Volleyball Ready for Season Opening Tournament at WT

BRITKARE LADY BUFF CLASSIC
Friday, August 26 • Canyon • The Box
#12 Northwest Missouri State (0-0) vs. St. Mary's (0-0, 0-0)  • 9 a.m.
UC-Colorado Springs (0-0) vs. St. Mary's • 2 p.m.

Saturday, August 27 • Canyon • The Box
St. Mary's at #14 West Texas A&M (0-0) • 11:30 a.m.
St. Mary's vs Adams State (0-0) • 4:30 p.m.

Opening Up: St. Mary's will start the 2022 season with four matches in the annual Britkare Lady Buff Classic, hosted by West Texas A&M. The Rattlers will face a pair of ranked foes in #12 Northwest Missouri State on Friday and the Lady Buffs are ranked #14 in the preseason AVCA Poll.

Series Histories: The Rattlers are 1-1 all-time against Northwest Missouri State and haven't played since 2011. Both previous meetings were also on a neutral court. This will also be the third meeting against UCCS and the first since 2005. Both prior matches were at UCCS and wins for the Mountain Lions. The Rattlers are just 2-21 in school history against West Texas A&M but each of the last three meetings have gone five sets. This will be the second-straight contest against Adams State to take place in Canyon. StMU won in four sets in 2017 and are 1-2 all-time against the Grizzlies.

Fresh Faces: St. Mary's welcomes 11 new players to the roster for the 2022 season. The Rattlers have one graduate transfer, one junior college and one four-year college transfer and eight freshmen. They join the seven returners from the 2021 team.

Preseason Poll:  The St. Mary's Volleyball team was chosen to finish in the middle of the pack in the Lone Star Conference Preseason Poll, getting selected ninth of 17 teams.
2022 LSC Volleyball Preseason Poll
Rk    School    1st    Total
1.     West Texas A&M    21    707
2.     Angelo State    11    699
3.     UT Tyler    7    680
4.     Lubbock Christian        586
5.     DBU    3    560
6.     UT Permian Basin    2    491
7.     St. Edward's        474
8.    UAFS        460
9.    St. Mary's        364
10.    Texas A&M-Kingsville        363
11.     Oklahoma Christian        334
12.     Texas Woman's        283
13.     Eastern New Mexico        222
14.     Texas A&M International         188
15.     Midwestern State        145
16.     Western New Mexico        120
17.     Cameron        56

Be On The Lookout: Sophomore setter Cali Nims was named one of the Preseason Players to Watch on the inaugural list released by the Lone Star Conference. A season ago, Nims was named to the All-Conference Freshman Team after she tallied six double-doubles in assists and digs during 2021. She averaged 5.51 assists and 2.14 digs per set.