The Golden Eagles recovered from an awful first set against St. John’s and dealt with a competitive Villanova squad over the weekend.
THE GOOD NEWS: Marquette volleyball is now 5-1 in Big East action this season after picking up wins over St. John’s and Villanova, both on the road, over the weekend.
THE LESS THAN FANTASTIC NEWS: Marquette definitely had to fight to get these two wins.
On Friday…. well, there’s no other way to say it: Marquette looked really bad for 39 points and lost the first set to St. John’s 25-14. The Golden Eagles hit .050 and gave up .269 hitting to the Red Storm, who found themselves leading 16-8 midway through the frame. The hitting by the Johnnies doesn’t even tell the whole story of the set, as MU surrendered SEVEN service aces. You’re not going to win a lot of sets when you don’t even return the ball once on seven different serves by your opponent, that’s just math.
Then the second set started, and for the rest of the match, Marquette hit .364 and held the Johnnies to just .136, and the Red Storm hit increasingly smaller numbers in each successive set, too. Heck, you could see Marquette’s determination kick in right after that awful first set as they went up 17-6 in the second and hit .520, as if they were trying to prove a point right then and there.
I’m not going to say it was perfect the whole way to the end, as St. John’s took an 8-4 lead early in the third before MU won the rest of the set 21-10. Heck, it wasn’t even that close because Marquette was up 20-13 and 23-15. The fourth set was actually a straight up challenge even with the Johnnies having their worst hitting set of the night, as STJ pulled within one at 21-20 before the Golden Eagles stuffed them twice in the final four points of the match.
Oh, and by the way? St. John’s finished the match with nine aces. Two in the last three sets. Once Marquette started getting proper touches on their service receptions, it was curtains for the Red Storm.
Aubrey Hamilton finished with 17 kills on a .316 hitting performance to lead the offense for Marquette, and Natalie Ring had 10 on .292 to join Hamilton in double digit town. Jenna Reitsma and Samantha Naber both had 12 digs to lead there, while Yadhira Anchante had a double-double on a sub-par 36 assists and 11 digs. Can’t get assists if you get digs, y’know.
How about some highlights, courtesy of GoMarquette.com and FloSports?
I can’t particularly quantify any part of Marquette’s 3-0 win over Villanova, not in the same way that I did with the Red Storm. Villanova just never went away, not until the very very end. It was two straight sets and change of competitive volleyball, where Marquette never was playing poorly, at least to look at them playing, and Villanova was standing right there trying to fend off a second straight loss after falling to #6 Creighton.
The first set was weaving back and forth in traffic from one side to the other, to be honest, but at the end, it was locked in a 23-23 tie with the universe daring both teams to do something. Marquette did something, a kill from Natalie Ring, and Villanova did not, as Tara Garvey missed on an attack for MU’s 25-23 win.
Neither side could gain a true advantage in the second, and a kill from Abbey Harrell had the Wildcats up 18-17 late. Then Marquette scored five straight, four on kills and the fifth on a block, then won a challenge to make it 23-19, and it was kind of just academic from there.
A mishandled ball by Aubrey Hamilton made it a 7-6 Marquette lead after a third straight point for Villanova early in the third set. Mistakes from Villanova started to stack up from there, as MU benefited from two attack errors and a service ace from Samantha Naber to go on a 7-1 run and lead 14-7. Another 5-0 burst made it 20-9, and Marquette just traded points with the Wildcats the rest of the way to wrap up the sweep with a 25-14 set in front of the tens of people in attendance at Nevin Fieldhouse.
Aubrey Hamilton was great again here, going for 15 kills with just one error against and a .452 hitting performance. Natalie Ring continued her ascent to status as Marquette’s #2 attacker, getting 12 kills while hitting .300. Yadhira Anchante did a great job on assists here with 33 in three sets, and had a double-double with a team high 13 digs, too.
How about some highlights, courtesy of GoMarquette.com and FloSports?
Up Next: Marquette returns to the McGuire Center for the first of three straight at home next Friday night. DePaul will be in the building for a 7pm start, and that one’s going to have a bit of heat for it. With Marquette handing Villanova a second Big East loss, that means the Golden Eagles are currently tied for second place in the standings with the Blue Demons with both teams at 5-1. After that, it’s Xavier on Sunday at 1pm and Milwaukee making the cross-town midweek trip the following Tuesday.