pitt and Kaitlyn Rodriguez all have two years of eligibility remaining. All of the returners were instrumental in helping USC Aiken make the NCAA Tournament a season ago, which marked the seventh time in eight tournaments.

Additional Experience From A Familiar Place

Head coach Glenn Cox picked up a junior transfer from Cowley County C.C. in Gyöngyvér Araczki. Former USC Aiken standout Caroline Foster started her career at Cowley County C.C. Araczki, a middle blocker, was a two-time all-region selection and a two-time all-league performer. The rising junior set the school record with a .455 attack percentage. Araczki tallied 347 kills as a sophomore while hitting .448 and had 264 kills with a .461 attack percentage as a freshman. She also picked up Cowley Invitational all-tournament team accolades.

Preseason Honors

Sadie McKay and Kari Mercer were recognized last Friday. The dyad picked up Preseason All-PBC honors. In all, eight student-athletes were selected to the team. McKay picked up all-tournament team honors in 2022 while Mercer was an all-region and all-conference selection on the court. 

Talented Trio 

USC Aiken added three freshmen to the incoming class that will vie for playing time. This talented group includes right-side hitter Alli Bishop, outside hitter Lexi Rogers and libero Rory Schuler. 

Bishop earned All-America honorable mention honors her senior season. A two-time first-team all-state and all-conference selection, Bishop was a three-time all-district honoree. She hit over .350 as a senior and over .300 her junior campaign.  

Rogers picked up AVCA All-America honorable mention honors as a senior. The AVCA all-region selection garnered Class 5-A State Player of the Year honors. Rogers was an all-state honoree as a senior and was named the Female Athlete of the Year at her school. A four-time all-region selection, Rogers posted over 1,000 kills and 500 digs throughout her career. She tallied 4.7 kills/set while hitting .298 as a senior. Overall, she had 461 kills her senior campaign. 

Schuler was a four-time all-region honoree. She helped her team establish a school record for wins while winning the Class 7-A Region Championship. Schuler finished her career with 1,233 assists, 653 digs and 144 aces. She guided her team to a region championship as a sophomore. The All-Greater Savannah Region honoree played club ball for OTVA 18 J John, helping the team to a No. 5 national ranking by PrepVolleyball. 

Familiarity From Opponents 

Head coach Glenn Cox's team has some familiarity with each of the opponents for this weekend. A season ago, the Pacers hosted back-to-back tournaments to start the year and picked up victories against all three opponents they play this week. Cox's squad bested Converse 3-1 and Lenoir-Rhyne 3-0 at the USC Aiken Invitational before taking down Mount Olive 3-1 at the Pacer Invitational. 

Inside The Numbers

This week, USC Aiken takes on Mount Olive and Converse on Friday, Sept. 1 before playing at Lenoir-Rhyne on Saturday, Sept. 2. Since moving to Division II, the Pacers are 210-137 (60.5 percent) in Friday matches and 248-150 (62.3 percent) in Saturday contests. During the same time, the squad is 5-6 on Sept. 1 and 13-5 on Sept. 2. 

Against The Opponents

This week, USC Aiken takes on Mount Olive, Converse and Lenoir-Rhyne in Hickory, N.C. The Pacers are 8-3 in the all-time series against the Trojans, having won the last four matches in the series. USC Aiken is 15-1 in the all-time series against the Valkyries, having won the last nine matches. The Pacers hold a 15-4 edge in the series against the Bears, including four of the previous five matches.