Women's Soccer Opens 2026 Season at Home

This Week in Rattlers Soccer
Thursday, August 27 • Fort Lewis (0-0-0) • 4 p.m. • Sigma Beta Chi Field
Saturday, August 29 • Lynn (0-0-0) • 12 p.m. • Sigma Beta Chi Field

Kicking Off: The 36th season of Women's Soccer at St. Mary's gets underway on Thursday at 4 p.m. when the Rattlers host Fort Lewis. It is a UPC Punch Game, so students who attend receive a punch on their card toward winning great prizes. Admission is free for St. Mary's students and $12 for adults. The Rattlers also host Lynn at Noon on Saturday.

History With Fort Lewis: St. Mary's owns a 2-1-1 lead in the all-time series with Fort Lewis, but the lone loss came at home, a 2-1 setback in 2004. Last season, the two teams opened the 2025 campaign with a scoreless draw in Durango.

History With Lynn: Lynn won the only meeting between the two clubs, a 2-0 decision in 2024 at Sigma Beta Chi Field to begin that season. Only Michelle Ramirez and Anabelle Rodriguez were on the team in 2024. Ramirez played 34 minutes and Rodriguez played 25 and neither recorded any statistics.

Exhibition Recap: The Rattlers were 2-1 in their three exhibition contests, defeating Our Lady of the Lake (6-1) and Lonestar (5-0) before falling 4-1 to UTSA. This is the third time in Kevin Driggs tenure (seventh season) that the Rattlers have posted a 2-1 record in exhibition games. 

Season Openers: The Rattlers are 19-13-3 in season openers over the 35 seasons of Womens' Soccer at St. Mary's. One of the three draws came last season in the first game at Fort Lewis. The Skyhawks outshot the Rattlers 16-to-15 in the game, however StMU had five shots on goal, one more than FLC.

Prognosticators: St. Mary's was voted sixth in the Lone Star Conference Preseason poll by the league's coaches, SIDs and media. The team received one first-place vote and 443 points, narrowly missing out on the top five. Senior Elena Kossler and sophomore Marily Garza Contreras were named offensive and defensive players to watch in the Lone Star, respectively.

The Makeup: Head Coach Kevin Driggs added not only 14 new players to the roster for 2026, but also a new assistant coach in Diego Tapia-Fraites. The Rattlers have 12 athletes returning from last season's club, including 2025 LSC Newcomer and Forward of the Year in Elena Kossler. Kossler was responsible for 32 of the team's 91 points a season ago, while the Rattlers also return points from Marily Garza Contreras (7), Michelle Ramirez (3), Anabelle Rodriguez (3), and Natalya Hendrus (1). Ramirez was named the final LSC Player of the Week in 2025 after scoring the game-winning goal in the regular season finale at Lubbock Christian.

New Keeper: For the second-straight season, the Rattlers will have a new goalkeeper with zero minutes in goal for StMU. The 2026 team has a pair of keepers in junior transfer Molly Lyons (Trevecca Nazarene) and freshman Callie Gilliam. They will replace Haley Faucette, who spent 1483 of the team's 1623 minutes in goal last season. She made 75 saves over 18 games, allowing 1.27 goals per game. It is only the second time since 2008 a team begins the season with zero returning minutes played from the previous year.

Sister Act: For the first time since the 2012 season, the St. Mary's lineup features a pair of sisters on the team in sophomore Alyssah Martinez and freshman Kamrynn Martinez. Alyssah played in 15 games in 2025 as a true freshman and welcomes her younger sister, Kamrynn to the team for 2026. The last pair of sisters to play for the Gold and Blue together were Emilie and Leah Snelson, who played together in 2011 and 2012.

First-Ever: Forward Elena Kossler became the first-ever Rattler to win National Player of the Week honors, when she was awarded by D2CIDA on Oct. 28, 2025. Kossler collected 11 points the previous week, tying the school record for goals in a game against Eastern New Mexico and scoring the game-tying goal at UT Tyler. Kossler also earned Lone Star Conference Offensive Player of the Week honors on Oct. 27.

Making History: Head Coach Kevin Driggs became the third coach in StMU Women's Soccer history to win 50 games in their career with win No. 50 against Oklahoma Christian on October 4. He is second in school history with his 55 victories, trailing only Corwyn Ritch (2001-19), who won 159 matches in his 18 years.

Offensive Explosion: At least once in all six seasons with Kevin Driggs as the head coach, the Rattlers have tallied at least one game during the year with five or more goals, and they did so three times in 2025, defeating East Central 5-1 (Sept. 13), Sul Ross State 6-0 (Oct. 8) and Eastern New Mexico 5-1 (Oct. 26). The most goals scored during the Driggs era was 12 against Texas Lutheran on March 14, 2021. The win over the Greyhounds on Oct. 26 was the ninth time an StMU team scored five or more in the Driggs era.

Small Senior Class: There are only two seniors on the roster for 2026 in forward Elena Kossler and midfielder Michelle Ramirez, and with the new NCAA eligibility rules, both could return for 2027 if wanted. The team also has six juniors, 15 sophomores and 10 freshmen.