It felt like the Golden Eagles weren’t that far from beating the Bluejays….. and then the fourth set happened.
I don’t want to try to tell you that Marquette volleyball was close to beating #6 Creighton on Tuesday night on FS1. That seems not true.
But I do feel like Marquette wasn’t that far from being able to beat #6 Creighton. The Golden Eagles gave up a couple of brief bursts to the Bluejays in each of the first two sets, and the gap that was created allowed Creighton to hold Marquette off for a 2-0 lead. It felt like “Great team is beating good team” more than anything else. If you look at the hitting percentages for the Bluejays in the first two sets, you can easily say “hey, Marquette gave Creighton’s offense problems there.” The reason why Marquette went down 2-0 is because their offense couldn’t even keep up with CU’s .200-ish hitting, as MU hit .098 in each of the first two frames.
The third frame was different. Creighton hit .281, Marquette hit just .107, and the Jays led 16-11 midway through…. and that lead just went away. The tenacity and vociferousness needed to beat the #6 team in the country showed up at the exact right moment as MU ripped off five straight points to flip the set from 22-19 Creighton to 24-22 Marquette, and after one last Jays point, Natalie Ring closed out a 25-23 MU victory.
Okay, 2-1, still behind the eightball here, need to win #4 to force #5, but hey, something’s cooking.
Oh, wait, no, that steam isn’t from Marquette’s cooking, that’s coming out of Creighton’s ears. Apparently losing that set to Marquette, particularly the way they did, reaaaaaaally made Creighton mad. 6-2 out of the gate became 13-4 Bluejays, and that was pretty much that. Marquette didn’t even put together consecutive points until they made it 21-11, and you get the point here.
Marquette is now 6-6 on the year, 2-1 in Big East play, and will have to wait until mid-November to get a return shot at Creighton in Milwaukee. For now, MU’s chances at another Big East title are tied to that contest, although they’re going to have to win every single match between now and then to make that happen.
Up Next: Just one match this weekend for Marquette since they had this midweek contest. Butler comes to the McGuire Center on Sunday, with first serve on FloSports set for 1pm Central. The Bulldogs are…. not good, at 2-12 on the year and 0-2 in Big East play after losses to DePaul and Xavier over the weekend. They’ve won just one set their last five matches, and none in the last three.