Volleyball Season Comes to an End in Quarterfinals

CANYON, Texas – Showing the grit and toughness they have most of the season, the St. Mary's Volleyball team fought back from a rough start but eventually fell in four sets (25-13, 25-18, 23-25, 25-22) to Texas A&M International in the quarterfinals of the Lone Star Conference Tournament on Thursday afternoon.
 
During the regular season, the Rattlers (14-14) had a hard time disrupting the Dustdevils (23-7) managing no aces with eight service errors, however they flipped the script on Thursday with seven aces and just four errors (and two of those were the first two points of the fourth set).
 
"I am so proud of this group of young women," said Head Coach Laura Ulrich. "They exceeded any expectations others had for them and showed up for each other the whole season. I am so impressed with the maturity of our sophomores and upperclassmen and the resiliency of our freshmen. We couldn't have accomplished our goal of reaching the conference tournament without the contributions of every single member of the team."
 
Freshman Landri Withers (Stephenville, Texas) led the charge with three aces, while four others each had one. Withers also finished second on the team with nine kills and added 11 digs, narrowly missing her eighth double-double of the year.
 
The Rattlers leader in kills in the match was junior Brianna Morris-Worth (Yukon, Okla.) with 10. Senior Sadie Hough (Cleburne, Texas) ended her career with eight kills and freshman Laurene Robinson (Bedford, Texas) wrapped up her first year with seven kills.
 
Freshman Alyssa Koehl (New Braunfels, Texas) collected a match-high 21 digs and sophomore setter Cali Nims (Corpus Christi, Texas) chipped in 30 assists and nine digs. She also recorded her second block assist of the season as the Rattlers switched to a traditional 5-1 offense midway through the second set, allowing Nims to play in the front row. Freshman Dallasstar Johnson (San Antonio) led the Rattlers with three blocks.
 
The match concludes the 2022 season for the Rattlers as they advanced to the Lone Star Tournament for the second-straight year. The team says goodbye to two seniors in Hough and Liz Ugbaja (Houston).

At the conclusion of the tournament, Nims was named to the All-Tournament team for her efforts.
 
"I am so thankful for the support from our student-athletes' families, our athletic department as well as from all of Rattler Nation," continued Ulrich. "The future is bright with this program."