Volleyball Set to Begin Season 50 in Hawai'i

This Week in Rattlers Volleyball
Hawai'i Challenge • Honolulu, Hawai'i
Thursday, Sept. 4 • St. Mary's (0-0) vs. UCCS (0-0) • 8 p.m. (CT)/3 p.m. (HT)
Friday, Sept. 5 • vs Cal State LA (0-0) • 9 p.m. (CT)/4 p.m. (HT)
Saturday, Sept. 6 • vs Hawai'i-Hilo (0-0) • 3 p.m. (CT) • at Chaminade (0-1) • 11 p.m. (CT)

Kicking Off #50: The St. Mary's Volleyball team begins its 50th season against UCCS at the Hawai'i Challenge on Thursday. The Rattlers are 0-3 all-time against UCCS, losing in four sets in 2022 in the last time the teams played. StMU is also 0-3 against fellow Marianist school, Chaminade, though the teams haven't squared off on the volleyball court since 2008. This will be the first time in school history the team has played either Cal State LA or Hawai'i-Hilo.

Picked Sixth: With 14 returning players from last season, St. Mary's has been 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.

Late Coaching Shakeup: On August 6, Laura Ulrich announced she had accepted the head coaching position at Illinois-Springfield. Dave Ulrich, her husband and assistant coach, will serve as the Rattlers interim head coach for 2025, while recently graduated Cali Nims will be the assistant coach and the team welcomes Elle Truckenbrod, a 2025 graduate of Wisconsin-Parkside as the graduate assistant. 

The Best in the Lone Star: Senior libero Alyssa Koehl led the Lone Star Conference and ranked 22nd in the nation with 5.38 digs per set in 2024. The Rattlers ranked third in the league with 16.93 digs per set. Koehl enters the 2025 season as the active Lone Star leader with 1,459 digs. She ranks sixth in StMU history, needing 28 to take over fifth (1487, Pam Salinas, 2000-03) and 879 to break the all-time record of 2,337 by Victorria Martinez (2011-14).

Double Digit Kills: Senior Landri Withers has recorded 10 or more kills 43 times in her career and is 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. Withers currently ranks 14th in StMU history with 849 kills and is only 30 kills shy of leaping over four players to hit the top 10. 

Rk.    Kills    Name    Years
10.    878    Kori McCarver    2007-10
11.    870    Misti Fischnar    2000-03
12.    860    Tarine Grace    2014-17
13.    856    Kelsey Huber    2011-14
14.    849    Landri Withers    2022-24

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
Dallasstar Johnson    Kills    500    30
    Digs    200    18
    Blocks    250    7
Alyssa Koehl    Digs    5th place    28
    Digs    1500    41
Madi Milligan    Blocks    50    3
Landri Withers    Kills    13th place    8
    Kills    1,000    151

Welcome: In addition to the 14 returners from the 2024 roster, the Rattlers welcome six new student-athletes with three freshmen (Tara Creekmore, Liz Salinas, Chandley Tolbert) and three transfers (Addison Carrillo, McKenna Ferris, Natalia Rodriguez).