Box Score
SAN ANTONIO — Whether up a point or down Thursday evening, St. Mary's Volleyball showed one constant: a fighting spirit.
It was only fitting, what with the players decked out in pink as they celebrated Breast Cancer Awareness Month in a Heartland Conference clash against Texas-Permian Basin.
The Rattlers dropped the match 3-1, but undoubtedly won the bigger-picture battle in emphatic fashion at Bill Greehey Arena.
With the help of their fans and families, the Rattlers honored breast cancer survivors and victims, and helped raise nearly $1,000 for the San Antonio 1000 Cancer Genome Project to support breast cancer research. In addition, St. Mary's sorority Beta Sigma Phi sold nearly 100 T-shirts with the proceeds going to the Breast Cancer Fund.
On the court,
Jenna Paul and
Melissa Heft led the offensive attack with 13 kills apiece, while
Kelsey Huber and
Lauren Slaughter added 10 more apiece in defeat. Slaughter led all Rattler hitters with a .333 hitting percentage, capitalizing on the fine setting of
Mikayla Bass (30 assists) and
Rachael Scicchitano (22 assists).
Victorria Martinez had a game-high 32 digs.
St. Mary's (9-11, 5-5) outhit Texas-Permian Basin (7-15, 4-6) .205-.195, but couldn't string together enough points to win the match after taking a 1-0 lead. After dropping the second set, St. Mary's led 17-14 in a momentum-changing third set, only to see the lead fade as the teams battled down the stretch. St. Mary's clawed back from a 17-11 deficit to tie the match at 24-24, but UTPB broke through to win 27-25. The Falcons took the fourth and final set 25-23 to win the match.
With the defeat, St. Mary's fell into a three-way tie for third place in the Heartland Conference. With the race to the tournament heating up, the Rattlers will host Lubbock Christian at Noon Saturday at Bill Greehey Arena.
St. Mary's University, as a Catholic Marianist University, fosters the formation of people in faith and educates leaders for the common good through community service, integrated liberal arts and professional education, and academic excellence. The University has six athletic national titles: men's basketball (1989–NAIA), baseball (2001–NCAA Div. II), softball (1986–NAIA and 2002–NCAA Div. II) and an individual national champion in men's golf (2006–NCAA Div. II) and a national academic championship in men's golf (2009–NCAA Div. II). St. Mary's also had more than 40 percent of its athletes named to conference, regional and/or national honor rolls this past year. St. Mary's student–athletes graduation rate is 65 percent, higher than the NCAA Division II average of 55 percent. To learn more about St. Mary's, visit www.rattlerathletics.com.
