Volleyball Will Play Three of Final Four of Regular Season on the Road

This Week in Rattlers Volleyball
Thursday, Nov. 7 • St. Mary's (14-9, 6-6) at UT Permian Basin (12-9, 5-7) • 6 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 9 • St. Mary's at Western New Mexico (7-17, 3-9) • 7 p.m.

Down to the Wire: The St. Mary's Volleyball team has two weeks remaining in the regular season and is in the hunt for one of the eight bids to the Lone Star Conference Championship. The Rattlers play three of their final four on the road, beginning at UT Permian Basin on Thursday at 6, followed by a trip to Western New Mexico on Saturday evening.

Freshman of the Week: For the first time in Lone Star Conference history, a St. Mary's player earned Freshman of the Week honors as Taylor Alston was selected on Nov. 5. Alston recorded back-to-back career-highs in kills last week with 12 in the win over Lubbock Christian and 16 against #14 Angelo State. Since moving to the starting lineup seven matches ago, Alston has recorded double figures in kills five times.

All-Time vs UT Permian Basin: The Rattlers and Falcons are tied in the all-time series 14-14, dating back to 2006 when the series began. The series is also knotted 8-8 in Odessa, though UTPB won both meetings there last season. The Falcons have won five of the seven meetings since the Rattlers joined the Lone Star Conference.

All-Time vs Western New Mexico: The Mustangs hold a slight 9-8 lead in the all-time series, though the Rattlers have won the last three. This will be just the fourth meeting in Silver City with StMU holding a 2-1 edge. The series began in 1992, however they faced each other only once from 2005 until the Rattlers joined the LSC in 2019, a three-set sweep for WNMU in 2013.

Aces High: Senior Alicia Virthe went from not serving the first three seasons of her collegiate career, to leading the Lone Star Conference in her final campaign. Virthe has 35 aces this year (0.40/set) which is tied with Lily Bickley from Lubbock Christian for the most in the league.  The 35 aces also ties Virthe for fifth on the StMU single-season rally-scoring format charts.

Stepping to the Line: Senior Cali Nims moved into a tie for ninth place in aces with 110, tying Kristelle Rodriguez (1999-02). The senior setter has missed only one serve in the last eight matches (128 attempts) with eight aces during the stretch. 

The Best in the Lone Star: Junior libero Alyssa Koehl recorded the highest dig total in the Lone Star Conference this season and the ninth-highest in DII with her 41 digs at Eastern New Mexico on Oct. 25. 

AC Smashes Career High: Senior Alicia Virthe recorded a career-high 25 kills at Eastern New Mexico, bettering her previous high of 20 from the opening match of both this season and her freshman year. She hit .423 for the match (25-3-52). Her 25 kills ties for the fifth-highest total in the Lone Star Conference this season and ties for the third most in St. Mary's rally scoring history.

Top 20: Alyssa Koehl is averaging 5.51 digs per set this season, which leads the Lone Star Conference and ranks 17th in the nation. Her 479 total digs also ranks 15th in the Division II statistics. She's reached double figures in every match this season, in 38 in a row, and 71 times in her career. 

Climbing the Charts: Senior setter Cali Nims has 921 assists this season, for an average of 10.59 per set, which ranks third in the Lone Star Conference. She also ranks 13th in St. Mary's single-season history and fourth in rally scoring.

Double Digit Kills: Both senior Alicia Virthe and junior Landri Withers have recorded 10 or more kills 38 times in their career and are now tied for 8th all-time at St. Mary's. Breann Alexander (2000-02) holds the all-time record, getting to double digits 84 times in her career.

Now Appearing: Senior setter Cali Nims moved into the top 20 in digs last week and now has 955, becoming one of only three setters in school history with 2,000 assists and 900 digs. Kristelle Rodriguez (1999-02) had 5,310 assists and 1,426 digs, while Allie Murray (2009-12) recorded 2,435 assists and 1,193 digs.

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 fourth with 43 (assists-digs) in her career, while Withers is currently ninth with 26 (kills-digs). Nims needs one more to tie former teammate Alissa Tolbert (2018-21) for third all-time with 44.

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 1,362 digs and has jumped all the way to 7th 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 fifth with 2,477 assists and is tied for ninth with 110 service aces.

Digging It: According to the NCAA website, there are 138 current Division II players with 1,000 career digs and St. Mary's libero Alyssa Koehl is one of only 20 juniors on the list. There are nine active players in the Lone Star to have reached the 1,000-dig milestone. Koehl ranks 43rd among active DII players with 1,362.

Name    School    Digs

6. Daylee Doggett    DBU    2,029

39. Caleigh Enax    ASU    1,400

43. Alyssa Koehl    StMU    1,362

46. Bryli Contreras    WT    1,354

56. Addison Evans    UTT    1,295

62. Lixai Perez    TAMIU    1,268

89. Riley Daugherty    OC    1,139

99. Getsamani Carrasco    WT    1,111

135. Delaney Fuller    DBU    1,006