Sophomore says veteran leaders have been key to success
As a freshman last season, Darian Dozier was seemingly lost in a sea of other great players such as Bethanie Thomas, Cara Howley and Juliette Thévenin. This season, she’s making her presence known and has been one of the top contributors for the Gamecocks, recording 76 blocks and 128 kills on her young season. Those stats put her 1st and 2nd respectively on the team and almost eclipse the numbers she put up all of last season.
Dozier proves that sometimes, just a little experience can make all the difference.
“I think last season, I was really new to middle and I wasn’t really used to like playing the position,” Dozier said. “I’ve just come to learn the position a lot more and get more attempts.”
While Dozier has gained more confidence this season, she’s still an underclassman, and said that having seniors such as Thévenin on the floor can help cool everyone’s nerves.
“[Thevenin] helps a lot because well, obviously she’s our go-to player,” Dozier said. “So if we’re ever stuck in a rotation, we’re always looking to her to get us out of it”
Dozier also said the underclassmen need to take it upon themselves to get out of slumps and come together as a team so that next year, when Thévenin is gone, the sophomores and juniors will have to be able to step up without having someone to lean on.
Overall, the Gamecocks are 10-6 on the season, having won 5 out of their last 7, but fortunately for coach Scott Swanson, he didn’t have to wait long for their wake-up call after coming out of the Clemson tournament 0-3 and losing very winnable games to the likes of Clemson, Furman and Winthrop.
“I think we learned from that,” Swanson said. “And as hard as it is not having a better record going into SEC play, maybe that’s going to mentally help us understand that we can’t take a day off, we can’t take a match off.”
Dozier would tend to agree with her coach.
“I think after the Clemson tournament where we lost those three games, that became a real eye-opener for us,” Dozier said. “And we knew that if we continued to play like that, we weren’t going to be very successful, especially in the SEC.”
Things are, however, looking up for the Gamecocks who face their next three opponents at home before a 5-day layoff.
Consistency will be key though, as South Carolina is now in the meat of its SEC schedule, and practices will have to start being treated like games if success is to be expected.
Even with youth as an inhibiting factor, Dozier is still optimistic about the rest of the season.
“I think we’ve had a really good mentality,” she said. “So if we keep it up and keep trying new things like we have recently, we’ll really surprise teams and be able to have more success.”