SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS – Playing at cross town rival St. Mary's, the University of the Incarnate Word volleyball team was dealt a 25-17, 25-8, 27-25 loss at the Bill Greehey Arena on Tuesday night. (Box Score)

The Cardinals (7-12) were unable to handle the strong attack of the Rattlers (13-7) who posted a .271 attack percentage for the match.  The Rattlers did not have any one player with double digit kills, but had five players with at least six kills.

The Cardinals were actually the team that had the better run of play through the first half of the first set.  They led 15-13 before the Rattlers scored seven straight points and 11 of 12 to take the set going away.

The Rattlers kept their momentum going in the second set by scoring 13 of the first 14 points of the set.  They never led the Cardinals into the set and breezed into the third set.

The Cardinals would not leave without a fight and the Rattlers had to earn the third set.  UIW got off to a good start and took a 14-9 lead after an Angelique Vidaurri (San Antonio/Southwest HS) kill.  The Rattlers fired back with seven of the next eight points to take a 16-15 lead.  The Cardinals responded with a 6-2 run of their own to claim a 21-18 advantage.

The set continued to go back-and-forth.  The Rattlers picked up a match point at 24-23 after a block from Kelsey Huber and Lauren Holman, but the Cardinals scored the next two points and had their own set point after a solo block from Chetina Chavis (Houston/Bush HS).  The Rattlers were finally able to finish off the Cardinals with three straight points to close out the match.

Beth Soukup (Helotes/O'connor HS) led the Cardinals with a brilliant double-double.  She led the team with 10 kills and 16 digs while posting a .276 attack.  Overall, the team had 30 kills, a .082 attack and 48 digs.

The Rattlers finished with 40 kills, 65 digs and a .271 attack.  Taylor Obermiller led the team with nine kills and a .538 attack while Melissa Heft had six kills in 10 attacks without an error.  Victorria Martinez led all players with 25 digs while Allie Murray added 22 assists.

The Cardinals are back in action on Friday at 7 p.m. against Lone Star Conference rival Cameron.
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