Friday, September 22 • San Antonio • Bill Greehey Arena • LONE STAR CONFERENCE OPENER
Texas Woman's (8-3, 0-0) at St. Mary's (5-6, 0-0) • 6 p.m.
Saturday, September 23 • San Antonio • Bill Greehey Arena
Midwestern State (3-9, 0-0) at St. Mary's • 2 p.m.
Week Four: St. Mary's finally has its season home opener, kicking off Lone Star Conference action with matches against Texas Woman's on Friday night and Midwestern State on Saturday afternoon.
Opening Up: The Rattlers are 13-9 in home openers since joining the Division II ranks in 2000 and are 1-2 in Lone Star Conference openers. This is the second-straight season the Rattlers have kicked off the league campaign against TWU with the Pioneers winning a hard-fought five-set battle in Denton a year ago. Each of the first three sets in that match went extra points.
Series History: The Rattlers hold a 10-8 advantage in the all-time series against Texas Woman's and are 2-2 at home. This will be the first home match against the Pioneers since 2014 - a five-set victory for StMU. Midwestern State and St. Mary's are knotted at 10-10 in the series between the teams. They are also tied 2-2 in matches on the StMU campus and the Rattlers have won the last four.
Fastest to 100: Sophomore OH Landri Withers became the first Rattler this season to reach 100 kills as she now has 101. Withers has recorded double figures in kills four times and has reached seven or more nine times. Withers also tied for the third-most swings in a four-set match in modern scoring (2008) with 55 against UAFS last week.
Record Book Watch: Junior Cali Nims is four service aces shy of moving into the top 20 in St. Mary's history in career aces. Nims currently has 73, while both Anna Seals (2002-05) and Alissa Tolbert (2018-2021) are tied for 20th with 77.
Looking Back: The Rattlers dropped all three matches in the LSC Tournament Preview, losing to UAFS in four and getting swept by Angelo State and Texas A&M Kingsville. The Rattlers did hit .226 against the Javelinas - the highest hitting percentage for the team in a loss this year. Sophomore OH Laurene Robinson had a strong week, averaging 2.89 kills/set while hitting .233.
Double Trouble: Sophomore libero Alyssa Koehl has recorded 10 or more digs in all 11 matches this season and now has 32 double digit dig totals in her career. She is averaging 4.23 digs per set this season and she is now 10 digs shy of 600 for her career.
Setting the Table: Both junior setter Cali Nims and senior setter Aislan Lennon moved up one spot on the career chart at St. Mary's. Nims moved into ninth with 1,217 assists, passing Sondra Cui (2008-09) who recorded 1,153, while Lennon moved into 13th and now has 905 assists. She passed Mikayla Bass (2012-13) with 889.
Milestones: Several Rattlers are closing in on career milestones or recently achieved them.
Leah Cruz: 14 digs shy of 200
Dallasstar Johnson: 200th kill at TAMUK, 9/16 (201); 2 digs shy of 100
Alyssa Koehl: 10 digs shy of 600
Aislan Lennon: 900th assist at TAMUK, 9/16 (905); 9 digs shy of 400
Lindsey Ogle: 4 kills shy of 400; 1 block shy of 100
Isabella Waggoner: 100th dig vs UAFS, 9/14 (124)
Landri Withers: 8 kills shy of 400; 21 digs shy of 300
