Volleyball Sweeps LCU for Undefeated Weekend

LUBBOCK, Texas – The St. Mary's Volleyball team has won four of its last five matches, including a sweep over Lubbock Christian on Saturday afternoon, 25-20, 25-21, 25-23.
 
The Rattlers (8-9, 4-2 Lone Star Conference) seemed to frustrate the Lady Chaps (7-11, 3-4 Lone Star) with their block coverage, as several times LCU thought they had won the point with a block, only to have the defense get to the ball before it touched the court.
 
Sophomore Cali Nims (Corpus Christi, Texas) recorded her second-straight double-double with 23 assists and 13 digs. 
 
Freshman Landri Withers (Stephenville, Texas) posted a match-high 11 kills and the Chaps served her over 1/3 of the time, as she had 21 of the team's 60 receptions without an error.
 
The Gold & Blue had a well-balanced attack in the sweep, as both junior Brianna Morris-Worth (Yukon, Okla.) and senior Sadie Hough (Cleburne, Texas) each added eight kills and junior Lindsey Ogle (Houston) chopped in seven as the team tallied 43.
 
Hough also led the block attack, notching four, while four others each had a pair as both teams recorded six blocks.
 
The freshman duo of Abbey Stiffler (York, Pa.) and Dallasstar Johnson (San Antonio) each had two aces – and each had one that clipped the tape and fell before a defender could get to it.
 
Freshman libero Alyssa Koehl (New Braunfels, Texas) continued to pace the defensive efforts, recording a team-high 14 digs.
 
Wednesday the Rattlers host rival, St. Edward's in the Battle of the Saints at 6 p.m. The two teams are being featured in an NCAA Docu-series titled the "The Rivalries" sponsored by LG. The match will have food trucks with free food for the first 250 St. Mary's students, along with giveaways by LG. 
 
The Rivalries series is available free and exclusively on the NCAA Championships Channel (Channel 100) via LG Channels on LG Smart TVs.  Each episode highlights a different sports rivalry as told through interviews, historical moments, and the most recent game footage. Future episodes will be announced at a later date.
 
INDIVIDUAL PLAYER & TEAM NOTES

• Despite the Rattlers winning in three sets, the statistics were shockingly similar. Kills: StMU 43, LCU 40. Aces StMU 4, LCU 3. Each team had 54 digs and 6 blocks.
• Alyssa Koehl has recorded double digits in each of the last eight matches and in 13 of the 17 this season.
• Sadie Hough was one off her season high of nine kills, recording eight and hitting a team-best .294 on the afternoon.
• St. Mary's missed only one serve in the match, posting four aces. It is the 10th time this year the team has had an even or positive ace-to-error ratio.
• The Rattlers averaged 19.50 digs per set over the weekend after recording 156 digs in eight sets.