This Week in Rattlers Volleyball
Tuesday, Sept. 30 • UT Dallas (3-9, 1-1) • 6 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 3 • Lubbock Christian (10-4, 2-0) • 6 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 4 • Midwestern State (8-2, 2-0) • 2 p.m.
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Busy Week: The St. Mary's Volleyball team hosts three matches this week, beginning with Lone Star Conference newcomer UT Dallas on Tuesday. The Rattlers then host Lubbock Christian on Friday and Midwestern State on Saturday, two of the five undefeated teams in LSC play.
History With UTD: St. Mary's and UT Dallas have never met before on the volleyball court. The Comets are 3-9 on the season, and also went 1-1 in the first week, getting swept by Oklahoma Christian and beating Cameron in five sets. The Comets have two players local to the San Antonio area in freshman Tylee Hale from Harlan HS and freshman Jada Williams from Steele HS in Cibolo.
History With LCU: Lubbock Christian is 10-4 overall and 2-0 in LSC play. The Rattlers are 13-11 in the all-time series that began in 1992, however the Chaps hold a slight 5-4 edge in games played in Bill Greehey Arena. St. Mary's has won four of the last five meetings, including a four-set victory a year ago.
History With MSU: The series between St. Mary's and Midwestern State is knotted at 11 matches each. The Mustangs snapped a five-match winning streak for the Rattlers with a three-set win in Wichita Falls a season ago, and StMU is 3-1 in matches played inside Bill Greehey Arena.Â
Week One: St. Mary's split the opening week of Lone Star Conference play, falling in straight sets to No. 20 Angelo State before bouncing back for a four-set win at UT Permian Basin, snapping a three-match losing skid to the Falcons.
Made To Be Broken: Senior OH Landri Withers tied her career-high with 23 kills in the win at UT Permian Basin on Saturday, breaking the StMU four-set modern-era scoring record of 22 held by Karlie Ortega from Sept. 22, 2011, against the Falcons. Withers is also tied for fifth with 16 kills in a three-set match last season against Cameron and sixth with the 23 kills she had in the Lone Star Tournament last season against UT Tyler.Â
Top 10: Senior libero Alyssa Koehl jumped into the top 10 in the nation in digs per set, averaging 5.52 to rank ninth. Koehl dug an amazing 7.14 digs per set over the first week of Lone Star Conference play, collecting a season-high 31 in the four-set win at UT Permian Basin. She leads the Lone Star stats by 0.35 digs per set, as DBU's Blue Anderson is second with 5.17 per set.
Oh, So Close: Outside hitter Landri Withers continues to put up strong numbers her senior season, and is now five kills shy of becoming only the seventh player in St. Mary's history to record 1,000 kills. Withers is averaging 3.17 kills per set this season.
Points At The Line: A trio of Rattlers rank in the top 15 in the Lone Star Conference in total service aces this season. Junior setter Haleigh Wilk is third with 22, trailing the LSC leader Elisa Carli from TAMUK by only two, while Landri Withers is tied for eighth with 17, and Alyssa Koehl is tied for 13th with 16 aces. StMU is second in the league with 89 service aces on the year, which ranks 56th in the nation.
Nims In Charge: Cali Nims, who was a setter on the Rattlers' team from 2021-24, will spend the remainder of the 2025 season as the interim head coach after the resignation of Dave Ulrich on Sept. 24. Nims was a two-time Lone Star All-Conference selection and ranks fifth in St. Mary's history with 2,695 assists.
Block Party: Senior Dallasstar Johnson ranks fifth in the Lone Star Conference and 74th nationally with 1.05 blocks per set. Five times this season she's recorded five or more blocks in a match, and she ranks seventh in St. Mary's history with 289 total blocks, needing three more to move into sixth past Misti Fischnar (2000-03) with 291. Johnson also ranks 13th on the StMU career charts with 42 solo blocks and sixth with 247 block assists. Her 0.96 blocks per set for her career is seventh in school history and 20th among active Division II players and 90th among all three divisions in the NCAA.
Aces Are Wild: A trio of Rattler seniors have recorded 75 or more service aces in their career. Alyssa Koehl leads the way with 97 in her career to rank 14th on the StMU career charts, while Dallasstar Johnson hopped into the top 20 with 81, and Landri Withers is close to cracking the top 20 with 75 aces. The trio of seniors from 2002 in Kristelle Rodriguez (110), Breann Alexander (102) and Erika Bolk (88) recorded 300 aces between them, while this season's trio is 47 behind them with 253 and at least 15 matches remaining on the 2025 schedule.
Digging It: Senior libero Alyssa Koehl moved into third on the St. Mary's career charts in total digs and now has 1,713, passing Valerie Teter, who amassed 1,677 in her stellar career (2005-08). Koehl is 180 away from tying Katie Migl (2002-05) for second on the list. She also moved into fourth on the NCAA Division II active career chart and is 12th in the entirety of the NCAA.
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
Taylor Alston   Kills   200   35
Kaylee Cavazos   Assists   100   10
Dallasstar Johnson   Blocks   300   11
   Blocks   6th Place   4
   Aces   19th Place   4
Alyssa Koehl   Aces   100   3
   Aces   13th Place   5
Madi Milligan   Kills   100   19
Laurene Robinson   Kills   500   25
   Blocks   100   6
Abbey Stiffler   Assists   400   5
Landri Withers   Kills   1,000   5
   Aces   20th Place   4
