By Heather Kennedy | St. Mary's Athletics Communications
DALLAS — Redemption is always sweet, and snapping a two-match losing streak and staying close to the top of the conference standings doesn't hurt either. That's exactly what the St. Mary's Volleyball team did on Thursday evening at the Burg Center on the Dallas Baptist campus as they defeated the Patriots in four sets, 25-23, 19-25, 25-20, 25-22.
With the win, the Rattlers improve to 14-13 on the year and 8-3 in Heartland Conference play. They remain in second place in the league standings. DBU falls to 11-17 overall and 4-7 in the league.
StMU was led by senior Channing Hankins (Katy, Texas) with 14 kills, including seven in the fourth and final set. She also recorded a season-high seven digs. Freshman Alissa Tolbert (San Antonio) tallied her ninth double-double of the year with 11 kills and 12 digs. Senior Monica Ramon (San Antonio) topped the 30-dig plateau for the second-straight match, recording a season-best 37. Ramon also topped the 1,000 career dig mark tonight in a Rattlers' uniform and now has 1,005 in her two seasons.
"Channing stepped up and wanted the ball when we needed her to get it the most," Head Coach Stephanie Armstrong said. "I also thought our block was solid all night. If we didn't block the ball for a point, we funneled the ball to our defense."
Senior Jaycie Pluenneke (Liberty Hill, Texas) paced the Rattlers with a .286 hitting percentage and three different players each had one service ace.
The Rattlers close out the regular season at St. Edward's on Saturday in Austin. First serve is scheduled for noon.
"I'm very proud of the girls," Armstrong continued. "I'm excited for us to feed off this win, not only for Saturday's match against St. Ed's, but for the conference tournament as well. It was great to see the girls come together as a team and get this win, especially since they have beaten us both time we have played them this year."
In the first set, the two teams battled back-and-forth with no team ever gaining more than a four-point advantage. Trailing 14-16, Coach Armstrong called a timeout and the Rattlers scored four straight, including consecutive blocks by freshman Rachel McDonald (Indianapolis) and sophomore Mackenzie Harless (Brownsburg, Indiana) for the 18-16 lead. Later the two squads were tied at 23-23 when back-to-back kills by Tolbert and Hankins gave the Rattlers the win, 25-23. Each ended the set with four kills.
The Rattlers dug themselves an 8-1 hole to start the second set, but battled back to trail by just one, 19-20, however, the Patriots scored the final five points to win the set 25-19.
Each team used a long scoring run in the third set, but the Rattlers were able to capitalize on a second one behind the strength of their seniors for the 25-20 win. Trailing 6-4, Ramon stepped to the service line and led the first rally - a seven-point run - which saw kills by Tolbert, Pluenneke and Harless, as well as an ace by Ramon and a block by Tolbert and Pluenneke. The second run started with the score knotted at 14-14 and Pluenneke got another kill. Tolbert stepped back to the service line, to rattle off five more points with an ace, two Hankins' kills and two Pluenneke-Martinez blocks.
There were 14 ties in the fourth and deciding set before Hankins took over with the score tied at 20-20. She proceeded to record back-to-back kills from the right side of the floor and DBU called a timeout. After a Patriots point, Hankins notched another kill, this time from the left side. She returned to the right side for the team's 24th point and then she and McDonald teamed up for the block to give the team the match point and the win.
