Marquette Volleyball Preview: at St. John’s Red Storm & at Seton Hall Pirates

The Marquette Golden Eagles are coming off a weekend where they dropped a match to Butler 3-2 after they swept Xavier the night before. Now I was kind of shocked when I saw the Golden Eagles lost to Butler due to the dumb play to 15 in the fifth set rule, but with the win Butler jumped ahead of Villanova in the RPI rankings. With this loss, Marquette absolutely cannot lose another game in Big East play outside of the one in Omaha next week if they want to make the NCAA tournament. Allie Barber led the team in kills against Xavier with 18 while Lauren Speckman tallied 44 assists. The next day Allie Barber recorded a career high 27 kills in the loss to Butler. The Golden Eagles will travel to Jamaica, Queens to face St. John’s and follow up that match with one in New Jersey (gross).

Big East Match #12: at St. John’s Red Storm (12-14, 4-7 Big East)

Date: Friday, October 27, 2017
Time: 4pm Central
Location: Carnesecca Arena, Jamaica, New York
Streaming: ESPN3/WatchESPN
Live Stats: GameTracker
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteVB

Boy, am I jealous of the team. Growing up in New York, I had St. John’s basketball season tickets and my friends and I have countless memories in Carnesecca. Now, to volleyball.

The St. John’s Red Storm sit in seventh place in the Big East as of today and are coming off a win against Providence. Prior to the win over Providence, the Johnnies stole a set from Creighton. The first time St. John’s and Marquette met, it was during Marquette’s streak of 12 straight sets won. Allie Barber had 14 kills in that match while Anna Haak had 11 of her own. Lauren Speckman had 39 assists in the win as well.

The first time we checked in on the Red Storm, Julia Cast was leading the team in kills. The only thing that has changed is how wide of a margin she is leading by. Cast now has 365 kills on the year which averages out to be 3.97 kills per set which is good for third in the conference. It’s seemingly a time honored tradition for St. John’s to have one of the most prolific attackers in the league but find themselves unable to turn it into wins on a regular basis.

Erica Di Maulo is still leading the team in assists with 951 (10.34 a/s), which ranks fifth in the Big East. She had 46 assists in the win over Providence.

Marquette is hungry for a win and they know they cannot lose another Big East game if they want to go to the NCAA tournament this year. I expect Marquette to come out and exercise some frustration after losing their previous match. Marquette by a score of 3-0 is my prediction for this one.

Big East Match #13: at Seton Hall Pirates (13-11, 7-4 Big East)

Date: Saturday, October 28, 2017
Time: 6pm Central
Location: Walsh Gymnasium, South Orange, NJ
Streaming Video: SHUPirates.com
Streaming Radio: WSOU
Live Stats: Sidearm Stats
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteVB

After playing St. John’s on Friday, the Golden Eagles will travel to New Jersey to play Seton Hall the next evening. Growing up in New York, people call Jersey the armpit of America, so I feel bad for the team having to stay there for longer than it takes to say mozzarella. Hey maybe the team will see Snooki, Mike “The Situation,” Pauly D and the gang if they are lucky. [Editor’s note: I do not think “lucky” is the right word.]

The Pirates are 7-3 since they left Milwaukee defeated. Of those three losses, two of them have been to Creighton while the other was to Butler. So, Seton Hall has clearly gotten better since they left the Al McGuire Center in late September. We also cannot forget that Marquette was playing out of their minds at that point.

Abby Thelen continues to lead the in kills with 332 (3.73 k/s). She had 18 kills in their win over Georgetown. Look for Jenna Rosenthal and Elizabeth Orf to be the primary blockers on Thelen.

Seton Hall still goes with the joint setter look with Sophia Coffey and Maggie Cvelbar. Coffey leads the team with 495 assists (5.56 a/s) while Cvelbar has 398 assists (4.47 a/s).

Seton Hall looks to have gotten better since they left Milwaukee a month ago. My prediction for this one is Marquette 3-1. I think Seton Hall can sneak one set out on their home court. Marquette 3-1 over Seton Hall and 2-0 on the weekend. Book it!