Nov. 10, 2005

West Texas A&M University volleyball player Rachel Altman was named the Lone Star Conference South Division Defensive Player of the Week, announced today (Nov. 10) by the conference office. It's the second time Altman has garnered a Player of the Week Award this season.

Altman, a 5-10 junior outside hitter from Dallas, Texas, had a career-high 29 digs and a match-high eight blocks in Thursday's marquee match against Abilene Christian University, a thrilling five-gamer that ACU won to clinch the LSC South title. Altman followed that up with another block and nine more digs in a three-game sweep of Angelo State University on Saturday in the Lady Buffs' home finale at The Box. On the week, Altman also had 22 kills and averaged 4.75 digs and 1.12 blocks, also hitting .458 against ASU.

For the season, Altman is the only Lady Buff to play in all 116 games of all 34 matches. Altman is second on the team in kills with 3.37 kpg and 31 service aces, third in digs with 2.81 dpg and fourth in blocks with 0.75 bpg. For her career, Altman recently surpassed the 1,000 kills mark, as she now has 1,073 (a career average of 2.96 kpg).

The junior now has two Player of the Week Awards, as she garnered the Offensive honor back on Sept. 12.

The Lady Buffs have now received conference recognition 11 times now, as sophomore setter Erin Houlihan leads the way with four Setter of the Week honors, while senior libero Brittani Bell snagged three Defensive Player of the Week honors. This is Altman's second, while classmates, outside hitter Jessica Scherr and middle blocker Megan Spivey have garnered the Offensive Award once each.

WTAMU has returned to familiar territory, as the Lady Buffs will be participating in this season's Lone Star Conference Tournament, entering as the No. 2 seed from the South and facing the North No. 3 seed, Midwestern State University on Thursday, Nov. 10 at 7:30 p.m. at Abilene, Texas hosted by Abilene Christian University at Moody Coliseum.

WTAMU missed last year's LSC Tournament for the first time in school history, in addition to missing the NCAA-II Tournament for the first time since 1993. The Lady Buffs enter the weekend ranked No. 6 in the Southwest Region Rankings, and need a win or two or three to solidify a return trip to the Big Dance.

Thursday's other first-round match pits the North's No. 2 seed Texas Woman's University against Texas A&M University-Kingsville at 5 p.m. The WTAMU-MSU winner will face the North regular season champs, University of Central Oklahoma at Friday at 8:30 p.m., preceded by the TWU-TAMUK winner facing South champ and host, 11th-ranked Abilene Christian at 6 p.m. The championship is set for Saturday at 7 p.m. with the winner receiving LSC's automatic berth into the NCAA-II Tournament.

If the Lady Buffs make it to Saturday's championship match, it will be broadcast on the Buffalo Sports Network on KGNC 710 AM and streamed on the Internet at www.gobuffsgo.com.