UAFS junior outside hitter Anna Demmer collected 11 kills, but the Lady Lions couldn't quite find the spark they needed to jumpstart their offense on Thursday night against the St. Mary's Rattlers.

The Lady Lions hit just 0.070 against the Rattlers in losing the opening match of the second round of Heartland Conference play in three sets at Bill Greehey Arena in San Antonio, Texas.

St. Mary's won the match 25-19, 25-20, 25-19 to sweep the regular-season series against UAFS, which lost in four sets to St. Mary's on Oct. 6 at the Stubblefield Center.

UAFS (14-10, 4-3) slipped into third place in the conference behind conference leader Lubbock Christian (16-7, 6-1), which lost in three sets to St. Edward's on Thursday night, and St. Mary's (11-11, 5-1).

The Lady Lions had only 30 kills on 114 attempts and committed an uncharacteristic 22 errors. Demmer was the only Lady Lion to collected double-digit kills. Freshman setter Taylor Stoops had 16 assist, and she and redshirt sophomore right-side hitter Erin Black each served one ace.

St. Mary's collected five total team blocks. Senior middle hitter Jaycie Pluenneke had one solo block and two block assists. Senior defensive specialist Monica Ramon and sophomore defensive specialist Catherine Cruz had 15 and 10 digs, respectively.

The Rattlers hit at a 0.214 clip with 42 kills on 117 attempts with 17 errors. Sophomore middle hitter MacKenzie Harless had a team-high 12 kills to lead an otherwise balanced Rattlers' offense. Sophomore setter Haley Bradfute and junior setter Bree Perry had 20 and 16 assists, respectively. Perry, Bradfute and freshman outside hitter Alissa Tolbert each served two aces.

UAFS had nine total team blocks. Senior middle hitter Debra Rogers had one solo block and four block assists, while Demmer had one solo block and three block assists. Freshman libero Pilar Onstad and freshman defensive specialist Lexie Castillow had 16 and 10 digs, respectively.

The Lady Lions will have to regroup quickly as they will finish their two-match road trip at noon on Saturday against the Texas A&M International Dustdevils at the Kinesiology and Convocation Building in Laredo, Texas.

Texas A&M International (5-16, 3-4) has won two matches in a row, beating St. Edward's in five sets on Saturday and Newman in five sets on Thursday. The Dustdevils lost to the Lady Lions in three sets in their first match of the season on Oct. 4 at the Stubblefield Center.