Sarah Rumely Noble, USC VB show progress through first-year growing pains
Sarah Rumely Noble’s first season at the helm of South Carolina’s volleyball program has come with its ups and downs.
Noble, the former Appalachian State head coach and a Kentucky volleyball Hall of Famer, arrived in Columbia in April after she was announced as Tom Mendoza’s replacement March 31. She had far less time to get acclimated than a new coach would prefer, but her players took to her right away.
“We actually didn’t meet her until they hired her, and she actually wanted to have a Zoom with us as soon as she was hired,” said senior outside hitter Alayna Johnson, who played under Mendoza for her first three seasons. “She spoke about her vision for the program. … The thoughts that she had just really made me be like, ‘OK, I really want to play for her. I can tell she really cares about her players.’”
USC has had some solid showings in the early going under Noble. It took down then-No. 25 North Carolina at home Sept. 12 and started SEC play with three sweeps under its belt. But the Gamecocks came into Wednesday’s matchup against No. 9 Texas A&M 6-6 on the year, and started off SEC play 0-2 after road trips against top-ranked Kentucky and Tennessee ended in sweeps.
“Our goal is to maximize the roster that we have and to continue to keep the standards so that we can build a foundation that we can build upon,” Noble said. “As competitors, we really want to find ways to win in a lot of moments, but we have to keep our focus about the right things, which is building and developing and growing and getting better.”
The skid continued when USC fell to the Aggies in four sets, 3-1. However, the Gamecocks walked away with their first set win in conference play this season.
“We proved, once again, that we can get teams out of system with our serve, and we proved that we can kill balls against a really good team. And that stuff matters down the stretch,” Noble said. “I think down the stretch our execution just dipped a little bit. Our passing wasn’t quite as good as it had been, which then led to our setting being not quite as good, which led to our attackers being not quite as good, and that happens when you’re playing good teams.”
USC led its opponents in nearly every statistical category heading into its SEC home opener, which is a good sign — except for the errors. Noble’s group had committed 249 errors to its opponents’ 203 through 12 games, which has led to missed chances and lost sets. The Gamecocks were swept by Tennessee despite recording just four fewer kills, largely because of the team’s 30 errors, including six serving errors in the opening set.
That trend continued against the Aggies as USC fell short, 31-29, in set one. The Gamecocks had the first set point at 25-24 before a trail of three errors lifted Texas A&M to a 1-0 lead in the match. The positives shined through in the second set. The Gamecocks fell behind in kills 16-13, but committed just one error on the way to a 25-20 win.
“I didn’t even put two and two together that [the first set win] happened, because I’m just so in it with this team of getting better and being good in the moment that we’re in,” Noble said. “It’s great to be able to win the set, but now we’ve got to get back to business, and we’ve got to keep going.”
USC, after two hard-fought sets, came out for the third set looking seemingly out of juice. The Gamecocks fell to a 6-2 deficit with five errors in the early stretch. Noble called a timeout, and her squad came out of the huddle back in form. It went on a 11-7 run to tie the game, eventually taking a 15-13 lead into an Aggies timeout. Both teams traded short runs before Texas A&M prevailed in the set with a 25-21 win.
“I said, ‘Hey, let’s reset. Let’s get back to doing what we can do. … We have to battle in every moment,’” Noble said. “They believed that, and they kept going with it, and we gave ourselves a shot there.”
The fourth set found USC without anything left to muster, as it fell to the Aggies 25-13 and ended the game. The Gamecocks are now 0-3 in conference play, but carry valuable experience and room to grow.
I told my team right after, we’ve gotten better every match that we have played, and we have to just keep staying about that as we go through,” Noble said. “Let’s keep getting better. Let’s keep growing. … It’s staying about the process, which is really hard. It’s really hard because we’re competitors, and we want to win.”
USC’s schedule eases up with five straight currently unranked opponents, before picking up again in the final six games against three current top-25 teams: No. 23 Florida, No. 21 Missouri and No. 2 Texas. Luckily for the Gamecocks, they feel they have right person leading the way.
“She’s very up-paced,” Johnson said. “We know we’re gonna get 24/7 every single practice. She’s gonna come in, she’s gonna push us, she’s gonna drive us and she’s gonna be a leader, for sure.”
The Gamecocks host Georgia on Sunday afternoon on the SEC Network.
Upcoming USC volleyball schedule
- Sunday: vs. Georgia, 1 pm (SEC Network)
- Oct. 10: at Oklahoma, 7 pm (SEC Network Plus)
- Oct. 12: at Arkansas, 4 pm (SEC Network Plus)
- Oct. 17: vs. Mississippi State, 7 pm (SEC Network Plus)
- Oct. 19: vs. Alabama, 1 pm (SEC Network Plus)
This story was originally published October 2, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
