Rattler Roundup: 2009 Fall Season Starts This Week for St. Mary´s

SAN ANTONIO—The 2009 fall sports season at St. Mary’s University gets underway this week with volleyball, men’s soccer and women’s soccer all kicking off their seasons with tough matchups. The volleyball team will open play at home on Thursday night when they host regionally ranked University of Central Oklahoma in the first match of the St. Mary’s/Texas MedClinic Invitational at Bill Greehey Arena.

Head coach Todd Caughlin and his spikers are looking to bounce back from a disappointing 2008 season. Last year’s tournament was one of the few highlights for the Rattlers as St. Mary’s went 3-1 at the tournament and finished second. Caughlin is cautiously optimistic heading into this week’s play.

“We have looked good in preseason practice and I’m looking forward to seeing how they perform against some top-flight competition,” Caughlin said. “We worked hard developing a new aura to never accept losing and the combination of new and incoming student-athletes is combining to achieve our new goals and direction.”

The Rattlers face Central Oklahoma on Thursday at 7 p.m. in Bill Greehey Arena. They will follow that up with Millersville (2:30 p.m.) and 16th-ranked Florida Southern College (7 p.m.) on Friday. They will wrap up play at their season-opening tournament by facing Metropolitan State (Colo.) on Saturday at 2:30 p.m.

The men’s soccer team heads west to open its season. They will kick off the 2009 season by facing 10th-ranked Fort Lewis College on Friday at 4:30 p.m. in Durango, Colo. The trial by fire continues on Sunday when they travel to Grand Junction, Colo., to take on Mesa State University at 1 p.m.

The Rattler women’s soccer team will also have two matches on the road this week to start the season. They start by traveling to Wichita Falls, Texas, to face Midwestern State University on Friday at 7 p.m. They will wrap up their road trip on Sunday when they head west to Abilene to challenge Abilene Christian University at 1 p.m.

Both the men’s and women’s soccer teams will open home play on Sept. 3, when they face Our Lady of the Lake in a men’s/women’s doubleheader at St. Mary’s Soccer Field, starting at 2 p.m.

Volleyball Coaches

Head Coach Jenny Warmack-Chipman

A Texas native and former Longhorn volleyball player is one of St. Mary’s University’s newest head coaches. Jenny Warmack-Chipman recently became St. Mary’s eighth volleyball head coach.

"We are very excited to welcome Jenny to the St. Mary’s University family," Migl said. "Her experience as a coach and administrator has prepared her well for this position. We look forward to seeing the new direction our volleyball program will take, both on and off the court."

Warmack-Chipman comes to St. Mary’s after spending the last 10 years as the head coach at NCAA Division III Muhlenberg College (Allentown, Pa.). She also served as Muhlenberg’s assistant athletic director, senior woman administrator and advisor to the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.

Warmack-Chipman was the school’s all-time leader in wins with 133. During 10 seasons at Muhlenberg, Mule players earned All-Centennial Conference 17 times, 24 were named to the Centennial Conference Academic Honor Roll and one was named NCAA Division III All-American. In 2001, she led the Mules to a 20-11 record, a share of their first Centennial Conference regular-season championship and a second-place finish in the CC Tournament. The Mules returned to the playoffs in 2009, winning seven of their final 10 matches.

Before coaching for Muhlenberg, Warmack-Chipman was an assistant coach at Southern Methodist University and Wichita State University. While at SMU, she received her master’s degree in liberal arts. Warmack-Chipman, from Plano, Texas, is a 1996 graduate of the University of Texas; she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology. While a student at UT, she played on a Longhorn team that was ranked No. 1 in the country and was named to the 1994 All-Southwest Conference team.

"I am so excited to be back in Texas and to be the next head coach at St. Mary’s University," Warmack-Chipman said. "The Rattlers athletics program has a long history of excellence and I am extremely motivated to get it back on top. I’d like to thank Charlie Migl, Donna Fields and the rest of the search committee for this opportunity. I hope to use my experience at both the Division I and Division III levels to advance the St. Mary's volleyball program."

2009 St. Mary's Numerical Roster