Skip To Main Content
Skip To Main Content

St. Mary's University Athletics

Official Athletics Site of St. Mary's University

Scoreboard

Alissa Tolbert
Antonio Morano Photography
2
St. Mary's STMU 0-1
3
Winner West Texas A&M WT 1-0
St. Mary's STMU
0-1
2
Final
3
West Texas A&M WT
1-0
Winner
Set Scores
Team 1 2 3 4 5 F
St. Mary's STMU 13 25 24 25 8 (2)
West Texas A&M WT 25 23 26 18 15 (3)
0
Tuskegee TU 0-2
3
Winner St. Mary's STMU 1-1
Tuskegee TU
0-2
0
Final
3
St. Mary's STMU
1-1
Winner
Set Scores
Team 1 2 3 F
Tuskegee TU 17 14 15 (0)
St. Mary's STMU 25 25 25 (3)

Game Recap: Volleyball | | RattlerAthletics.com

Volleyball splits opening day of 2019 season

by Heather Kennedy | RattlerAthletics

CANYON, Texas – At the BritKare Lady Buff Classic, the St. Mary's Women's Volleyball team opened the 2019 season with a split on the West Texas A&M campus. The Rattlers dropped a heartbreaker in five sets to the hosts, 13-25, 25-23, 24-26, 25-18, 8-15 before bouncing back to sweep Tuskegee 25-17, 25-14, 25-15 in the nightcap.

Sophomore outside hitter Alissa Tolbert (San Antonio) recorded double-doubles in kills and digs in both matches to lead the team. She totaled 23 kills and 26 digs on the day. Senior setter Bree Perry (Houston, Texas) did a great job of spreading the ball around to her hitters as they are all averaging between 1.25 and 2.88 kills per set. Sophomore transfer Jasmine Sims (Graham, Texas) led the team with four aces and she hit .310 over both matches.

The team returns to the court tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. to face Southern Arkansas to conclude the tournament.

WEST TEXAS A&M REVIEW
In the season opener, four hitters reached double figures in kills and both senior KK Payne (New Braunfels, Texas) and Tolbert recorded double-doubles in kills and digs as Payne tallied 11 kills and 12 digs and Tolbert posted 10 kills with a team-best 13 digs. Sims paced the team with 12 kills and hit a team-best .310 in the opener and fellow sophomore Rachel McDonald (Indianapolis, Indiana) chipped in 10 kills. McDonald and senior Savannah Alcazar (League City, Texas) also each had four blocks to tie for match-high honors.

StMU hit .118 for the match with 67 digs, seven team blocks and three service aces – all coming from different players.

West Texas A&M was led by Selena Batiste with 20 kills and a .410 hitting percentage, while Chandler Vogel notched 35 digs. Raquel Valdez had four blocks, including the only solo stop of the match and both Kamryn Artale and Torey Miller had a pair of aces. The Lady Buffs hit .174 for the match with five aces, five blocks and 80 digs.

The Rattlers struggled to get any momentum in the first set, as the Lady Buffs scored the first seven points of the match. Alcazar got the first kill of the season for the Rattlers – a much awaited kill for the senior who missed the vast majority of 2018 due to injury. After the teams traded points for the 8-2 tally, McDonald added a kill for StMU, but WT went on a five-point rally to extend its lead to 12-3. The Rattlers never managed to put together more than a two-point run in the set and lost 25-13.

The Gold & Blue flipped the script for the second set, jumping out to the early 6-1 lead. They had kills by Sims and McDonald, as well as an ace by Sims. At 7-3, StMU scored three straight, with back-to-back slams by Payne and Tolbert for the 10-3 score. The two teams battled back-and-forth with the Buffs closing within one, 21-20, but Alcazar got a big kill. Two straight by WT knotted the score at 22-22 before Tolbert and McDonald each got kills to bring up match point. A timeout by West Texas brought them a one-point reprieve, but Tolbert ended the second set with her third kill of the stanza to knot the score at 1-1.

