Believe it or not, the Golden Eagles might be able to clinch a Big East tournament berth with a pair of home wins this weekend.
We’re just past the midway point of Big East play in the 2024 season, and YOUR Marquette Golden Eagles volleyball team is 9-1 in the conference standings. The loss is, of course, against Creighton, as the Bluejays seem to be pointing themselves towards being at worst a dark horse pick for national champion. Marquette has now seen all 10 of their leagues foes once, including the only meeting of the season with UConn and Providence.
Given how things have already gone elsewhere in the league, Marquette has already guaranteed that they will finish ahead of Providence and while it’s mathematically possible to tie with Georgetown right now, the Golden Eagles hold the tiebreaker on the Hoyas.
I point this out in order to say this: Marquette finds themselves in a slightly awkward position where Creighton beating St. John’s on Friday night would open up the door to the Golden Eagles clinching a top six finish and a Big East tournament berth with a win over the Johnnies on Sunday….. but St. John’s beating the Bluejays would be good for Marquette’s chances at a Big East regular season title.
All Marquette can control is what happens in the matches they play, so that’s the primary thing to be concerned with for the Golden Eagles. Continuing to extend their nine match winning streak will keep them on target to have a chance to pull even with the Bluejays when Creighton visits Milwaukee, and it will also help continue to push MU’s RPI closer to a top 25 ranking. The RPI isn’t everything when it comes to NCAA tournament selection, but MU is clearly better off balancing out their 1-5 record against top 15 opponents with the best possible RPI ranking.
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Big East Match #11: vs Villanova Wildcats (13-8, 6-4 Big East)
Date: Friday, November 1, 2024
Time: 7pm Central
Location: Al McGuire Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Streaming: FloSports
Live Stats: Sidearm Stats
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteVB
Bluesky Updates: @AnonymousEagle
Marquette is 25-4 all time against Villanova. The Golden Eagles come in on an 12 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, but they got back on that run earlier this season.
When I wrote a preview for Marquette’s first meeting with Villanova this season, I was able to talk about that match was a showdown with a Wildcats squad that was 4-0 going into the weekend, but probably tied with MU at 4-1 in league play when the two actually faced off. That’s what happened, as Creighton beat VU, and then Marquette beat VU….. and then UConn beat VU as well….. and then St. John’s beat them, too. That means Villanova is 2-2 since last we saw them, and they suddenly find themselves in need of wins to try to lock in a conference tournament berth.
Are they going to get them this weekend with visits to Milwaukee and Omaha? Probably not, which will make their trip through the rest of the regular season interesting, but that’s a story for the future.
In the first meeting this season, Marquette limited Villanova to .126 hitting in a 3-0 sweep. Notable, because VU is hitting .222 overall this year. None of the Wildcats even got to 10 kills in the three set match, and they were led by Campbell McKinnon with nine. That’s a good day for her, as she’s averaging 2.43 kills per set this season. Marquette was able to hamper Abby Harrell’s production, limiting her to eight kills on 24 swings which was tied for the second most attempts on the team in the match. Harrell is VU’s offensive leader with 3.28 kills per set this season, and MU kept her well away from her year-long .202 hitting percentage.
Ozzie Ozonoh did have exactly the kind of match she’s been having when it comes to blocks. She had three assisted blocks against the Golden Eagles, and the senior from California averages 0.97 per set to lead the Wildcats in that department. If Marquette can find a way to hit over .300 again while Ozonoh is getting hers, that’s a pretty good evening for the Golden Eagles.
Big East Match #12: vs St. John’s Red Storm (16-8, 5-5 Big East)
Date: Sunday, November 3, 2024
Time: 1pm Central
Location: Al McGuire Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Streaming: FloSports
Live Stats: Sidearm Stats
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteVB
Bluesky Updates: @AnonymousEagle
Marquette is 26-9 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. Marquette did win in Queens earlier this season, though.
Thanks to that five set win over Villanova on October 23rd, St. John’s is faring a little bit better than Villanova since the last time that they played Marquette. They’re 3-2 in the five matches that have happened since they lost in a sweep to Creighton (no big deal) but also fell in five sets on the road against UConn. The Red Storm had to win the fourth to get to the fifth set there, and they let it slip away from them after sitting in an 8-8 tie at about the midpoint of the final frame.
St. John’s got three kills per set on average from both Erin Jones and Lucrezia Lodi in the first meeting with Marquette this season, as both women got to 12 kills in the 3-1 MU win. However, the Golden Eagles made it a pain for them to get there. Jones hit .162 while Lodi was even worse off at .097. That’s honestly a worse day for Jones (.273 on the season) than it is for Lodi (.141) but any time you make the top two hitters inefficient, you’re doing something right.
Marquette did a number on Giorgia Walther, who is STJ’s #2 attacker in terms of kills per set and the team leader in total swings this season. The 6’2” Italian is a .207 hitter this season, but MU held her to .138 in the first meeting and limited her to nine kills on 29 swings. Three kills per set isn’t bad, but Walther does average 3.40.
This seems like a situation where Marquette can pull out the scouting report from last time and keep going with it. MU lost the first set against the Red Storm in the first meeting because they just could not receive a serve to the tune of the Johnnies posting seven service aces. St. John’s managed just two more aces for the rest of the match and MU won easily once they solved that problem.