Friday, November 3 • San Antonio • Trinity's Bell Center
UT Tyler (13-9, 7-4) at St. Mary's (10-14, 5-8) • 4 p.m.
Saturday, November 4 • San Antonio • NISD Paul Taylor Fieldhouse
DBU (18-6, 10-2) at St. Mary's • 2 p.m.
Winding Down: The St. Mary's Volleyball team plays its final three matches of the regular season in San Antonio, hosting UT Tyler on Friday at Trinity and DBU Saturday at the NISD Paul Taylor Fieldhouse before finishing the 2023 regular season against Texas A&M Kingsville next Wednesday.
Series History: The Rattlers are searching for their first victory in the short series with UT Tyler. The Patriots have won the first two meetings, sweeping StMU in both 2021 and 2022. DBU owns a 25-17 edge in the series and has won three straight meetings, which have all been in Dallas. The Rattlers won the last match in San Antonio, winning a five-set thriller back on Oct. 20, 2019 and are 6-10 at home.
Serving Notice: St. Mary's has 136 aces this season, which ties for the ninth-most during the rally scoring era (2008-current). The squad is tied with the 2021 team and is 35 shy of the modern record of 171 by last year's team. The Rattlers rank seventh in the Lone Star Conference with 1.55 aces per set.
Double Trouble: Cali Nims moved into seventh in St. Mary's history with her 29th career double-double at Oklahoma Christian. Nims passed Kelsey Huber (2012-14) who had 27 in her career.
Jumping Johnson: With 15 block assists over the three matches last week, sophomore Dallasstar Johnson jumped into the top 20 in school history in both block assists and total blocks. Johnson now has 150 block assists to move into 18th, while she now ranks 19th with 172 total blocks. Johnson is three solo blocks away from tying Alyssa Werner (1997-98) for 20th on career charts with 25.
Setting the Table: For the first time in St. Mary's history two setters have hit the 1,000 career assist milestone in the same season. Junior Cali Nims did so in the season opener against Davenport and now has 1,494, while senior Aislan Lennon did so at UT Permian Basin and has 1,049. Both are close to moving up in the record book as Nims needs 50 to tie Kori McCarver (2007-10) for 7th, while Lennon is 34 shy of knotting Ginger Grimes (1996) for 12th.
Gotta Dig It: Sophomore libero Alyssa Koehl has recorded 45 matches with 10 or more digs in her career, which already ranks her 14th in St. Mary's history. She is also tied for 19th on the single-season chart with 23 double digit dig matches. Koehl has 808 career digs and is only 34 away from appearing on the school's top 20 list. Katie Griffin (1997-98) currently ranks 20th with 842 digs.
Aces Are Wild: Three Rattlers have served 20 or more aces on the year and six have collected double digits. Alyssa Koehl has 27, Dallasstar Johnson has 24 and Cali Nims has 20. The Rattlers have served nine more aces than their opponents.
Milestones: Several Rattlers are closing in on career milestones or recently achieved them.
Leah Cruz: 11 digs shy of 250
Dallasstar Johnson: 1 kill shy of 300; 50th ace at UAFS (50)
Alyssa Koehl: 9 assists shy of 200; 5 aces shy of 50; 800th dig at UAFS (808)
Brianna Morris-Worth: 4 kills from 300; 200th dig at OC (204)
Cali Nims: 6 assists shy of 1,500; 25 digs shy of 700
Laurene Robinson: 200th kill at OC (203); 100th dig vs TAMIU (111)
Abbey Stiffler: 16 assists shy of 400
Isabella Waggoner: 23 digs shy of 200
Landri Withers: 8 kills shy of 500; 400th dig at UAFS (403)
