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The women's volleyball team started their weekend road trip last night with a match against defending NEC champion Sacred Heart. 7 kills from Ciara Jones and a blistering team hitting percentage of .522 led to Marquette taking the first set quickly, 25-15. Sacred Heart woke up from that point, taking a 12-9 lead before Marquette tied the score at 16 and again at 18 before the Pioneers pulled away and evened the match at a set apiece. The Golden Eagles responded, taking a 7-1 lead in the third and eventually took the set 25-17, powered by hitting .423 as a team. 6 ties and 4 lead changes were on tap for the 4th set. Sacred Heart had a 24-22 lead and were poised to force the fifth set, but 2 straight kills from Ashley Beyer gave the advantage to Marquette before Kelsey Mattai and Holly Mertens teamed up for a block that sealed the 3-1 (25-15, 23-25, 25-17, 27-25) victory for Marquette. Jones, Beyer and Danielle Carlson all had 13 kills for Marquette, and Carlson improved on her .394 hitting percentage on the year by hitting .525 in this match. The MU victory broke Sacred Heart's streak of 22 consecutive home wins.
Volleyball continues their weekend with matches against Connecticut and St. John's. Both squads dropped their first two matches of the Big East season last weekend. UConn (8-7, 0-2) is led by outside hitter Jordan Kirk's 3.71 kills/set and libero Kelsey Maving's 5.08 digs/set are good enough for 5th best in the BE. Senior Darlene Ramdin does the heavy lifting for St. John's (9-10, 0-2), averaging 2.94 kills and 0.94 block per set.
After the jump: Soccer previews!
The #10/#13 women's soccer team has two road matches over the weekend against two former C-USA rivals. First up is Louisville tonight. The Cardinals are the lone remaining undefeated team in the BE National Division with a record of 2-0-2 and 4-4-3 overall. Eight Cardinals have contributed goals so far this season, led by 4 from Christine Exeter. Keeper Chloe Kiefer has played every minute in net for Louisville and has posted 4 shutouts, including one in their most recent match against Providence.
Cincinnati provides Sunday afternoon's opposition. The Bearcats (5-4-3, 1-2-1) are winless in their last 3 and will try to turn their luck around tonight against South Florida before Marquette comes to town. Four Bearcats have at least 3 goals on the season, including 5 from Mackenzie Grause. Keeper Kristina Utley has a GAA of 1.28 and a save percentage of .775 for the season to go along with 3 shutouts.
Over on the men's soccer side of things, they bring a 4 game unbeaten streak into Valley Fields on Saturday night to host Rutgers (4-3-1, 1-0-0). Sophomore Kene Eze and freshman Juan Pablo Correa have done the majority of the scoring for the Scarlet Knights with 5 and 4 goals respectively. Redshirt junior Kevin McMullen has done most of the keeper work for Rutgers, but has surrendered 10 goals on just 27 shots on net.