Marquette Volleyball Preview: The Marcia E. Hamilton Classic

The Marquette women’s volleyball team got off to a hot start down in Waco last weekend starting off 2-0 with wins against Texas St. and LSU. They did lose to then 16th ranked Baylor and push them to four sets. The Bears are now ranked 12th in the AVCA polls. The Golden Eagles now go to St. Louis to take on Kansas St., Western Kentucky and St. Louis.

Match #4: vs Kansas State Wildcats (2-0)

Date: Friday, August 31, 2018
Time: 3:30pm Central
Location: Chaifetz Arena, Saint Louis, MO
Video Streaming: Nope, SLU is jerks.
Live Stats: StatBroadcast
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteVB

Kansas State had a hectic first tournament due to the hurricane that hit Hawaii. They ended up playing Hawaii twice and swept the Rainbow Wahine twice. Redshirt senior Kylee Zumach was named the season’s first Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week leading the conference in kills per set with 6.17 kills per set. Zumach had 19 kills and 12 digs on Aug. 25, and 18 kills on Aug. 26

Obviously after reading that stat, the Golden Eagles are gonna have to keep an eye out for Zumach. Look for Ryan Theis to create a blocking scheme around Zumach and also Alyssa Schultejans who is averaging three kills per set.

Setting for the Wildcats is Sarah Dixon who is averaging 12.50 assists per set. Dixon’s main target is obviously Zumach, but given Marquette’s excellent blocking schemes, I expect Dixon to have to spread the love a bit.

This K-State team seems like they could be pretty decent so therefore I’m going to say Marquette wins in four sets. This Golden Eagle team is VERY good so I’m going to be pretty confident this season.

Match #5: vs Western Kentucky Hilltoppers (2-2)

Date: Saturday, September 1, 2018
Time: 10am Central
Location: Chaifetz Arena, Saint Louis, MO
Video Streaming: Nope, SLU is jerks.
Live Stats: StatBroadcast
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteVB

The Hilltoppers of Western Kentucky started off 1-2 in the College of Charleston Tournament before sweeping Belmont to lengthen their 24 match home winning streak, the longest in the country. However, this match is going to be in Missouri, not the friendly confines of the Commonwealth.

Senior All-American Rachel Anderson marked her fourth-straight match with double digit kills, notching 11 in the match against Belmont, leading WKU for the fourth time this season as well. Anderson is averaging four kills per set, but I expect her to start going off towards the four and a half/five sets per kill range pretty soon.

Setting for the Hilltoppers is Taylor Bebout. The redshirt freshman is averaging 9.86 assists per set while also averaging 1.64 digs per set. Bebout can do it all while setting to mainly Anderson, which is understandable due to her being an All-American.

I say the Golden Eagles win this one pretty smoothly 3-0. Like I said before Marquette is a very good team and Western Kentucky does not seem like a very good team to me. Marquette should win this easily.

Match #6: at Saint Louis Billikens (0-3)

Date: Saturday, September 1, 2018
Time: 7pm Central
Location: Chaifetz Arena, Saint Louis, MO
Video Streaming: ESPN+, which means you need a subscription. LAME.
Live Stats: StatBroadcast
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteVB

The Billikens were swept at the Miami Best Western Sycamore Inn Invitational (that’s a long name) last weekend, losing to Miami (Ohio), Cincinnati and UC Santa Barbara. Sophomore Maya Taylor was named to All-Tournament team, with 39 kills, nine digs and two blocks in three matches.

The Golden Eagles have to keep an eye out for Maya Taylor. She is averaging 4.33 kills per set while coming off a solid start in the first tournament. Taylor is not getting a lot of help from her fellow hitters as the next best kills per set ratio is 1.56. If SLU wants to get better, someone is going to have to step up and help Taylor.

Setting for the Bilikens is Kennedy Cordia. The sophomore is averaging 7.33 assists per set. It’s hard to get those numbers up when your hitters are struggling to strike the ball.

The Bilikens are a young team, but they are not looking too great so far. The Golden Eagles should win this one easily 3-0.