Volleyball: Marquette 3, American 0

Autumn Bailey had a match high 15 kills and freshman Gabby Benda had 24 assists in her first career start as the Golden Eagles picked up a three set win (25-20, 25-19, 25-16) over American University on Friday evening.

Bailey had about as good of a performance as you could want to see, hitting .394 on the night while committing just two errors.  In fact, as a team, Marquette hit .288 and never went lower than .275 in any of the three sets.  On the other side of the net, American hit .076 across the three sets, hitting a match high .111 in the second set.  Their biggest problems came from Allison Cappellino (34 attacks, -.118) and Kristyna Lindovska (22 attacks, -.045), although Kelly McCaddin managed to hit .368 while leading the Eagles in kills with nine.

American actually had a 12-11 lead in the first set, but the Golden Eagles used a 7-1 run to take control of the opening frame and never were really challenged again.  Bailey's two errors came right in a row late in the second, and they allowed AU to pull within three at 19-16.  Following a timeout, Marquette doubled up American 6-3 to close out the second set.  The third started with a 12-6 run by MU as they went out to win with their largest margin of victory of the night.

Lauren Houg got the nod at libero again in this match, and had a match and career high 17 digs.  Teal Schnurr and Meghan Niemann tied for a match high five block assists, and Mary Nilles chipped in 14 assists off the bench.

It's a pretty impressive win for the Golden Eagles, particularly on the heels of their loss to Colorado State.  Not only did they bounce back from a match where they were outclassed from the get go, Marquette showed an ability to dominate against an opponent that's just outside the AVCA Top 25 in the early goings of the season.

Up Next: Marquette takes their second crack at a ranked opponent this season at noon Central today.  They'll take on #8 Florida State (3-0), and American will provide live stats for that match right here.