The Golden Eagles took a gift point from Eastern Illinois to open the season and then swept the Panthers in three sets.
Sometimes, volleyball is a sport about taking what the other team gives you. If there’s an open spot on the floor, put the ball there for a point, and so on. Sometimes, that’s a bit more literal, as #24 Marquette volleyball opened up their 2024 season with a 1-0 lead because of an administrative red card issued to the Eastern Illinois bench. Can’t tell you what it was for, as neither team’s official recap mentions it, nor did the ESPN+ broadcast even notice it out of the gate.
That freebie helped Marquette get off to a 5-1 start against the Panthers, and hot hitting for the first two sets of the season guided the Golden Eagles to a 3-0 win in the season opener, on set scores of 25-16, 25-13, and 25-21.
Marquette held a wide lead for a long stretch in set 1, pushing the margin to 8-2 early. A kill by EIU’s Katie Kopshever pulled them within three at 18-15, and that’s when MU said “Nope, not doing this today.” The next five in a row all went to MU, and kills from Carsen Murray and Jenna Reitsma closed the show out at 25-16. Marquette hit a ferocious .464 in the first while holding the Panthers under .200.
Set #2 got lopsided early as an eight point run capped by a kill from Aubrey Hamilton put Marquette up 9-1. MU pushed that margin into double digits and kept pushing. 11, 12, 13 point lead, up 21-8 on a kill from Hattie Bray, one of her match high 11 by the end. Marquette ran into a couple of blocks along the way as head coach Ryan Theis got his bench involved, but Natalie Ring closed it out at 25-13 on a kill. That was another great hitting set from Marquette, as you could expect from that margin. MU hit .417 in this one, and Eastern Illinois didn’t even get to .100 on their end.
Neither team did well striking the ball cleanly in the third set. Marquette hit .158, while EIU hit .091, their second best effort of the match. It looked like MU was about to run away with a third straight set as Bray put them up 8-2 early with a kill. 12-6, 15-8, 21-12. Seems like Marquette was actually running away with it, doesn’t it? Yeah, so, here’s where MU’s not so hot hitting came up. Seven straight points for the Panthers powered by four errors by Marquette, two as EIU blocks and a blocking error by Sienna Ifill, who made her first career start in this match. That made it 21-19, but Eastern Illinois would not get closer. EIU made their own boo-boos to help Marquette along, and back-to-back strikes by Reitsma gave Marquette the three set victory to start the season.
As mentioned, Hattie Bray led Marquette’s offense with 11 kills, and Aubrey Hamilton joined her in double digit town with 10. Jenna Reitsma nearly had a double-double with a team high 10 digs to go with eight kills. Yadhira Anchante got to 33 assists in the match, somewhat helped by Ella Foti sitting this one out. Calli Kenny was the only one of Marquette’s three freshmen to see playing time, as she got on the floor in the second set, ultimately only officially adding one service error to the proceedings.
How about some highlights, courtesy of GoMarquette.com and ESPN+?
Up Next: That was the only match of the weekend for the Golden Eagles, in something of a weird change from how things usually go in non-conference action. They’ll be back at home for the next three matches, but that won’t get started until Wednesday. That will bring preseason #5 Stanford to the McGuire Center for a 7pm Central time start. The Cardinal started off their season on Friday with a 3-0 win over Milwaukee, but they’ll be getting two big challenges between now and Wednesday. They are part of the big State Farm Women’s College Volleyball Showcase at Fiserv Forum on Sunday and Monday, facing #18 Minnesota on Sunday and #3 Wisconsin on Monday. Those matches will be on FS1 and Fox respectively if you’re interested in scouting/watching high level volleyball.