October 26, 2011
San Antonio – The St. Mary’s volleyball team was searching for a season-defining – season-saving, really – performance against Texas A&M International on Wednesday.
Mallory Moeller and her Rattler teammates delivered just that.
Moeller posted 17 kills and Kirsten Chapman added nine as St. Mary’s rolled Texas A&M International 3-0 at Bill Greehey Arena, rejuvenating the Rattlers’ hopes to qualify for the Heartland Conference Tournament.
“It was a huge win for us,” said freshman libero Victorria Martinez (Arlington, Texas), who had 26 digs to lead the team. “The whole day, everyone was just talking about how prepared and focused we needed to be. We had good energy in the locker room. It felt really good to sweep them in three.”
Re-watch the match!
Following Dallas Baptist’s upset of St. Edward’s on Tuesday, the Rattlers (16-10, 6-6 in Heartland Conference) entered Wednesday’s contest in sixth place in the league standings. At the time, the Rattlers trailed third-place Texas A&M International (now 7-5 in league play) by two games in the loss column and also trailed Dallas Baptist and Texas-Permian Basin by a game apiece, meaning St. Mary’s knew it couldn’t afford a second loss to the Dustdevils, who knocked off the Rattlers in five earlier this season.
Indeed, the Rattlers are now just one game back in the loss column of all three teams, as DBU and A&M International sit at 7-5, while UTPB boasts a 6-5 mark.
From the start Wednesday, the Rattlers looked like a team eager to make their move.
St. Mary’s jumped on A&M International early, winning the first two sets 25-11 and 25-20. But unlike the last time these squads met, when the Dustdevils rallied from a 2-0 hole to stun the Rattlers, St. Mary’s finished the deal with a 25-23 triumph in the third set.
Melissa Dahle (So., San Antonio) was one of four Rattlers to post double-digit digs with 19, followed closely by Allie Murray (Jr., San Antonio) and Kelsey Huber (Fr., San Antonio), who recorded 12 and 10, respectively.
Murray also had a team-high 33 assists, while Stephanie Proske (Sr., La Grange, Texas) chipped in with eight of the team’s 51 kills.
St. Mary’s will return to action on Friday, when it hosts Central Oklahoma at 7 p.m. at Bill Greehey Arena.