#10 Marquette Volleyball Preview: vs Xavier & at Butler

Your Marquette Golden Eagles volleyball team is rolling as expected. They are back in the top ten and everything seems to be going just fine. Well, mostly fine. KJ Lines hasn’t played since October 2nd, Lauren Speckman has been in and out of the lineup since then, missing five of Marquette’s last seven matches completely, and Madeline Mosher left last Saturday’s contest at Seton Hall with an injury.

Marquette’s still 5-1 since Lines last played, though.

Why?

Well, the rest of the Big East kind of really stinks, so it was good the Golden Eagles flourished in the non-con portion of the schedule because who knows where we’d be if we did not beat Wisconsin or other top teams. Remember when Wisconsin blew a two set lead over Marquette and held multiple match points? Yea, I remember that. That was fun. Yea, the Big East isn’t great beside #9 Creighton and I guess St. John’s, so expect the Golden Eagles to keep rolling.

Big East Match #11: vs Xavier Musketeers (8-12, 5-5 Big East)

Date: Friday November 1, 2019
Time: 7 PM CT
Location: Al McGuire Center, Milwaukee, WI
Streaming: GoMarquette.com
Live Stats: Sidearm Stats
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteVB

Marquette’s record book says that they’re 15-9 all time against Xavier. It’s 13-7 since Marquette joined Division 1, but the Golden Eagles have won five straight matches.

Since starting undefeated at 1-0, Xavier has not been playing fantastic, they’ve just been playing very meh volleyball. They’ve been playing super average Big East volleyball at best and you can tell by their record. They have had some pretty good games and some pretty bad games, that’s it really.

Lauren Hanlon leads a trio of XU attackers averaging more than two kills per set. The redshirt freshman tops the chart with 2.60 kills per set. All three are in between 2.10 and 2.60. We’ll see who actually gets the focus of the offense, as junior Moriah Hopkins and freshman MaryAnn O’Toole both have more attacks on the year than Hanlon. Hopkins, O’Toole, and Norah Painter are all hitting for a lower average than Hanlon, so it would possibly be in Xavier’s best interest to start tilting the table towards Hanlon.

Freshman Carrigan O’Reilly and junior transfer Alisa Watson split the setting duties. At least in terms of per set average, they’re splitting it right down the middle with O’Reilly at 5.23 assists and Watson at 5.10 this season. There’s a weird error on Xavier’s stats page that shows Watson twice with a single match and three sets played, but it throws an error when you click for more details. Not sure how that affects the averages here, but you get the general idea.

This should be a pretty easy match for the Golden Eagles, especially at home. Marquette in three.

Big East Match #12: @ Butler Bulldogs (9-13, 6-4 Big East)

Date: Sunday, November 3, 2019
Time: 12PM CT
Location: Hinkle Fieldhouse
Streaming: YouTube
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteVB

Marquette is 15-7 all time against Butler. The Golden Eagles have won each of the last four encounters with the Bulldogs as well as 10 of the last 11.

After a tough 3-9 start, Butler has really taken advantage of the easier Big East schedule and gotten back on track. They seem like they could actually be good, but I don’t know they could just be fooling me on paper.

Leading the attack for the Bulldogs is Anna Logan with 2.66 kills per set. She has been pretty good all year, along with Butler’s two other hitters hitting above two kills per set. If Marquette can knock Logan off her game, the Golden Eagles should be more than fine.

Megan Ramseyer has started every match but one for Butler this season, but she’s only averaging 8.80 assists per set. That’s probably more a function of Butler’s team hitting issues than anything else, but that’s still not great at all. I’d say that Butler needs to figure it out ASAP, but they’re trending towards a Big East tournament berth after their crummy start.

This, like the rest of them, should be an easy match for the Golden Eagles. Marquette in three, book it.