Volleyball Falters Against Falcons

ODESSA, Texas — Neither team was able to get into an offensive flow throughout the match, but the UT Permian Basin team was able to edge the St. Mary's University Volleyball team on Friday night, winning 25-19, 25-20, 21-25, 25-20.
 
The Rattlers (10-10, 5-4 Lone Star Conference) saw junior Alicia Virthe (Orlando, Fla.) lead the team in kills for the eighth time this season and the fourth time in the last six matches, as she tallied a match-high 15 kills and was the only Rattler in double figures.
 
Senior Brianna Morris-Worth (Yukon, Okla.) came off the bench in the first set and made some nice plays, starting the final three sets and ending the match with nine kills and four digs.
 
Sophomore Dallasstar Johnson (San Antonio) continued to block well, tallying six in the match to lead all players and she ended the night with seven kills. Sophomore libero Alyssa Koehl (New Braunfels, Texas) anchored the other aspect of the defense, leading the team with 18 digs. Junior setter Cali Nims (Corpus Christi, Texas) was right behind her with 17 digs and she added 27 assists for the 25th double-double of her career.
 
Senior setter Aislan Lennon (Houston) became only the 13th player in St. Mary's history to record 1,000 career assists, hitting the mark with her first assist in the first set. Lennon and Nims are also the only players in school history to hit the milestone in the same season, as Nims did so in the season opener against Davenport. Nims also notched career assist 1,400 on the evening.
 
The Rattlers committed an uncharacteristic nine service errors on the evening with only three aces and sided out below 50% in both the first and fourth sets, while the Falcons sided out at 55% or higher in all four sets.
 
St. Mary's will play at Angelo State on Saturday at 2 p.m. in San Angelo. The Rambelles won their fourth-straight match with a sweep over St. Edward's on Friday evening.