The Golden Eagles head to Omaha to determine who has an edge in the Big East standings until mid-November.
Part of Marquette volleyball winning a share of the last two Big East regular season titles has been beating Creighton. Both of those wins were in Milwaukee, but still! Nothing about that concept has changed for 2024, as Creighton is the only team other than Marquette in the Big East earning AVCA top 25 votes. There’s nothing else that’s happened so far this season in the league that tells us that there’s a team or two not named Marquette that can obviously beat the Bluejays this year. If Marquette gets swept by Creighton in their two meetings, then that’s pretty much going to hand the Bluejays the regular season title as a solo outing this year.
So, yeah, Tuesday’s visit to Omaha is kind of a big deal. If Marquette can find a way to beat a top 10 ranked Bluejays team, the ball is in MU’s court until November 10th when the two sides meet again in Milwaukee. Vice versa for Creighton, and one way or another, someone is probably going to have a chance to effectively win the regular season title on November 10th, if not actually mathematically.
That’s the tight focus importance of Tuesday’s match. It’s also a big picture important match for Marquette. The Golden Eagles have just one obvious quality win so far this season, and that’s the victory over then-#24 Dayton. The Flyers have stayed in the top 25 since then, but Marquette’s win there is balanced out by their loss to a Western Michigan team that is now 5-8 on the season, 1-1 in MAC play, and a far cry from the team that earned preseason top 25 votes. From a certain point of view, Marquette doesn’t have any obvious quality wins. (This is where having RPI data would be helpful, but the NCAA hasn’t released that quite yet this season.) With no net obvious quality wins as Dayton and WMU break even, beating #6 Creighton on the road would become a signature victory for Marquette this year.
But, y’know, no pressure.
Big East Match #3: at #6 Creighton Bluejays (11-2, 2-0 Big East)
Date: Tuesday, October 1, 2024
Time: 6pm Central
Location: DJ Sokol Arena, Omaha, Nebraska
Television: FS1
Streaming: FoxSports.com or the Fox Sports app
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteVB
Bluesky Updates: @AnonymousEagle
Marquette is 7-27 all time against Creighton, and that’s with the two sides splitting the last four meetings straight down the middle with the Golden Eagles winning at home twice. Marquette hasn’t won in Omaha since February 2021 during the timeshifted 2020 season, and so they haven’t won a “normal” season match in Nebraska since the 2013 Big East championship match.
Creighton comes into Tuesday night on a four match winning streak, and they’ve won each of their last 11 sets. The first two in that set stretch were the last two in a neutral site win over then-#6 Purdue, and then the Bluejays turned around less than 24 hours later and beat the host of that weekend’s event, then-#10 Kansas. They waffled the Jayhawks too, hitting .426 and holding Kansas to just .171. Yes, the same Kansas team that beat Marquette 3-1.
The Bluejays also have a win over then-#20 USC, getting them 3-1 at home. Creighton’s two losses are nothing to be bothered about. They rallied back from down 0-2 to force a fifth set on the road against then-#5 Nebraska, and that included winning the third set 33-31, which sounds very much insane. The other loss was also on the road and also in five sets, and also with the Jays down 0-2. That one was against then-#4 Louisville, so y’know, these things happen. Visit top 10 teams, take top 10 losses. Having the fortitude to make them work for it? No such thing as moral victories, but y’know, not the worst thing either.
Marquette is going to have to deal with what is probably the… No, I’m just going to say it. Norah Sis and Ava Martin are the best 1-2 punch in the Big East. Marquette doesn’t have anything to match them, and no one else in the Big East is on Creighton’s level. Sis is averaging 3.82 kills per set while hitting .293, Martin is tracking along behind her at 3.31 kills and a .248 hitting percentage. This makes Kendra Wait’s job as setter incredibly easy, as she can just feed whoever has the hot hand at any given moment in a match. That also helps explain why Wait is averaging 11 assists per set.
Wisconsin native and Kentucky grad transfer Elise Goetzinger doubles as Creighton’s #3 attacker and part of a potent blocking combination with Kiara Reinhardt. Both women are north of a block per set, with Reinhardt leading the way at 1.39 per set. Maddy Bilinovic, a grad transfer from Penn State, is leading the way on the back line to the tune of a team high 4.04 digs per set.