By Heather Kennedy | RattlerAthletics
CANYON, Texas – The St. Mary's Volleyball team swept Southern Arkansas 25-23, 26-24, 25-17 on the final day of the 2019 BritKare Lady Buff Classic at "The Box" on the campus of West Texas A&M to improve to 2-1 on the young season.
Both outside hitters reached double figures in kills for the Rattlers, as sophomore
Alissa Tolbert (San Antonio) led the way with 11 and senior
KK Payne (New Braunfels, Texas) was right behind her with 10. The pair both hit well, as Payne hit .333 (10-3-21) and Tolbert hit .320 (11-3-25). As a team the Rattlers hit .308 for the match (43-15-91) with just 10 unforced errors in the three sets.
The Gold & Blue also served aggressively with seven aces, two each by sophomore
Jasmine Sims (Graham, Texas), senior
Bree Perry (Houston, Texas) and sophomore
Catherine Cruz (San Antonio). Cruz also led the team with six digs and sophomore
Rachel McDonald (Indianapolis, Indiana) led the way with three blocks.
For the third-straight match, Perry did a great job of distributing the ball as the five hitters all recorded between six and 11 kills on the morning, and she called her own number a little more, recording three kills on four swings. She also had 39 assists.
The defense held the Muleriders to a .244 hitting percentage, including .103 in the final set. Seven Powers led SAU with 12 kills, while Lauren Smith had three blocks and Alana Perez had a match-high eight digs.
"I'm proud of the team and the grit they showed," Head Coach
Stephanie Armstrong said. "Our ball control and defense were solid all weekend and I'm looking forward to us building on that. We did a good job of playing together as a team and having a lot of energy on the court. We had solid offensive success today in the Southern Arkansas match and I'm looking forward to building on that through the rest of the season."
After the conclusion of the tournament, both Sims and sophomore libero
Catherine Cruz (San Antonio) were honored on the 2019 BritKare Lady Buff Classic All-Tournament Team. Sims totaled 23 kills, six aces and four blocks, while hitting .259 over the three matches, while Cruz had 21 digs, two aces and 34 receptions for the weekend.
The Rattlers travel to the Texas A&M Kingsville tournament next, which begins on Thursday with matches against the host Javelinas and Westminster, Southwest Baptist on Friday and concludes with two matches against Edinboro and Augustana on Saturday. The Rattlers don't open their home schedule until Sept. 27 against Eastern New Mexico in a Lonestar Conference tilt at 6 p.m.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Trailing 2-1 in the opening set, the Rattlers used a 6-1 run to gain a 7-3 lead with a pair of kills each by Alcazar and Tolbert and one by Sims. After a SAU kill, StMU scored two straight to stretch the lead to five, 9-4. The Muleriders scored six of the next eight to cut it to a one-point set, 11-10, but a Payne kill pushed the lead back to a pair. The teams were tied at every point from 12 to 15 before the Rattlers regained a two-point advantage on back-to-back kills by Tolbert and Perry for the 17-15 edge. SAU tied it at 17, but a kill by Payne and an ace by Cruz again gave the Rattlers a two-point lift. The teams traded points to 21-19 when SAU managed back-to-back scores to again knot it at 21-21. After the 22-22 tie, Payne and McDonald recorded back-to-back kills to give the Gold & Blue its first set point. The Muleriders held off one, but a service error gave the Rattlers set one, 25-23.
Southern Arkansas jumped out to a 7-2 lead in the second set, but the Rattlers scored seven of the next nine points to tie the score at 9-9. In the run, Alcazar, McDonald and Perry each had a kill and Cruz added another ace. Sims recorded a kill to knot things up at 10-10 to kick off a three-point rally in which Perry added an ace. After two quick points by SAU to tie the score at 12-12, Payne and McDonald again went back-to-back in the kill department for the 14-12 lead. The teams were then tied on the scoreboard from 14 through 19 when SAU took a slight two-point lead, 21-19. Payne notched another kill and a Mulerider miscue tied things for the 11
th time. An ace by Perry forced SAU to call a timeout. They scored three of the next four to give the Muleriders their first set point, 24-23, but Sims notched a kill to tie things up at 24-24 and Tolbert followed with a kill to give the Rattlers their first set point at 25-24. McDonald and Sims combined for the team's only block of the set for the 26-24 victory.
The Rattlers carried the momentum of the win over into the third set, leaping out to a 10-2 lead, including three service aces – one by Payne and two by Sims – and kills by Payne, Alcazar and Tolbert. SAU battled back scoring seven of the next nine points to cut the Rattlers lead to three, 12-9. Four of the next five points went the way of the Rattlers to stretch their lead to six, 16-10 as Sims and Payne added to their kill totals. The clubs traded points to 18-12 when SAU used a three-point run to cut the deficit in half, 18-15, but the Gold & Blue scored seven of the final nine points of the set for the 25-17 win. Tolbert and McDonald each had two kills, while McDonald and Perry combined on a block during the final stretch.
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