The Golden Eagles hit the road to face a 2023 nemesis & a team currently tied for first in the Big East.
Here’s what I think we know about Marquette volleyball at this point of the season, 13 matches in.
Marquette is a good volleyball team, as proven by their 7-1 record against teams not currently in the top 10 of the RPI. They might even be a very good volleyball team, as evidenced by Evollve ranking them at #17 in the country on points that start with a MU serve. They are not a great volleyball team, as proven by their 0-5 record against teams in the top 10 of the RPI as well as their home loss to #162 (but favorites to win the MAC) (but 2-3 already in MAC play) Western Michigan.
This is fine. This is a perfectly acceptable place to be. It might be hard to see it since all of this means that their overall record is 7-6 and that does not look like a good volleyball team. The Golden Eagles tried something and it did not work out well for them. Yes, it did not work out for the second straight season, but that’s a different problem and one that’s going to go away [glances at the number of seniors on this roster] pretty soon.
Here’s the deal for Marquette. They have nine Big East matches between now and November 10th, which is when they host Creighton in the return bout. Presuming things that are expected to happen between now and then do in fact happen, then that match will essentially determine the Big East regular season title. It is Marquette’s job to realize that every single one of those nine matches (and their two non-conference jaunts against Milwaukee and Princeton to a certain degree) carry some weight of winning a fourth straight regular season title. MU has to get to November 10th with a chance to at least tie Creighton with a win.
Marquette gets to exorcise some ghosts from last season with their next contest, as the Red Storm beat MU in five sets both in New York as well as in the Big East tournament in Milwaukee. It would probably be a pretty notable emotional boost for the Golden Eagles to get a win on Friday night. Then, they travel down to Philadelphia to face a Villanova team that’s currently tied for first place. VU has to play Creighton on Friday, so Marquette may be in a position to hand them a second straight loss and put the Wildcats in the rear view mirror, standings-wise.
I think the move is to find things to accomplish each and every time out for the next nine matches. That last paragraph is what Marquette can accomplish this weekend. One step at a time, stack wins, build up an NCAA tournament resume, take care of business…… and long term, prepare for the Bluejays.
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Big East Match #5: at St. John’s Red Storm (13-5, 2-2 Big East)
Date: Friday, October 11, 2024
Time: 6pm Central
Location: Carnesecca Arena, Jamaica, New York
Streaming: FloSports
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteVB
Marquette is 25-9 all time against St. John’s, with every match in the series coming since October of 2005. While the big picture favors the Golden Eagles, recent history goes to the Red Storm. MU’s trip to Queens last season ended in a loss, their first against the Red Storm since the 2019 Big East championship match and first in the regular season since 2016. In fact, the Golden Eagles were just 1-2 against STJ last year, as the Johnnies got another five set win in the Big East semifinals at the McGuire Center.
I think you probably could have argued that St. John’s was having a good season right up until the start of Big East play. They were 11-3 and riding a four match win streak. One of their losses was to then-#3 Penn State, and another was against then-#16 Arizona State. The Johnnies probably weren’t thrilled about their reverse sweep loss to UC Santa Barbara, but you know what? The Gauchos are the reigning Big West regular season champions and got a vote for first place in this year’s preseason poll. There are definitely worse teams to take your only non-ranked team non-conference loss against.
Even Big East play started out just fine, with the Red Storm going 2-0 in a home contest with Seton Hall and a road date with Georgetown. Okay, no problems here…… and then they lost at Xavier and at DePaul last weekend. Welp. So now they’re #93 in the mostly freshly debuted RPI, and #127 in the Evollve rankings. The Xavier loss is definitely worse than the DePaul loss, as the Musketeers are 4-10 on the year after beating the Red Storm. To make matters worse, the Big East schedulers have decided that everyone in the league has to play Marquette and Creighton back-to-back every single weekend, and that’s obviously not going to go super well for most teams. The odds that St. John’s is 2-4 after this weekend and facing a long stretch to get to the top six and a Big East tournament berth are pretty high.
