Volleyball Ends Four Match Road Trip at UTPB and ASU

Friday, October 20 • Odessa • Falcon Dome
St. Mary's (10-9, 5-3) at UT Permian Basin (13-6, 4-4) • 6 p.m.

Saturday, October 21 • San Angelo • Stephens Arena, Junell Center
St. Mary's at #RV Angelo State (17-3, 7-1) • 2 p.m.

Four Straight: The St. Mary's Volleyball team wraps up a four-match road trip, playing at UT Permian Basin on Friday and Angelo State on Saturday. This will be the second time this season the Rattlers have faced each, falling in five at UTPB in the Iceman Invitational on Sept. 9 and losing in straight sets at the LSC Tournament Preview to Angelo State on Sept. 15.

Series History: The Rattlers hold a slim 14-13 lead in the all-time series with UT Permian Basin, but the Falcons have won four of the six meetings since StMU joined the Lone Star Conference, including a five-setter earlier this season in Odessa. St. Mary's trails 25-16 in the series with Angelo State and was swept in Kingsville by the Rambelles just over a month ago. This will be the first time the teams have played in San Angelo since 2018 - a five-set thriller that saw the home team win 15-10 in the deciding set.

One More: The next assist for senior Aislan Lennon will have her in rare company as she will become only the 13th player in St. Mary's history to have 1,000 or more career assists. Lennon stands at 999 after recording a season-high 22 assists at Western New Mexico on Friday. It will be the first time in school history two players have recorded their 1,000th career assist in the same season, as Cali Nims hit the milestone in the season opener against Davenport.

Aces Are Wild: Six different Rattlers have served 10 or more aces on the year as Alyssa Koehl and Dallasstar Johnson each have 20, Cali Nims has 19, Isabella Waggoner and Landri Withers each have 14 and senior Aislan Lennon has 12 after serving up six on the weekend. Freshman Haleigh Wilk also has nine. The Rattlers have served 21 more aces than their opponents and rank sixth in the Lone Star Conference with 1.71 aces per set.

Countdown is On: After recording four or more blocks in the five of the last six matches, sophomore MB Dallasstar Johnson is inching closer to the top 20 in three statistical categories on the StMU career charts. She is four solo blocks away from tying Alyssa Werner (1997-98) for 20th on career charts with 25, 13 block assists from tying both Andy Salazar (1996-99) and Megan Isbell (2013-16) for 19th with 143 and nine total blocks away from tying Salazar and Werner for 20th. 

Going Streaking: The Rattlers are 6-3 this season when Alicia Virthe records double digits in kills. The junior has recorded double figures in six of the last seven matches and has at least six kills in every Lone Star Conference match this season.  

Milestones: Several Rattlers are closing in on career milestones or recently achieved them.

Dallasstar Johnson: 4 aces shy of 50; 150th block at WNMU (151)

Alyssa Koehl: 700th dig at WNMU (710)

Aislan Lennon: 1 assist shy of 1,000; 50th ace at WNMU (50)

Brianna Morris-Worth: 10 digs shy of 200; 0.5 points shy of 300

Cali Nims: 15 assists shy of 1,400; 600th dig at WNMU (606)

Lindsey Ogle: 3 kills shy of 400

Laurene Robinson: 13 kills shy of 200; 6 digs shy of 100

Abbey Stiffler: 26 assists shy of 400

Kelly Swyers: 100th kill at WNMU (105)

Alicia Virthe: 18 kills shy of 400; 2 digs shy of 100

Isabella Waggoner: 23 digs shy of 200

Landri Withers: 37 kills shy of 500