This Week in Rattlers Basketball
Game #4 • Home Game #1 • Concordia • Monday, November 9 • 6 p.m.
•    The St. Mary's and Concordia Women's Basketball teams will be playing for the 14th time, but the first time since 1999 on Monday.
•    Both of the teams were members of the Heart of Texas Conference from 1994-99.
•    The Tornados open their season on Sunday, hosting Southwestern and Monday's game against StMU will be an exhibition for Concordia.
•    Concordia has two Lone Star transfers in Macie Upshaw and Briann Warehime that played at Midwestern State.
•    Both the Rattlers Raynne Malik and the Tornados Felitsa Adil hail from Ontario, Canada. Adil is from Oakville, which is about two hours from London.

Game #5 • Home Game #2 • South Dakota School of Mines • Friday, November 13 • 6 p.m.
•    For the second-straight year, St. Mary's and South Dakota School of Mines will meet on the hardwood. A season ago, the Rattlers won 54-50 in South Dakota.
•    Brianna Vargas led the team with 15 points a year ago, while Tiara Louis added 14 and Raynne Malik led the team with 10 rebounds.
•    Both rosters feature Spanish players as StMU has Joanna Arumi and Andrea Montesinos, while SDSM has Carolina Ruiz Molina.
•    SDSM assistant coach Brent Pollari spent 2006-07 as the assistant/interim head coach at Texas A&M-Kingsville where his team beat the Rattlers by two, 69-67 in Kingsville.

Game #6 • Home Game #3 • Black Hills State • Saturday, November 14 • 4 p.m.
•    St. Mary's and Black Hills State met on the hardwood for the first time a season ago, with the Rattlers winning 61-58 in Spearfish.
•    Christin Callens and Andrea Montesinos both scored in double figures with 14 and 11 points, respectively, while Raynne Malik grabbed 13 boards. Addison Branscum led BHSU with 19 points and Audrey Norville had 10 rebounds.
•    Black Hills State is the third of four RMAC opponents on the docket for the Rattlers this season. StMU is 0-1 thus far, falling 53-62 to #2 Colorado Mesa in Honolulu.

Home Sweet Home: The St. Mary's University Women's Basketball team kicks off the home portion of its schedule with a trio of home games during the week. The Rattlers host Concordia on Monday before welcoming South Dakota School of Mines and Black Hills State for the South Central Region Crossover over the weekend. The two teams will also play at St. Edward's.

UPC Punch: Students who attend the game against Concordia on Monday will receive their winter punch cards. Attend four of the six home games between men's and women's basketball to receive your punch and be entered into a raffle for great prizes. Monday also marks the Gold Home Opener, celebrating the start of the 50th season of Women's Basketball.

A Look Back: St. Mary's went 2-1 at the Outrigger Hotels Hoops in Hawaii Tournament, taking third place with wins over Chaminade (60-45) and Hawaii Pacific (58-51) sandwiched around a loss to No. 2 Colorado Mesa (53-62). Junior forward Raynne Malik was named to the All-Tournament team after the conclusion of the tournament.
Player of the Week: Junior forward Raynne Malik was named the first Lone Star Conference Defensive Player of the Week this year after helping the Rattlers to the third-place finish. Malik grabbed 26 rebounds, 22 of them on the defensive glass, and blocked four shots. Malik averaged 8.3 rebounds – grabbing at least eight in each game – and eight points per contest. She added three assists and one steal. Her presence held opponents below 34 percent shooting and it is the fourth time in her career she's won the weekly honor.

Soaring on Wings: Junior transfer Kamryn Griffin and freshman Elizabeth Griffin (no relation) combined to score 41 of the team's 58 points in the win over Hawaii Pacific on Sunday. Kamryn posted the first double-double of her career with career-highs in both scoring and rebounding. She led all players with 29 points and had a game-high 13 rebounds, while  Elizabeth scored in double figures for the first time in her collegiate career with 12 points.

Fresh Faces: St. Mary's played six of the eight newcomers to the team in the first week, with the other two sitting out due to injuries. Elizabeth Griffin, Kamryn Griffin and freshman Rosanelly Pastrano were all in the starting lineup for all three games, while Joana Arumi and Avery Archer came off the bench in all three. Freshman Aaliyah Mancha played in the win over Chaminade.

Half a Century: The 2026-27 season marks the 50th year of women's basketball being an intercollegiate sport at St. Mary's. The 1977-78 season was the first for the Rattlers, where they were just 2-21 under the inaugural head coach Jim Coen. Stay tuned to the Rattler Athletics website for festivities surrounding the celebration of the 50th year, including Alumni Day on February 20.

Arc Presence: Senior Allie Garcia ranks second in the Lone Star Conference early statistics with seven three-pointers. Garcia scored 16 points against Chaminade and 19 against #2 Colorado Mesa behind the strength of those seven triples. She also added four assists and seven rebounds in the three games. Garcia was the only Rattler to score in double figures in the first two games of the year, and she scored the 300th point of her StMU career against the Mavericks and now has 307.

Reaching for 500: Junior Raynne Malik is closing in on both 500 career points and rebounds. Malik currently stands at 431 points and 439 rebounds through the first 57 games of her career. She will become the second active player with 500 career points, joining Christin Callens, who has 671.

Picked Seventh: In the preseason poll for the Lone Star Conference, St. Mary's has been voted to finish seventh for the 2026-27 season. The Rattlers received 540 points and the league's coaches, communications personnel and media put the Rattlers in the top-10 for the first time since 2021. Texas Woman's is predicted to win its fifth-straight regular season title, garnering 31 of the 51 first-place votes and 828 points, while West Texas A&M received 10 first-place nods and 794 points to finish second. UT Tyler (9), Lubbock Christian and Eastern New Mexico (1) rounded out the top five, while Angelo State edged out the Rattlers for sixth with 594 points.

Balancing Act: The Rattlers return three of four All-Conference selections from a season ago in Christin Callens, Allie Garcia and Raynne Malik, along with four others, and adds a talented crop of eight newcomers which includes three transfers and five freshmen. Garcia led the team in scoring with 10.5 points per game and is a Player to Watch in the Lone Star Conference, while Callens was second in both scoring (10.0) and rebounding (4.5), and Malik led the team with 7.6 rebounds and ranked 12th nationally with 2.19 blocked shots per game.

Historical Ties: Junior transfer Kamryn Griffin returns home to San Antonio after playing her first two years at Central Arkansas. Griffin is the daughter of St. Mary's all-time leading scorer Erin Griffin, who scored 1,642 points between 2000-04 and was a two-time All-American. 

Block Party: The 2026-27 team blocked 113 shots, which is the third-most in a single season in St. Mary's history, and only four off the school record of 117 by the 1999-00 team. Raynne Malik swatted 59 of those 113 shots, ranking 12th in Division II with 2.19 per game. Her 59 blocks are the third-most in StMU history and give her 115 for her career, which ranks fifth on the career charts.