Volleyball Starts Four-Match Road Trip on Friday

This Week in Rattlers Volleyball
Friday, Oct. 18 • St. Mary's (12-5, 4-2) at Texas Woman's (11-5, 4-2) • 6 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 19 • St. Mary's at Midwestern State (7-10, 1-5) • 2 p.m.

Hitting the Road: The St. Mary's Volleyball team heads out on the road for only the third time this season, playing at Texas Woman's on Friday and Midwestern State on Saturday. The Rattlers have played 12 of their 17 matches at home this year.

Now Appearing: Senior setter Cali Nims moved into the top 10 in school history in service aces last week and is tied for 10th with 105 aces. She also moved into the top 20 in digs with 871, passing former Rattlers setter Bree Perry (2016-19). There are only two other setters to rank in the top 20 in digs in Kristelle Rodriguez (1999-02) with 1,426 and Allie Murray (2009-12) with 1,193.

All-Time vs Texas Woman's: The Rattlers hold a slight 10-9 advantage over Texas Woman's in the all-time series which began in 1985. St. Mary's is only 2-3 at TWU as nine of the 19 matches have been on a neutral court. The Pioneers have won the last two meetings.

All-Time vs Midwestern State: St. Mary's also holds a one-match advantage in the series with Midwestern State, leading 11-10. The series dates back to 1980, though only three matches have taken place in Wichita Falls, with the Rattlers leading 2-1. Thirteen of the 21 matches have been on a neutral court. StMU has won the last five meetings with the Mustangs, including all three in Lone Star Conference play.

In the Books: Landri Withers ranks in the top five in school history with her previous performances against both opponents this week. Last year, Withers had 54 attacks against Midwestern State, which ties for the fifth-most in a four-set match. In 2023, Withers took 62 swings at Texas Woman's, tying for the fourth most in a five-set match. The StMU modern scoring record for kills in a five-set match also came against TWU, as Melissa Heft smashed 28 in 2014.

On Pace: St. Mary's is averaging 13.79 kills per set this season, which ranks third in the Lone Star Conference and 27th in all of Division II. The average would also break the school's modern day scoring format record, which is currently 12.90 by the 2012 team. The overall record is 15.42 by the 2002 squad. The Rattlers are also on pace to smash the school's single season hitting percentage record. The team is hitting .249, over 10 points better than the record of .235 by the 2000 team and the 25-point rally scoring record of .196 by the 2014 club.

Call Your Own Number: Senior setter Cali Nims recorded back-to-back career-highs in kills over the weekend with seven against UT Tyler and eight against DBU. Her 15 kills came on 33 swings with no errors (.455). She was only two kills shy of the first triple-double in school history since 2010.

All Good Things Must Come to an End: Senior Alicia Virthe snapped a 10-match streak of reaching double digits in kills on Saturday. The 10-match streak doubled her previous long of five straight done in both 2021 and 2023. 

Double Trouble: Both senior setter Cali Nims and junior outside hitter Landri Withers rank in the top 10 in St. Mary's history in double-doubles. Nims is sixth with 38 (assists-digs) in her career, while Withers is currently tied for 10th with 23 (kills-digs). Nims needs two more to jump into a tie for fourth, while Withers is two shy of tying for ninth.

Block Party: Sophomore middle blocker Olivia Rubio has totaled three or more blocks in each of the last eight matches, raising her average to 0.94 blocks per set from the 0.55 per set before the streak. Junior MB Dallasstar Johnson collected 13 blocks in the two matches last week to bring her average back up to 1.00 block/set to lead the team. Johnson has had multiple blocks in 14 of the team's 15 matches this season.

It's An Honor: Sophomore outside hitter Landri Withers became the third Rattler this season to earn Lone Star Conference Player of the Week honors and the first-ever to earn Offensive honors when she was honored on Oct. 8. She joins Cali Nims (Setter, Sept. 16) and Alyssa Koehl (Defense, Sept. 23) as honorees by the league this season.

Milestone Win: Not only was the win at Sul Ross State the first between the teams in LSC play, it was the 50th win of Head Coach Laura Ulrich's career. Ulrich is now 52-45 in her fourth season with the Rattlers. She already ranks sixth by wins among the 11 coaches in StMU history, and her .536 winning percentage ranks fourth.

Ain't It Grand x2: Junior libero Alyssa Koehl became the first Rattler since 2018 and the 16th ever to record 1,000 digs in a career, with her first dig in the second set against East Central. Koehl now has 1,223 digs and has jumped all the way to 9th on the St. Mary's career charts. Senior setter Cali Nims made it a double-grand when she recorded the 2,000th assist of her career in the win over Texas A&M Kingsville. Nims currently ranks sixth with 2,235 assists and tied for 10th with 105 service aces.

Digging It: According to the NCAA website, there are 104 current Division II players with 1,000 career digs and St. Mary's libero Alyssa Koehl is one of only 13 juniors on the list. The remaining 91 are seniors, including seven from the Lone Star. Koehl ranks 52nd among active DII players with 1,223.

Name    School    Digs
6. Daylee Doggett    DBU    1,946
44. Caleigh Enax    ASU    1,293
47. Bryli Contreras    WT    1,268
52. Alyssa Koehl    StMU    1,223
55. Addison Evans    UTT    1,213
61. Lixai Perez    TAMIU    1,177
72. RIley Daugherty    OC    1,139
87. Getsamani Carrasco    WT    1,085

Going Streaking: Alyssa Koehl has collected 10 or more digs in all 17 matches this season and in 32 in a row. Koehl has posted 10 or more in 65 of the 72 matches she's played for the Gold and Blue. 

Middle of the Pack: The Rattlers were picked ninth in the 17-team LSC Preseason poll. St. Mary's returns all seven starters off last season's club that was 12-15, but ended on a high-note, winning two of its final three matches. 

Closing In: Several Rattlers are closing in on career milestones or are close to moving up the career leaders list in St. Mary's history:

Name    Category    Milestone    Needs

Dallas Johnson    Kills    500    31

Dallas Johnson    Digs    200    21

Alyssa Koehl    Digs    8th place    76

Cali Nims    Assists    5th place    201

Cali Nims    Kills    100    7

Cali Nims    Digs    900    29

Olivia Rubio    Kills    100    19

Alicia Virthe    Digs    200    10

Isabella Waggoner    Digs    300    16

Landri Withers    Kills    700    10

Landri Withers    Kills    20th place    46