Marquette Volleyball Rips Through UW-Milwaukee In Straight Sets

Lauren Houg eclipsed the 1,000 career dig mark while Sara Blasier recorded her eighth double-double of the season as Marquette volleyball swept UW-Milwaukee in straight sets:  25-20, 25-13, and 25-18.

While two of the sets against the Panthers were respectably close at the final margin, the bulk of the match was not.  In the first frame, Marquette went up 6-1 and 11-3 in the early goings and merely coasted to the five point win.  In the second and most lopsided set, MU had a 4-0 lead before pushing that out to 9-1 and eventually 16-6 as they romped, outhitting UWM .361 to .075.  In the third set, it looked like we might get a little bit of drama to go with our action, as UWM pulled within 10-8 in the early going.  Then the Golden Eagles scored the next six points to double the Panthers up at 16-8.  UWM would cut the margin to four, at 19-15, but MU took 6 of the next nine points and that was that.

Taylor Louis led all attackers for the night with 14 kills, which means her 4th best in the country kills average of 5.06/set is actually going to drop a little bit as a result.  MU's big hitting night of .318 as a team was powered by high quality outings from Teal Schnurr (9 kills, .500), Jenna Rosenthal (8 kills, .500), and Meghan Niemann (7 kills, .429).

As mentioned earlier, Lauren Houg broke the 1,000 kills barrier in the first set and finished with a match high 24 on the night.  She's just the eighth player to ever reach 1,000 kills in a Marquette uniform, and fittingly, Houg currently ranks eighth all time in MU history in digs.

Up Next: Marquette returns to Big East action on Saturday when they travel to Chicago to face DePaul.  The Blue Demons (13-10, 2-9 Big East) have lost seven of the last eight heading into this weekend.