This Week in Rattlers Volleyball
Saturday, Oct. 25 • St. Edward's (6-8, 3-6) at St. Mary's (8-11, 5-4) • 2 p.m. (BATTLE OF THE SAINTS)
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Battle of the Saints: The St. Mary's Volleyball team plays a single match this week, hosting St. Edward's on Saturday for the annual Battle of the Saints. The two teams are currently locked in a 1-1 tie for annual bragging rights, as the St. Mary's Women's Soccer team scored the first point with a win before the St. Edward's Men's Soccer team knotted the score. This is the first event in the annual battle to take place in San Antonio this season.
A Look Back: The Rattlers split last week, falling to DBU in a tough four sets, before winning a five-set thriller against Texas Woman's. Landri Withers recorded a double-double in each match, while Alyssa Koehl posted 32 digs in Saturday's win. Dallasstar Johnson and Landry Cate led at the net with 10 and nine blocks combined for the week, and Haleigh Wilk collected 48 assists and five aces.
History With SEU: Saturday will mark the 125th all-time meeting between the two schools with the Rattlers owning a 10-match lead, 67-57. St. Mary's holds a 28-22 lead at home, but the Hilltoppers are 15-9 inside Bill Greehey Arena. SEU holds a slight 6-5 advantage since the teams moved to the Lone Star Conference, however the Rattlers have won the last five, dating back to 2021.
Busy Week Ahead: After only playing once this week, the Rattlers have a three-match week in store next week, hosting UT Tyler on Tuesday for the annual campus Boo Bash before heading to Cameron and Oklahoma Christian.
Getting Their Money's Worth: St. Mary's currently ranks third in the Lone Star Conference in sets played this season, playing in 76. Only Lubbock Christian and Cameron have played more at 78, with both playing 21 matches so far, while the Rattlers have played 19. StMU has gone the distance six times with a 3-3 record and they've won the last three. Last season's team played in eight five-set matches, posting a 3-5 record.
Cate-y Bar the Door: Senior middle blocker Landry Cate, who missed all of last season due to injury, tied her StMU career-highs with seven kills and six blocks in the win over Texas Woman's on Saturday. Cate is second on the team, averaging 0.88 blocks per set, which ranks eighth in the Lone Star statistics.Â
Doubling Down: Five different Rattlers have posted a double-double this season. It is the most athletes since the seven in 2019 totaled 27 double-doubles throughout the year. This season's team has 20 thus far, as Laurene Robinson has three, Liz Salinas one, Abbey Stiffler one, Haleigh Wilk six and Landri Withers leads the team with nine.
Keeping Watch: Senior Landri Withers surpassed the 900 dig milestone at Texas A&M-Kingsville and now looks to become only the third player in St. Mary's history with both 1,000 career kills and digs. Breann Alexander (1999-02) recorded 1,582 kills and 1,343 digs in her standout career, while Jennifer Johnson totaled 1,109 kills and 1,001 digs. Withers currently has 1,102 kills and 944 digs to her name with eight matches remaining in the regular season.
Aces Are Wild: Both the St. Mary's team and junior setter Haleigh Wilk are on pace to break the St. Mary's modern scoring format single-season aces per set record. The Rattlers are averaging 1.84 service aces per set, well above the record of 1.70 from last season's team, which recorded 182 aces in 107 sets. This year's team already has 140 aces with at least eight matches to play. Wilk leads the team with 34 aces (0.47/set), which would break the modern scoring format record of 0.407/set by Victorria Martinez from 2012. She also leads the league with her 34 aces and ranks third in aces/set.
Best In Lone Star: Senior libero Alyssa Koehl continues to lead the Lone Star Conference in digs per set, averaging 5.32, which ranks 16th nationally. Koehl has had 10 matches this season with 20 or more digs, including a season-high 34 against Fairmont. Koehl also ranks fifth among active Division II players with her 1,863 digs, a number that also ranks 12th among every player in the NCAA, regardless of division. Her 4.83 digs per set over her career also ranks ninth among active Division II players.
Elite Company: In addition to recording a career-high 24 kills in the win over UT Dallas, Landri Withers collected the 1,000th kill of her career on point #23 of the first set. Withers is only the seventh player in St. Mary's history with 1,000 career kills, and is the first to accomplish the feat since Channing Hankins in 2018. Withers ranks 22nd among active Division 2 players with her 1,102 kills.
Block Party: Senior Dallasstar Johnson ranks third in the Lone Star Conference and 42nd nationally with 1.12 blocks per set. Ten times this season she's recorded five or more blocks in a match, and she ranks fifth in St. Mary's history with 326 total blocks. Johnson is also tied for 10th on the StMU career charts with 44 solo blocks and third with 282 block assists. Her 0.98 blocks per set for her career ranks 24th among active Division II players.
Picked Sixth: St. Mary's was chosen to finish sixth in the extremely competitive Lone Star Conference in 2025. The Rattlers received 633 points to finish in the top 1/3 of the poll. Fresh off an appearance in the Final Four, Angelo State is predicted to win the league title. They collected 30 of the 54 first-place votes and 933 points. Defending regular season champions, West Texas A&M, was voted second with 919 points and 18 first-place nods. UT Tyler (3 first-place votes, 859 points), DBU (2, 803) and Texas Woman's (738) round out the top five.
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
Landry Cate   Kills   100   13
Kaylee Cavazos   Assists   100   2
Dallasstar Johnson   Kills   600   13
   Blocks   3rd Place   15
   Aces   17th Place   2
Alyssa Koehl   Aces   10th Place   5
   Assists   400   10
   Digs   2nd Place   31
Madi Milligan   Kills   100   19
Liz Salinas   Assists   200   4
Abbey Stiffler   Digs   200   18
Kelly Swyers   Kills   200   29
Isabella Waggoner   Digs   500   11
Landri Withers   Aces   16th Place   3
  Digs   1000   56
