Women's Soccer Travels to UTT, Hosts ENMU This Week

This Week in Rattlers Soccer
Wednesday, Oct. 22 • St. Mary's (5-5-2, 4-4-1) at UT Tyler (9-2-2, 6-2-2) • 7  p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 25 • Eastern New Mexico (0-12, 0-9) at St. Mary's • 1  p.m.

Winding Down: With only three weeks left of the regular season, the St. Mary's Women's Soccer team faces an important task on Wednesday, facing third-place UT Tyler, before hosting Eastern New Mexico on Senior Day on Saturday.

Scouting UT Tyler: The Patriots are 9-2-2 overall and 6-2-2 in Lone Star action, sitting in third place. Their defense allows only 0.54 goals per game and Emily Clark and Robbi Curry have split time in goal, making 38 saves with only seven goals allowed (.844 save pct). Ella Anderson leads the team with 13 points (5 goals, 3 assists) and is one of nine players to have found the back of the net this season. 

History With the Patriots: St. Mary's and UT Tyler are locked 2-2 in the all-time series that began in 2019 when the two teams joined the Lone Star Conference. The Patriots won the first and fourth meetings, with the Rattlers winning the middle two. St. Mary's fell 3-0 last season in Tyler and this will be the fourth time in the five meetings the match has taken place in Tyler.

Scouting Eastern New Mexico: The Greyhounds are searching for their first win of the season, sporting an 0-12 record. The team has scored three goals, with two of them coming off the foot of Louise Godden. Rosie Willmott Joyce has started eight games in goal, while Aja Gonzales has three starts and Kiley Patalan one. The trio has made 82 saves (.603) and surrendered 54 goals (4.5/game).

History with the Greyhounds: The Rattlers are 8-2-2 overall and 4-0-1 at home against Eastern New Mexico. The teams began playing each other in 2004 and StMU is unbeaten in the last eight meetings (6-0-2), last losing back in 2008.

Senior Day: On Saturday, the Rattlers will honor nine seniors in Bella Brigman, Haley Faucette, Natalia Garcia, Valerie Hover, Shelby Paniagua, Ana Parra, Gabriela Varela, Sydney Varela, and Abigail Wilson in a ceremony prior to kickoff.

Double Trouble: For the first time in St. Mary's NCAA era (since 2000), the same two players scored at least one goal in three games straight, as junior Elena Kossler and senior Shelby Paniagua each scored against West Texas A&M (Oct. 2), Oklahoma Christian (Oct. 4) and Sul Ross State (Oct. 8). Neither was able to find the back of the net against Angelo State, but they returned to their scoring ways scoring the two goals in the 2-2 draw against Midwestern State (Oct. 16). 

Freshman Impact: A trio of freshmen: Marily Garza Contreras, Mileena Griego and Aryana Martinez have played in all 11 games this season with Garza Contreras starting in 10, Griego nine and Martinez four. Fellow freshman Gracie Van Sluis has played and started in 11 in helping anchor the Rattlers defense, while Alyssah Martinez has played in 10 of the 12, and has started the last six.

Making History: Head Coach Kevin Driggs became the third coach in StMU Women's Soccer history to win 50 games in their career with win No. 50 against Oklahoma Christian on Saturday. He is second in school history with his 52 victories, passing Lance Noble (50, 1996-99).

Lethal From 12: Senior Shelby Paniagua is 4-for-4 this season in penalty kicks, after sinking two more in the 6-0 win against Sul Ross State. She currently leads the nation with four PKs and one of 27 with more than one on the year. For her career, Paniagua is 12-for-13 and has made 11 consecutive since 2022.

Taking the Shot: Junior Elena Kossler leads the Lone Star Conference in both shots per game (4.17) and shots on goal per game (1.92), ranking 14th and 26th in the NCAA Division II statistics, respectively. Senior Shelby Paniagua also ranks third in the conference in shots (3.58) and fourth in shots on goal (1.67). The dynamic duo also rank second and seventh in points per game with 1.58 and 1.25, respectively.

Anchoring the Defense: Senior Valerie Hover has played 1038 of the team's 1080 minutes this season. She played all 90 minutes eight times, including four of the last five. The only other Rattler with 1000 or more minutes this season is Elena Kossler (1007).

Offensive Explosion: At least once in all six seasons with Kevin Driggs as the head coach, the Rattlers have tallied at least one game during the year with five or more goals, as they defeated East Central 5-1 on Sept. 13 and another six in the 6-0 win over Sul Ross State on Oct. 8. The most goals scored during the Driggs era was 12 against Texas Lutheran on March 14, 2021. The win over the Lobos was the eighth time an StMU team scored five or more.

Helping Hand/Foot: Senior Shelby Paniagua is eighth on the NCAA Division II active players list with 23 assists and 10th in  assists per game (0.32). She ranks third in St. Mary's career history with those 23 assists, is fifth with her 26 goals, and is fifth with 77 points. Her points rank her 16th on the DII active list.

Picked Fifth: The Rattlers were voted fifth in the Lone Star Conference preseason poll. Should the prediction hold, the Rattlers will compete in their sixth-straight LSC Tournament. A season ago, StMU placed fifth with a 9-7-3 overall record.

What's Coming Back: The Rattlers return 19 of the 30 goals scored last season, along with 13 of the 18 assists, including a team-leading eight goals and six assists by senior Shelby Paniagua. The team also returns three defenders from last season's squad that allowed 1.42 goals per game, and senior Abigail Wilson, who was part of the 2023 team that surrendered only 1.27 goals a contest.

New Faces: The Rattlers have 20 newcomers to the 2025 team, including 15 freshmen, three sophomores, one junior and one senior transfer. The newcomers outnumber the returners 20-to-14 on the 34-player roster for sixth-year head coach Kevin Driggs.