Volleyball Readies for Second-Straight Home Tournament

This Week in Rattlers Volleyball
LSC Tournament Preview • Bill Greehey Arena • San Antonio
Thursday, Sept. 19 • Oklahoma Christian (7-1) at St. Mary's (5-3) • 6 p.m.
Friday, Sept. 20 • Cameron (0-7) • 6 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 21 • St. Edward's (6-2) • 3 p.m.
 
Previewing the LSC: The St. Mary's Volleyball team hosts its second tournament in two weeks with the LSC Tournament Preview, featuring Cameron, Oklahoma and St. Edward's. The league is divided into five pods for the week, with the Rattlers and ENMU hosting four-team pods and Texas A&M Kingsville, DBU and Texas A&M International hosting three-team pods before beginning conference play next week.
 
Ain't It Grand: 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 1,048 digs after recording a career-high 36 in the tournament finale against Anderson. Koehl currently ranks second in the Lone Star and 25th nationally with her 5.16 digs per set this season and her career average of 4.46 ranks 14th among all current Division II players.
 
Setting The Scene: Senior setter Cali Nims became the first setter in St. Mary's history to be named Lone Star Conference Setter of the Week after earning All-Tournament honors at the Rattler Invitational. She led the Rattlers with 10.53 assists per set and spread the wealth among her hitters as the team hit .232 for the four matches. She also averaged 1.27 kills per set with zero hitting errors, for a .388 hitting percentage on the week (19-0-49) and added six aces and no errors.
 
Opponent Histories: The Rattlers hold a 3-1 lead over Oklahoma Christian in the all-time series that began in 2021 when the Eagles added volleyball. StMU won the first three meetings, with the Eagles winning in four sets a season ago. St. Mary's also holds a 12-3 advantage over Cameron and have won three straight in the series. The Rattlers are 4-0 at home against the Aggies since the series started in 1980. The longest series in school history, StMU is 65-57 all-time in the Battle of the Saints. The Rattlers have won three in a row and are 27-22 at home.
 
Digging It: According to the NCAA website, there are 75 current Division II players with 1,000 career digs and St. Mary's libero Alyssa Koehl is one of only seven juniors on the list. The remaining 68 are seniors, including five from the Lone Star. Lixai Perez from Texas A&M International also recorded the 1,000th dig of her career at the Rattler Invitational, doing so against East Central.
 
Name   School Digs
Daylee Doggett                DBU      1,801
Bryli Contreras WT         1,165
Addison Evans UTT        1,063
Alyssa Koehl    StMU    1,048
Getsamani Carrasco     WT         1,042
Lixai Perez          TAMIU   1,030
 
Block Party: Junior middle blocker Dallasstar Johnson became the 16th player in St. Mary's history to record 200 blocks and now has 210 to rank 13th on the career charts. She has posted multiple blocks in all eight matches this season and four times has had four or more. Johnson currently ranks eighth in the LSC with 0.97 blocks per set and her 31 total blocks ranks 65th in the nation.
 
Double Trouble: With her three double-doubles over the weekend, junior outside hitter Landri Withers now has 20 in her career, which ties former teammate Aislan Lennon (2020-23) for the 12th most in St. Mary's history. Senior Cali Nimsranks sixth on the same list with 32 double-doubles in her career. Withers needs three more to jump into the top 10 on the list.
 
Cruzing Along: Senior DS Leah Cruz has served at least one ace in the last four matches and has four multi-ace matches this season, giving her 11 for the year with only two errors. She ranks in the top 10 in the Lone Star in aces per set and has already surpassed her last season's total of eight aces. 
 
All-Tournament: At the first tournament of the season, both senior Alicia Virthe and junior Laurene Robinson were named to the Reddie-Tiger Invitational All-Tournament team. Virthe hit .287 for the week and tied her career-high with 20 kills in the season opener, while Robinson led the team with 3.47 kills per set and either tied or recorded a new career high in kills in three of the four matches. At the Rattler Invitational last week, senior setter Cali Nims and junior libero Alyssa Koehl were honored on the all-tournament squad. Nims averaged 10.53 assists, 2.21 digs and 1.27 kills per set and helped the team hit .232. Koehl averaged 5.80 digs and recorded a career-best 36 digs against Anderson.
 
Going Streaking: Both Alyssa Koehl and Landri Withers have collected 10 or more digs in all eight matches this season. Withers has hit double digits 11 straight times, dating back to season, while Koehl is at 23 in a row. Koehl has posted 10 or more in 56 of the 63 matches she's played for the Gold and Blue.
 
The Name Game: For those history buffs or long-time fans of StMU Volleyball if the name of freshman middle blocker Kaitlyn Kirschner seems familiar it's because the Rattlers had a player with the same name, albeit a different spelling. Katelyn Kershner was an outside hitter with the Gold and Blue from 2008-2010 who collected 536 kills and 833 digs in her 86-match career.
 
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. The seniors on the 2024 team are DS Leah Cruz, OH Brianna Morris-Worth, S Cali Nims and RS Alicia Virthe. The Rattlers return 92.6% of their kills, 90.1% of aces, 93.4% of digs and 90.6% of its blocks from the 2023 squad.
 
Closing In: Several Rattlers are closing in on career milestones:
Name   Category             Milestone           Needs
Leah Cruz           Digs       300        14
Dallas Johnson Kills       400        26
Dallas Johnson Blocks  12th place          33
Alyssa Koehl      Digs       13th place          6
Cali Nims           Assists 2,000    139
Cali Nims           Aces      100        3
Cali Nims           Digs       800        31
Alicia Virthe       Blocks  100        11
Laura Ulrich      Wins     50           5