St. John’s does have a 1-2 punch on offense that must be respected. Erin Jones leads the team in kills with 3.81 per set, while Giorgia Walther is right behind her at 3.63. Marquette is going to want to get the Johnnies to move the offense towards Walther, as she’s hitting just .205 on the season. Jones is a much more accurate hitter at .293, and Walther actually has the lead in total attacks by just five even though she missed a match along the way this season. If MU can get the Red Storm to send swings to Lucrezia Lodi, even better. The 6’1” Italian is #3 on the team in total swings this season and in kills at 2.46 per set….. but she’s hitting just .109.
Wiktoria Kowalczyk handles almost all of the setting, although Jones chips in 1.59 assists per set to help St. John’s to 12.31 per set. Rashanny Solano Smith is your primary libero here, averaging 3.96 digs per set, and Jones adds 2.84 in between everything else that she’s doing. Ludovica Zola, a 6’3” middle from Italy, is averaging 1.03 blocks for a point per set this season and three rotation regulars — including Jones again — help Zola out with at least half a block per set.
Big East Match #6: at Villanova Wildcats (11-4, 4-0 Big East)
Date: Sunday, October 13, 2024
Time: Noon Central
Location: Jake Nevin Field House, Villanova, Pennsylvania
Streaming: FloSports
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteVB
Marquette is 24-4 all time against Villanova. The Golden Eagles come in on an 11 match winning streak against the Wildcats. MU had posted three straight sweeps in the series up until the late season meeting last year at VU that ended 3-1.
I don’t want to go so far as to say that Villanova’s 11-4 start to the season is hollow, because you know what? St. John’s has played the same Big East schedule as the Wildcats and they aren’t 4-0. And you know what else? They took what is their worst loss of the season in the opener and followed that up with a loss to the best team they’ve played to this point of the campaign. 11-2 since then is pretty good.
But we do have to acknowledge that DePaul was VU’s first top 130 win of the season, and the Blue Demons are currently #92 in the RPI. They’re not exactly knocking them dead out there, and I suspect that the Wildcats would really like to have their September 13th road contest against Yale back. Villanova was up 2-1 after dropping the first set but couldn’t get the job done, up to and including holding an 8-6 lead in the fifth set before falling 15-10.
Still, the fact of the matter is that sole control of first place in the Big East is on the line at Nevin Field House on Friday night as Villanova welcomes #6 Creighton. They’re the only two undefeated teams left in the league, and you gotta play the games. It’s hard for me to say that the #128 team in the Evollve rankings has a great shot to beat #3, even on home court, but there’s a chance, y’know?
Marquette’s job on Sunday will be to make Abby Harrell inefficient. The 5’10” outside hitter from Washington is leading the squad in kills with 3.28 per set, but she’s hitting just .210. VU’s next two best outside hitters are doing even worse in the accuracy department — they’re both under .200 — so if Harrell has a bad day, that could be it for VU’s chances. MU is going to have to be wary of Campbell McKinnon in the middle. She’s hitting .392 on the year and sits at #2 on the kills average list at 2.44/set as a result. McKinnon stands just 5’10”, which isn’t ideal for a middle blocker, but she is still leading the team in rejections. Rather, she’s tied with Ozzie Ozonoh at 0.94 blocks per set for the team lead there.
Villanova’s doing something interesting with their defense, and since I haven’t studied them, I can’t tell you what it is for certain. The fact of the matter is that they have no one averaging more than 2.4 digs per set, and none of their top four in that column of the stat sheet are listed as a libero or a defensive specialist. This might just be a product of the new “you can dress two liberos” rule, but at the very least, VU’s playing receive by committee. Given that Marquette likes to find a weak spot and attack it in service, this could be an intriguing tactical matchup for the Golden Eagles.