EDMOND, Okla. — The St. Mary's University Volleyball team now has the longest active winning streak in the Lone Star Conference after posting its fifth-straight with a four-set victory over Oklahoma Christian on Saturday afternoon, 26-24, 25-16, 21-25, 25-16.
The Rattlers are now 12-11 overall and 9-4 in Lone Star Conference play, while the Eagles move to 16-8 and 8-5. StMU is currently tied for fourth place in the standings with UT Tyler and holds the tiebreaker over the Patriots due to the sweep on Tuesday.
Nine of the 10 players who saw the court for the Rattlers recorded at least one kill on the day, including libero
Alyssa Koehl (New Braunfels, Texas), who snuck a set over the net from behind the 3-meter line that fell into the middle of the Eagles' court for the ninth point in the fourth set.
Senior
Laurene Robinson (Bedford, Texas) had another stellar match, blasting a match-high 15 kills with only one error in 35 swings for a .400 hitting percentage. She also had the team's only solo block of the day.
Landri Withers (Stephenville, Texas) collected a double-double with 14 kills and a match-high 20 digs, topping Koehl by one for the honors. Sophomore
Taylor Alston (San Antonio) also notched double digits in kills with 12. Withers notched the 1,000th dig of her career in the match and now has 1,011, becoming only the third player in St. Mary's history with 1,000 career kills and digs. She joins Breann Alexander (1999-02), who recorded 1,582 kills and 1,343 digs and Jennifer Johnson (1996-98), who totaled 1,109 kills and 1,001 digs.
Haleigh Wilk (Salado, Texas) recorded a double-double with a career-high 39 assists and 12 digs. She betters her previous career-high of 33 assists from Friday night at Cameron. She helped the team hit .279, the second-highest hitting percentage this season in a non-sweep.
Senior
Isabella Waggoner (Texas City, Texas) added 10 digs for the fourth Rattler in double figures. She also handled a majority of the 70 receptions on the day, as she was served at 25 times by the Eagles, and only committed one error for a .962 reception percentage.
Senior
Landry Cate (Hot Springs, Ark.) led the team with four blocks, giving her multiple blocks in six straight matches, and four or more in four of her last five matches.
In the second and fourth sets that the Rattlers won by identical 25-16 scores, the team made only one hitting error, hitting .519 (15-1-27) in the second set, and .375 (15-0-40) in the fourth stanza. The Rattlers also sided out at an 81% clip in the fourth set, 20 points higher than any other set.
St. Mary's remains on the road, going on the longest road trip of the year, playing at Eastern New Mexico on Friday evening and at West Texas A&M on Saturday afternoon. The Rattlers return to the friendly confines of Bill Greehey Arena for the final week of the regular season as Western New Mexico and Sul Ross State come to town for Nov. 14-15.
