The Golden Eagles wrap up the home portion of the 2024 schedule with an eye on clinching a top 2 spot in the Big East.
And so, Marquette’s hopes for a fourth straight Big East regular season title have all but fallen completely apart.
They’re only mostly apart at the moment. The hopes ride entirely on Creighton, the current #5 team in the country, losing twice in the final four matches of the regular season when they’ve lost twice — to current #2 Nebraska and current #3 Louisville — all season. Effectively, Marquette can’t pull into a tie with the Bluejays any longer. Mathematically yes, but realistically, no.
While they can’t win a conference championship at this point of the year, there’s still things to play for. For example, Marquette hasn’t clinched a top two spot in the Big East yet. The top two teams in the conference get to skip ahead to the Big East tournament semifinals over Thanksgiving weekend, while teams 3 through 6 have to play an opening round/quarterfinal match on Wednesday. The 12-2 Golden Eagles currently have a three game lead on UConn and DePaul, both of whom are at 9-5 in the standings. Two wins this weekend by Marquette clinches that second place finish behind the Bluejays. Simple, straight forward, no guess work.
There’s also Marquette’s RPI to consider. The Golden Eagles are #22 in the RPI after beating Butler but losing to Creighton over the past week. It’s the first reversal in fortunes for MU since the RPI debuted this season back in early October, as they have slid down one spot from #21 a week ago after coming in at #34 in the first edition. A few more wins should help keep Marquette right in that low 20s area, and having that strong RPI number is critical for NCAA tournament evaluation. MU will have to depend on that, as their 1-6 record against top 16 teams doubles as their record against top 50 opponents at the moment. There’s just one top 180 match left on the schedule, so winning is the most important thing to the program at the moment.
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Big East Match #15: vs Georgetown Hoyas (10-16, 3-11 Big East)
Date: Friday, November 15, 2024
Time: 7pm Central
Location: Al McGuire Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Streaming: FloSports
Live Stats: Sidearm Stats
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteVB
Bluesky Updates: @AnonymousEagle
Marquette is 24-4 all time against Georgetown. All of GU’s victories in the series came in the first seven meetings, so it’s been 21 straight victories for the Golden Eagles now. Marquette hasn’t lost a set to the Hoyas since 2019, and that’s the only set they’ve dropped since 2016.
Georgetown is on what passes for a hot streak for them this season right now. Since getting swept by Marquette in Washington, D.C., right before Halloween for a sixth straight loss, the Hoyas have gone 2-2. They beat DePaul in five sets to snap the losing streak at seven straight, rallying from a 2-1 deficit to win the final two sets and take the fifth in extra points. The good vibes from that one carried over to five days later when Georgetown swept Providence to give them a season sweep of the Friars as well. That marked the first time since September 14th that Georgetown had won consecutive matches, so like I said: Hot streak.
Yes, they lost to UConn in their most recent match. Let’s not ruin their good mood!
Last time around, Marquette held Georgetown to just .071 hitting in what was the third match in three days for the Golden Eagles. Nobody had a particularly good afternoon for the Hoyas, but Dionna Mitchell finished with a team high nine kills. She also had nine errors for a flat .000 hitting percentage on the day, and that’s Georgetown’s problem in general. They’re hitting .210 as a team this season, and no one averaging more than two kills per set is hitting better than .270. Everything they try to do is just so hard, and the fact that they’ve had multiple people missing time — only one player has played in all 93 sets — is not helping the continuity and comfort level that you need to be a highly successful volleyball team.
MU didn’t have to do all that much impressively well to get through the Hoyas, as Ella Foti led the way with 11 kills and Aubrey Hamilton added 10. Marquette did fire off 12 aces to power their victory, and Georgetown’s 20 hitting errors were largely unforced as Marquette had just three blocks in the match. Expecting the Hoyas to just misfire their way to nearly an entire set’s worth of points is the wrong way to go about things, but Good Solid Marquette Volleyball should be enough to carry the day here.
Big East Match #16: vs Seton Hall Pirates (11-14, 5-9 Big East)
Date: Sunday, November 15, 2024
Time: 1pm Central
Location: Al McGuire Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Streaming: FloSports
Live Stats: Sidearm Stats
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteVB
Bluesky Updates: @AnonymousEagle
Marquette is 25-5 all time against Seton Hall. Marquette hasn’t lost to the Pirates since 2014, when Seton Hall beat MU in Walsh Gym in the regular season and then again in five sets in the Big East semifinals in Milwaukee. It’s been 16 straight wins for the Golden Eagles now, and three of the last five meetings have been a sweep although the meeting earlier this season did go to five sets.
Unlike Georgetown, Seton Hall has a reasonable mathematical shot at the conference tournament right now. At 5-9, they’re two games back of 7-7 Xavier, which is the team in sixth place right now. SHU’s problem is that they’re staring at the business end of 5-11 with visits to Creighton and Marquette this weekend. The Pirates either need to find a way to split this weekend or just cross their fingers that Xavier melts down…. and XU does have to close out with the Golden Eagles and the Bluejays next weekend, too.
Seton Hall has gotten themselves into a position to have a chance here as they’re coming off wins over Xavier, UConn, and Providence in a row. They’re having to move themselves into position to have a chance because they had lost four straight before these three wins in a row. In short, the Pirates are a team of contrasts.
The first meeting between Marquette and Seton Hall was a super weird one, and not just because it went to five sets. Each of the first two sets in that match were on opposite sides of the spectrum from each other. Marquette outhit the Pirates .310 to .048 on their way to a 25-16 first set win, and that was followed with Seton Hall tuning up the Golden Eagles in the hitting department, .243 to -.041. Yes, negative hitting as Marquette committed 11 attack errors in a 25-17 set loss. Things went back the other direction, .379 to .000 in favor of a 25-13 MU victory in the third set, and then Seton Hall just held tight to an early lead in the fourth set to force things to a fifth.
I doubt things will get as wild and wooly a second time, but I suppose, under the idea of Styles Make Fights, that we can’t guarantee it won’t happen. Marquette got sub-par days from Aubrey Hamilton (.119), Ella Foti (.042), and Natalie Ring (.188) with all three women getting at least 16 swings along the way. On the other side, Seton Hall was led by 13 kills from Senna Roberts-Navarro, who hit .208 in the match. No, it’s not great, but Roberts-Navarro is SHU’s top attacker with 2.56 kills per set on average this season and a .190 hitting percentage. In short: She had a better than average day against Marquette. They also got a quality performance from Perri Lucas (11 kills, .273) as she averages 2.34 kills and .205 hitting.
Seton Hall was without the services of Jenna Walsh last time around. The 5’11” outside hitter from California is averaging .240 kills and .159 hitting in 19 matches this season. That’s not record breaking stuff, but it’s an extra option that the Pirates didn’t have when confounding Marquette for long stretches. Walsh was back in the lineup last time out against Providence, putting up seven kills and hitting .286 in their 3-0 sweep, so I’d figure that she’ll be available on Sunday as well.