Volleyball Stretches Streak to Three With Pair of Saturday Wins

EDMOND, Okla. – Using a well-balanced offense, the St. Mary's Volleyball team won both matches on Saturday with a four-set win over Emporia State on the UCO campus, 25-21, 17-25, 25-11, 25-18 and a sweep over Southern Nazarene at Oklahoma Christian, 25-16, 25-20, 25-23.
 
The Rattlers have now won three matches in a row and are 3-5 on the season. 
 
St. Mary's will face three Lone Star Conference foes in non-conference action next weekend, facing DBU, UT Permian Basin and UAFS all at DBU. The match against the Patriots will be Thursday at six, while the following two days the matches are slated to begin at 3 p.m.
 
ESU RECAP
After splitting the first two sets, the Rattlers stepped up the pressure on the Lady Hornets, winning the final two sets 25-11 and 25-18, hitting .350 with only three unforced errors over the stretch. 
 
Sophomore setter Cali Nims (Corpus Christi, Texas) posted the first double-double of the season for the Rattlers with 15 assists and a season-high 10 digs. 
 
The freshmen duo of Dallasstar Johnson (San Antonio) and Landri Withers (Stephenville, Texas) tied for match-high honors with six blocks each and Withers posted a match- and career-high 15 kills, hitting .448 (15-2-29).
 
Freshman libero Alyssa Koehl (New Braunfels, Texas) led the team with 17 digs and freshman setter Abbey Stiffler (York, Pa.) posted 19 assists.
 
SNU RECAP
Defense won the night for the Rattlers in the second match as the team combined for 11 blocks and had 42 digs in the straight-set victory. Stiffler also tied for the fifth-most service aces in a three-set match in school history with six.
 
Withers again paced the offense, recording 10 kills, while Johnson added another six blocks and eight kills. Sophomore transfer Michelle Jung (Scottsdale, Ariz.), playing in her first extended action of the year, recorded seven kills, hit .417 (7-2-12) and was second on the team with five blocks.
 
Both Nims and Stiffler had 13 assists each and the pair combined for 13 digs. Koehl led the team with nine digs.
 
The Rattlers led wire-to-wire in the first and third sets and overcame six ties and six lead changes to win the middle stanza.  The defense also held the Storm to a negative hitting percentage in set one, forcing eight errors and allowing only five kills (-.120).
 
INDIVIDUAL PLAYER & TEAM NOTES

• The .227 hitting percentage for the Rattlers against Emporia State is a season-best as the team had only nine unforced hitting errors over the four sets.
• Sophomore setter Cali Nims posted the team's first double-double of the season with 15 assists and 10 digs against ESU.
• Abbey Stiffler recorded six service aces in the win over Southern Nazarene, tying for the fifth-highest total in school history in a three-set match.
• The Rattlers averaged 3.18 blocks per set in the four matches over the weekend, led by 1.71 per set by freshman Dallasstar Johnson. The team also out-blocked the four opponents 44.5-18 (+26.5).
• In three of the four matches at the UCO/OC Classic, the Rattlers had either an even or a positive service ace-to-error ratio.