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Scoreboard

Devan Hartung
Antonio Morano Photography
The Rattlers celebrate an important victory over DBU.
0
Dallas Baptist DBU 10-16
3
Winner St. Mary's STMU 11-12
Dallas Baptist DBU
10-16
0
Final
3
St. Mary's STMU
11-12
Winner
Set Scores
Team 1 2 3 F
Dallas Baptist DBU 20 21 22 (0)
St. Mary's STMU 25 25 25 (3)

Game Recap: Volleyball | | RattlerAthletics.com

PLAYOFF BOUND! 'Stressful' match spells big victory for Rattlers

By Chad Peters | St. Mary's Athletics Communications

SAN ANTONIO — St. Mary's season was effectively on the line Thursday night, as the Rattlers were facing their last opportunity at controlling their own postseason destiny upon taking the court against Heartland Conference foe Dallas Baptist.
 
And with such high stakes came high nerves for Rattler senior right side Melissa Heft.
 
"It was just really stressful coming into the game, to be really quite honest," she said.
 
But these Rattlers seem to play best when the stakes are highest.
 
St. Mary's swept DBU 3-0 at Bill Greehey Arena for its third straight shutout victory, securing a spot in the Heartland Conference Tournament that seemed to be slipping away as recently as two weeks ago.
 
The Rattlers (11-12, 8-7) were mired in a five-match skid, capped off by a stunning upset to Texas A&M International on Oct. 25 that put a dent in their playoff hopes.
 
But instead of fading, this veteran — and battle-tested — St. Mary's squad stayed the course, learning just how strong they really are along the way.
 
The Rattlers would go on the road to notch a difficult and impressive 3-0 victory over playoff-bound Newman last week, and followed that with another road shutout in a 3-0 triumph over Oklahoma Panhandle State.
 
Then came the most impressive of them all, Thursday's season-saving 25-20, 25-21, 25-22 victory over DBU (10-16).
 
Heft led the way with 13 kills, while surging sophomore Lauren Slaughter added 12 kills and eight digs with a .455 hitting percentage.
 
"I came in with a really focused attitude," Heft said. "I forgot about the rest of the season. We've had an up-and-down season, but this game was what our season was about. If we played as hard as we could, we could go into conference with a win on our back."
 
Celebrated senior libero Victorria Martinez moved into the No. 2 slot on the Heartland Conference career digs chart, collecting 22 digs against the Patriots to move past former DBU standout Cameron Hartson with 2,324 career digs.
 
Rachael Scicchitano led the Rattlers with 28 assists in the match.
 
The victory secures St. Mary's second straight tournament appearance and third overall in the five-year tenure of head coach Jenny Warmack-Chipman.
 
"It's a great feeling knowing that we got our season back," Heft said. "It's a good win."
 
The Rattlers will host No. 1-seeded Arkansas-Fort Smith in Saturday's regular-season finale at 12 p.m. at Bill Greehey Arena. The match also marks Senior Day for StMU.
 
St. Mary's could climb to as high as the No. 3 seed with a victory over the Lions on Saturday, as the Rattlers own the tiebreaker over Newman, which is currently a half-game ahead of StMU in the standings. A loss against UAFS would hand the Rattlers the fourth seed in the tournament, which will be held Nov. 14-15 in Fort Smith, Ark. 
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