GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — For three Lady Rattlers, the upcoming South Central Regional tournament has come full circle.
All but three Rattlers will enter the all-or-nothing tournament for the first time Friday, but for seniors
Liz Boyd (San Antonio),
Felicia Jacobs (San Antonio) and
Amber Polvado (San Antonio), it will be a return back to their first season as Rattlers.
As freshmen, the trio — now seniors — experienced the hype of the regional tournament. For Boyd, it's a chance to fully recognize the potential and accomplishment of her personal athletic growth and that of her team.
“It's kind of the same but then again it's really different,” said Boyd of her return to the regional tournament. “The feeling is the same. I'm so excited to play and see how far we can get, but my freshman year I didn't really know what it meant to make it this far in the season. I didn't realize how many teams aren't playing at this time of year. Now that it's my last year as a senior, I definitely want to do better than I ever have in the previous years. I'm so proud of my team and what we've done and I'm just ready to go forward and see how far we can get.”
As the starting point all season, as well as one of the team's captains, Boyd has helped lead the Lady Rattlers into their fifth regional appearance in eight years and the fourth in head coach
Jason Martens' seven years.
In her last experience, Boyd and the Rattlers were ranked as the No. 8 seed, losing in the first round of the tournament to the No. 1 seed, West Texas A&M. Falling in a double-digit loss to West Texas A&M in her freshman season only gives Boyd further perspective of the dominance the Rattlers' could have in this tournament.
“This year, being ranked in the Top 5 as the No. 3 seed, it kind of gave us a new sense of confidence,” said Boyd, who has a team-high 99 assists on the season. “We've had it all season but then we would lose it and then get it back. But now we really just want to take it to them.
“We realize how good we are when we play at our best. We're just ready to do that.”
No. 3 St. Mary's starts the tournament at 1 p.m. (CDT) Friday, facing No. 6 Metro State in Grand Junction, Colo.
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.
