This Week in St. Mary´s University Athletics

SAN ANTONIO—The St. Mary’s University women’s soccer and volleyball teams will each face a bitter Heartland Conference rival as the battle for the top spots in the league continue. Also in action this week is the men’s and women’s golf teams, the men’s and women’s tennis teams, the cross country squad and softball team.

The Rattler women’s soccer team will host cross-town rival the University of the Incarnate Word in a renewal of their long-time rivalry. The teams will kick off at St. Mary’s Field at 3 p.m. on Friday. The Rattlers enter the game with a 1-8-1 overall record and a 1-2-0 mark in Heartland Conference play. The Cardinals are 8-1-1 overall and 4-0-0 in Heartland Conference play this season, earning them a national ranking of 18th. The Rattlers will return to action on Sunday when they host Texas A&M International University in a Heartland Conference matchup at 1 p.m. The Dustdevils are winless on the season at 0-10-1.

The volleyball team will have a key pair of matches this week as they get into the heart of their Heartland Conference schedule. St. Mary’s is 3-16 overall and 2-3 in Heartland Conference play. The Rattlers are coming off a weekend in which they dropped three matches in the St. Mary’s/Incarnate Word Regional Crossover. They will face Texas A&M International on Friday at 7 p.m. in Bill Greehey Arena. TAMIU is 2-16 overall and 1-4 in Heartland Conference play. On Saturday the Rattlers will battle the hottest team in the HC, the St. Edward’s Hilltoppers. SEU is 14-5 overall and a perfect 4-0 in Heartland play. They have won seven straight matches.

The men’s and women’s golf teams are both on the road this week. The men, fresh off their win at the Bruce Williams Memorial Invitational, are in Goodyear, Ariz., for the Grand Canyon Invitational. The women are in Oklahoma City, Okla., for the UCO Broncho Classic. The men’s and women’s tennis teams each will head to Plano for the Collin County Open. Marcin Marczewski (So., Gwiazozista, Poland) advanced to the third round of the Wilson/ITA South Central Men’s Championships. The softball team will continue its fall schedule, heading south to Corpus Christi for a doubleheader against the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi University Islanders, then heads back to San Antonio to face the University of Texas-San Antonio on Saturday. The cross country team in back in action after a week off, competing in the Incarnate Word Invitational in Live Oak, Saturday morning.