Gamecocks beach volleyball came a long way to meet No. 1 Trojans

Jade Vitt came to Columbia for this.

She’s from San Diego, but found her way across the country. She’d played indoor volleyball in high school and tried sand volleyball as a senior. But she wanted to help build something.

“I came in for the start of this program,” Vitt said. “It was the first year, and so that was a really big deal for me. I wanted to be a founding member and really leave my footprint and my legacy for the future teams to come.”

She’s now a senior, having borne witness to the building of a program. She’ll leave right after the Gamecocks take their next big step: their first trip to the NCAA tournament.

Vitt and her teammates have gone from five wins to 14 to 20 to 23 this season and Friday’s 10 a.m. match with No. 1 seed Southern California in Gulf Shores, Ala. The sport around them has grown, as the NCAA tournament is in its second year of existence.

USC had to make the quick switch from celebrating a program first Sunday to looking at a Trojans team that claimed a national title last spring and swept the Gamecocks 5-0 earlier this season.

“It was great that we made history, but this is exactly what we’ve been training for all season,” junior Julia Mannisto said. “I don’t know if it was a transition, not that we expected it, but it was a great thing to happen, and we’re well prepared.”

South Carolina has players from Virginia, Texas, Michigan and Ohio. They’ve got grad transfers who played full indoor careers at Wichita State and Colorado State.

The Gamecocks face a tall task with the Trojans, who are 34-1 and have nine top-5 wins this season. South Carolina coach Moritz Moritz said it helped to play the Trojans earlier this season and get some jitters out.

He sees something in the collection of players from far and wide who helped build a program in a few short years.

“All heart,” Moritz said. “You couldn’t have picked a better group of girls that come together for a common goal and work relentlessly towards that. This is the epitome of that.”

This story was originally published May 3, 2017 at 4:32 PM.