This one’s for all the Tostitos in the Big East this season, kind of.
From one perspective, the 2024 Big East volleyball regular season title can be decided on Sunday at the Al McGuire Center.
From another perspective — and math is over on this side of the issue — nothing can or will be decided, and probably won’t be until the regular season is over.
After Creighton beat Butler 3-0 while never letting them cross 16 points on Friday night, the Big East standings looked like this:
If Creighton beats Marquette in Milwaukee for the season sweep, that will all but mathematically give the Bluejays the regular season title. All they would have to do is Not Lose Three Times in their final four matches. They’re already 13-0, and so none of us expect them to stumble against Seton Hall, Georgetown, DePaul, or Xavier. It might happen, but with a two game lead on the Golden Eagles, the only team that could catch them at that point, it’s looking pretty safe that they would at least end up with a share of the title if not the outright title.
If Marquette knocks off the #5 ranked Bluejays, then the two teams will be tied at 13-1. It then becomes a staring contest for the final four regular season games. If no one blinks, then the two teams share the title for the fourth consecutive season. If someone blinks down the stretch — and MU plays the exact same four teams as CU — then the other team gets sole control of the regular season title.
I believe the word you’re looking for there is “pivotal.”
Not for nothing, but a win over Creighton would go a long way towards confirming Marquette as an at-large team for the NCAA tournament. With an RPI ranking of #21, the Golden Eagles are in a pretty solid position…… but they’re also 1-5 against top 60 opponents, with all six contests coming against the top 14. The strength of schedule — #60 in the country per Evollve — is doing a lot of the heavy lifting for Marquette here as they don’t really have the tippity-top wins to justify the bid, just a 16-1 record against teams outside the top 60. Creighton is currently #5 in the RPI as well, so a win would move MU to 2-5 against the top 15 and clearly give the Golden Eagles breathing room….. even if the NCAA’s projection on October 24th said they were looking at a #7 seed.
Anyway, a lot on the line, no matter how you want to slice it.
Big East Match #14: vs #5 Creighton Bluejays (22-2, 13-0 Big East)
Date: Sunday, November 10, 2024
Time: 2pm Central
Location: Al McGuire Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Television: FS1, with Noah Reed and Anna Connolly calling the action
Streaming: FoxSports.com or the Fox Sports app
Live Stats: Sidearm Stats
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteVB
Bluesky Updates: @AnonymousEagle
Marquette is 7-28 all time against Creighton, and that’s with the Bluejays holding a 3-2 edge in the last five meetings. The Golden Eagles have earned a share of the Big East regular season title in each of the past two seasons by beating Creighton in Milwaukee.
Here’s how Creighton’s season has been going since the match against Marquette in Omaha: The Golden Eagles are the only team to take a set from the Bluejays since CU beat then-#6 Purdue 3-1 on September 20th. MU took the third set in that contest, so that’s a run of 31 straight sets for Creighton. Marquette held the Bluejays to .278 hitting in that match, and Creighton has hit under .311 just once in the last 10 contests. That was a .297 against St. John’s where Creighton didn’t need their fastball working because the Red Storm hit a woeful .051. Generally speaking, it’s helpful when you supplement your “off night” in the hitting department by coming up with 12 blocks.
Those blocks were a problem for Marquette in the first meeting as well. The Bluejays came up with 13 in four sets, which is a big reason why the Golden Eagles hit just .116 in the match. Heck, MU was ticketed for a lot worse than that until they put up a .167 while losing the fourth set 25-12. It’s weird that a lopsided set had the best hitting percentage of the match, but that’s what happens when Creighton has 17 kills on 32 swings with just one error. Jays Go Smash, Set End Fast. I suspect they were mad at having to play a fourth set.
The good news for Marquette is that it seems like their game plan for Norah Sis and Ava Martin worked last time out. The Bluejays’ top attackers hit just .256 and .262 in the first meeting, and I would suspect that MU head coach Ryan Theis would happily take that again here. Where you get into problems is when Kiara Reinhardt puts up a .467 on 15 swings and Jaya Johnson goes for .316. Sometimes there’s nothing you can do about that when you’re focused on limiting damage from two women, that’s going to leave quality chances for other people.
Quite honestly, Marquette’s focus has to be finding a way to be better against Creighton’s block. The 13 points off rejections in four sets isn’t the problem, it’s the fact that no one who took 15 swings hit better than .176 in the match. Jenna Reitsma and Hattie Bray combined for just five kills against seven errors. That’s negative hitting no matter how you cut it, and whether it’s finding angles to go off the block and down or merely avoiding the CU block altogether, Marquette has to have an answer for what went wrong in Omaha this time around.