Women's Volleyball: Xavier Invitational Champions!

It took extra points in two of the sets, but Marquette's third match of the Xavier Invitational went the same way that the first two did: Marquette swept Xavier 3-0 (26-24, 25-21, 27-25) to claim the Xavier Invitational title. Setter Elizabeth Koberstein, who compiled a double-double against Xavier with 37 assists and 12 digs, was named MVP of the tournament. Koberstein averaged 11.22 assists, 1.22 kills and 2.55 digs per set for the entire tournament. She is joined on the all tournament team by Golden Eagles Danielle Carlson (3.33 kills/set) and Lindsay Gosh (2.89 kills/set and 2.44 digs/set).

Hit the jump and we'll talk about the match with Xavier!

Marquette avoided the slow starts that plagued them against Ole Miss earlier in the tournament in each set against Xavier. In the first set, the Golden Eagles jumped out to leads of 8-3 and and 17-11 on service aces by Gosh in both cases. But Xavier was the home team and dug in, eventually pulling even at 23 on a kill and an ace by Kelsey Dunaway. After the Musketeers kept it tied at 24, Kelsey Mattai teamed up with Koberstein and then Holly Mertens to get the two points Marquette needed to close out the set.

In the second set, Marquette started out taking a 10-5 lead (on an ace by Gosh, of course) and they pushed that lead out to eight points at 22-14 on a kill from Erin Lehman. Xavier would cut the deficit to just two before Marquette was able to close it out. A strong team hitting percentage of .375 carried the Golden Eagles in the second frame.

Xavier got the first three points of the third set and were able to maintain a lead for the first half of the set until Sarah Brown committed an attack error to give MU a 13-12 lead. Control of the set would swing back and forth until Xavier was able to position themselves for set point at 24-23. Lehman came through with a kill to even it out, though, and Mertens contributed a kill on either side of a Mattai kill to give Marquette the set, the match, and the tournament championship.

Holly Mertens led Marquette with 13 kills in the title contest. Gosh matched Koberstein with a double-double in the match, but she used 12 kills and 11 digs to get there instead. Julie Jeziorowski led the defense with 17 digs.