That sets up Sunday’s first place showdown with #5 Creighton in Milwaukee.
Marquette volleyball didn’t have too much trouble picking up a 12th straight victory on Wednesday night, sweeping Butler with scores of 25-18, 25-16, and 25-22.
The first set turned in Marquette’s favor after a kill by Elise Ward put Butler up 11-9. MU scored the next eight points, including a pair of aces by Ella Foti, and that had them up 17-11. BU was able to get within three points again at one point, but a pair of kills from Foti put Marquette up 1-0.
Set #2 was chugging along as a back and forth affair up through a 14-13 Marquette lead. The Golden Eagles got the next four points, including a pair of setter kills on either side of a Butler timeout, and then the stretch turned into 6-1. It just kept coming for Marquette and they put up five of the final six points of the set to close on an 11-3 run.
I know it just sounds like Marquette just kept pulling away in those first two sets, but they were much more dominant than that. Marquette hit .419 in the first and a very ridiculous .542 in the second.
It started to look like Butler might have a chance at forcing at least a fourth set as they rallied back from a 3-0 Marquette start to take a 16-12 lead on a kill from Laiya Ebo. But part of the point of volleyball is to play as little volleyball as possible, and that’s the mission that Marquette departed on at that juncture. Six straight for the Golden Eagles, including the point after a Butler timeout, made it an 18-16 MU lead. Butler pulled back even at 19, but Marquette scored the next three, including an Aubrey Hamilton kill coming out of BU’s other timeout. At that point, Butler just started running out of time, and Marquette could just trade points with the Bulldogs to win.
Aubrey Hamilton is your offensive leader here, putting up 12 kills and hitting .370. Hattie Bray nearly got to double digits with nine on .412 hitting. Natalie Ring was absurd with eight kills and .467.
Up Next: First place in the Big East is on the line in Milwaukee on Sunday afternoon. Marquette is now 12-1 in Big East play, and they will welcome #5 ranked and unbeaten in league play Creighton to the McGuire Center for a 2pm start time on November 10th. That game will be on TV, but apparently Fox Sports hasn’t decided on FS1 or FS2 quite yet. Creighton does have to host this same Butler team on Friday evening before they make the trip east.