The Golden Eagles start the 2024 season off on the road for one match over the weekend. Yes, it does feel weird.
Let’s just all say it out loud: It’s weird that Marquette volleyball is going to travel down to Eastern Illinois to play one match this weekend instead of the traditional opening weekend event against two or three opponents in the same place, right? Is this a thing where EIU tried to get an event together but they couldn’t? EIU is playing this match and then nothing else until they go to Southern Illinois next weekend.
ANYWAY
Marquette is starting off their 2024 campaign against the last team they defeated in 2023. That’s an interesting twist to the year for the team ranked #24 in the preseason AVCA poll. They knocked off the Panthers in an increasingly lopsided sweep in the first round of the NCAA tournament last December before losing themselves to Purdue in the next round. That was the end result of an ever so slightly disappointing season for Marquette, as they started out the year at #12 in the AVCA poll. Things never quite came together the right way in non-conference play, and MU lost seven straight matches against ranked opponents before Big East play started.
It was, in a word, not particularly fun.
But that season still ended in an NCAA tournament appearance — Marquette’s 12th straight appearance in full 64 team fields — as well as with a third straight Big East regular season title, so it wasn’t awful, not by a long stretch. The goals remain the same for the Golden Eagles this season: Win another Big East title, make another NCAA tournament, remain The Best Team On Campus. Most of the faces remain the same, as well. Head coach Ryan Theis returns six of his seven starters, with libero Sarah Kushner turning up as the lone loss in there. All five hitters who averaged at least a kill per set return, led by Aubrey Hamilton’s 3.77/set, and Yadhira Anchante returns at setter. It’s a team that’s been together for almost all of the last two seasons, and they’ll try to make use of that experience as a coherent unit to make some history.
They’ll get their chances at history. “Fresh off an OVC title and an NCAA tournament appearance” is one of the lesser descriptions in Marquette’s non-conference schedule. There will be three matches against teams in the top 10 of the AVCA preseason poll eventually, and Marquette will (hopefully!) be motivated by coming up short over and over again last season to pull off some big time wins.
But that’s for the future. Can’t start the season on a win streak if you don’t win the first one, and there’s just one thing to focus on this weekend……
Match #1: at Eastern Illinois Panthers (0-0)
Date: Friday, August 30, 2024
Time: 6pm Central
Location: Groniger Arena, Charleston, Illinois
Streaming: ESPN+
Live Stats: Sidearm Stats
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteVB
Bluesky Updates: @AnonymousEagle
Marquette’s record book says that they are 3-11 all time against Eastern Illinois. However. Marquette has won the last two meetings, which was in last year’s NCAA tournament first round, and then back in 2012. EIU hasn’t won since 2000, and three of their wins are before Marquette notes that they officially joined Division 1.
As mentioned a second ago, yep, Eastern Illinois is coming off an NCAA tournament appearance last season. They were pretty good all season long, going 28-4 heading into the national championship event, including 15-3 in Ohio Valley Conference action. That earned them a regular season championship by three games over second place Southeast Missouri, and the Panthers knocked of SEMO in the OVC title match in a sweep to get to the NCAAs for the first time since 2001.
The Ohio Valley preseason poll sets up a showdown of those same top two teams again in 2024. Southeast Missouri is the favorite, but the voting was scattered pretty heavily. Six different teams earned a first place vote, including five for second place EIU. The Panthers landed just one point behind SEMO and just three points in front of third place Morehead State. Whether that’s the voters throwing their hands in the air collectively or a prediction that the league is up for grabs, I can’t say for certain.
Catalina Rochaix is the locker room leader, at least in the eyes of the voters. She is Eastern Illinois’ only rep on the preseason all-conference team, although Kaitlyn Flynn is on a separate “Players To Watch” list. Rochaix was Setter of the Year in the OVC last season after averaging 11.03 assists per set. Flynn averaged 2.54 kills per set last season, and she is EIU’s top returning hitter as Giovana Larregui Lopez (4.00/set) and Natalie Mitchem (3.46/set) have both moved on.