Volleyball: Marquette Opens Home Slate With Sweep Of James Madison

Because they're trying to get four matches in at the McGuire Center today, Marquette and James Madison bypassed the traditional long locker room intermission in between the second and third sets.  With Marquette winning the first two sets 25-12 and 25-9, I almost wondered if there was some sort of volleyball mercy rule.  Y'know, "No sense in making you wait 10 minutes to face your doom," or something similar.

Instead, it seemed that the short break either invigorated JMU or caused MU to have a bit of a fatigue break.  The Dukes took the first two points of the set for their first lead of the day and eventually took an 8-5 lead.  A quick 5-1 MU run without head coach Ryan Theis even calling a time out pulled the Golden Eagles into a brief 10-9 lead, and after JMU knotted it at 10, a Nele Barber kill and a James Madison attack error gave the Golden Eagles the lead for good.  They would close it out 25-17, finishing on a 8-3 run.

All said and done, Marquette walked away with their first home win of the year in a tidy 69 minutes.  Positively Maddux-ian.  Barber led MU in kills with 12.  MU hit .327 in the match against just .038 for James Madison, with Meghan Niemann's .615 on 13 swings topping the charts.  JMU's best weapon in the match was Lizzy Briones, who had six kills for the Dukes.

Up Next: A 7pm match TONIGHT against Rice!  As I type this, Rice has a 21-19 lead on UW-Green Bay at the McGuire Center.