St. Mary's again took the early lead, building a 9-3 advantage with two kills by Sims, one by McDonald and five WT errors. After the teams traded points, WT used a five-point rally to close within one, 10-9 when Payne stopped the slide with a kill. Each team used mini two-point runs and WT scored two more to knot the score at 13-13. With Payne serving, the Rattlers scored five straight off kills by Payne and Tolbert, and ace serve and a block by Alcazar and Sims for the 18-13 tally. West Texas answered with a four-point run of its own for the 18-17 score, but Tolbert ended the run with another kill. The teams exchanged points and the Rattlers pushed three more points behind a McDonald kill and two WT errors for the 23-18 lead. The Gold & Blue held a 24-20 advantage, however WT was able to string together the final six points of the set for the set win.

For the third-straight set, StMU set the tone early scoring five of the first six points with three kills by Sims and a block by her and Alcazar. WT scored four of the next five so the scoreboard read 6-5 but the Rattlers used a six-point rally to build a 12-5 lead. Tolbert and McDonald each had a kill and the other four points were off WT miscues. After a West Texas timeout, the Lady Buffs rattled off four of the next five and the scoreboard read 13-9, but the Rattlers again had an answer as Sims killed back-to-back balls and Alcazar put one down for the 16-9 lead. WT scored six of the next eight to cut the lead to three, 18-15, but StMU blasted six of seven points to extend its advantage back to eight, 24-16. The Rattlers won the set 25-18 to force the fifth and deciding set.

The clubs went back-and-forth to begin the fifth set, tying at 4-4 before WT scored two straight for the 6-4 lead and Coach Armstrong called her first timeout. Tolbert recorded her 10th kill of the match out of the break to bring the Rattlers within one, but that was as close as they would get as WT scored five of the next six and went on to win 15-8.

TUSKEGEE REVIEW
The Rattlers moved to 1-1 on the year with the three-set sweep over Tuskegee, 25-17, 25-14, 25-15.

St. Mary's hit .287 for the match and held the Tigers to .000. Tolbert was the only Rattler to record double figures in kills, garnering 13, while she matched that total in digs. Perry had all 35 of the team's assists in the match and was second on the club with six digs. Both Sims and freshman Shea Slusser (Denton, Texas) led the match with three aces each. All three of Slusser's aces came in the third set. Payne led the team with a .669 hitting percentage as she did not have a hitting error in the two sets she played (6-0-9).

Tuskegee was led by Crystal Hall with a match-high 16 kills and eight digs. The Tigers managed only one block on the Rattlers and they had two aces on the evening. The team had 23 kills and 26 digs in dropping to 0-2 on the season.

After falling behind 4-1 early in the first set, the Rattlers rallied to score the next three and knot the score at 4-4 on the strength of an ace and kill by Sims. The score was tied at every point from five to nine before StMU rallied for seven of the next eight points to stretch the lead to 16-10. Perry did a great job distributing the ball as four different Rattlers recorded kills throughout the run. Tuskegee scored five of the next seven to cut the lead to three, 18-15, but StMU punched off seven of the last nine points for the 25-17 victory.

Trailing 2-1 in the second set, the Gold & Blue went on a six-point run to take a 7-2 lead as Tolbert had two kills, McDonald had one and Sims posted another ace and the Tigers used their first timeout. After one TU point, Tolbert posted back-to-back kills and Haley Bradfute (New Braunfels) recorded her first ace of the year to give the Rattlers a 10-3 lead. Up 11-5, the Rattlers used another run to extend their lead, scoring six of seven for the 17-6 advantage. Sims had two more kills and McDonald and Perry combined for a block during the run. Four of the next five points went the way of the Tigers, but Tolbert recorded a kill and combined with McDonald for a block to double up TU, 20-10. StMU went on to win 25-14.

A quick 7-0 start to the third set behind the strong serving of Slusser put the Rattlers in nice position. Slusser had three aces and a kill, while Tolbert posted two kills and Alcazar chipped in another. The Tigers scored four of the next five to cut their deficit in half, 8-4, but the Rattlers answered with three of the next four and the scoreboard read 10-6. Leading 10-7, StMU scored six of the next eight with three kills by Slusser to push the lead to seven, 16-9. After a quick TU point, the Rattlers went back to work, pushing three across, including an ace by Sims for the 19-10 tally. The Tigers scored a pair, but the Gold & Blue scored four of five with two Tolbert kills and another by McDonald for the 23-13 score. The match ended with each team scoring two each for the 25-15 final.
 
Print Friendly Version

Sponsors