Volleyball Back Out on the Road for Two

Friday, September 30 • Portales, N.M. • Greyhound Arena
St. Mary's (6-9, 2-2) at Eastern New Mexico (9-7, 0-4) • 7 p.m. Cent./6 p.m. Mtn.

Saturday, October 1 • Lubbock • Rip Griffin Center
St. Mary's at Lubbock Christian (5-10, 1-3) • 1 p.m.

Road Warriors: St. Mary's Volleyball heads back out on the road for a pair of Lone Star Conference matches, taking on Eastern New Mexico on Friday and Lubbock Christian on Saturday. The Rattlers have played 13 of 15 on the road this season and are 1-1 in LSC matches away from Bill Greehey.

A Look Ahead: Next Wednesday, the Rattlers host St. Edward's for the Battle of the Saints. The series is being featured on an docu-series called The Rivalries, highlighting some of the most intense rivalries in smaller schools. There will be food trucks and give-aways by show sponsor, LG during the match.

Off And Running: In the second set against Cameron on Friday, the Rattlers used a 23-2 run to win the set 25-7. Junior S Aislan Lennon served 16 straight points for StMU, including four aces to tie for the second-most lopsided set win in the 25-point era (25-4 vs OLLU). The four aces for Lennon doubled her previous career-high of two.

Aces High: St. Mary's ranks fourth in the Lone Star Conference in aces per set with 1.67, but has no players ranked among the leaders. Four different Rattlers have 10 or more aces this season, led by sophomore S Cali Nims with 20. In fact, all 14 players who have attempted a serve this year have at least one ace.

Even or Better: The Rattlers are guaranteed at least a 50% winning percentage for the month of September and a win at Eastern New Mexico on Friday would bring the record to 7-5 for the ninth month of the year.

Series Histories: St. Mary's holds a slight 9-6 edge in the all-time series with Eastern New Mexico. This will be just the second time the teams have met in Portales, as the Rattlers have won the last three matches - all in Bill Greehey. The Rattlers closed the gap in the series with Lubbock Christian, winning both meetings last year, and is now 9-10 all-time. The squad is 2-4 in Lubbock and this is the first meeting there since 2018.

Believed First: Freshman MB Dallasstar Johnson recorded double figures in digs in the first two Lone Star Conference matches. It is believed to be the first time in StMU DII history a middle blocker has recorded 10 or more digs in back-to-back matches. The last time a MB had more than 10 digs in a match was Sept. 20, 2019 when Jasmine Sims had 14 at DBU. (2005 results missing)

Top Freshmen: Freshman OH Landri Withers remained 14th in the Lone Star statistics with 2.92 kills per set, which is the top mark among true freshmen in the league. L Alyssa Koehl leads the team in digs with 3.75 per set, which is 17th in the league and third among freshmen. MB Dallasstar Johnson leads the team with 1.04 blocks per set, which is 11th in the league. 

Made To Be Broken: Freshman MB Dallasstar Johnson established a new record for individual block assists in a four-set match with 10 against Southeastern Oklahoma State, surpassing the previous total of eight. Senior MB Sadie Hough tied the school record for hitting percentage (10-14 attacks) in a match, hitting .900 (9-0-10) against UAFS.