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On Wednesday, Marquette volleyball had to rally from down two sets to one and fend off three match points in order to secure a 3-2 victory over DePaul. On Saturday, the Golden Eagles headed out east for a contest against Connecticut, and well, that contest turned into a battle for a minute.
The Golden Eagles flubbed the first set, falling 25-22, before taking the next three (25-20, 25-17, 25-23) to get the 3-1 victory. Marquette is now 18-3 on the season and 9-1 in Big East play. With the win over formerly-two-loss UConn, Marquette now as at least a two game lead over everyone in the league standings except for Creighton.
How did Marquette lose Set #1, you ask? Well, letting UConn hit .300 is a good starting point for an explanation, but that’s not the whole story. Marquette taking a 16-12 lead on a 5-0 run that included three straight errors by the Huskies definitely helps tell some of it. UConn wouldn’t tie the thing back up until 20-all, and a kill by Jasmine Davis immediately thereafter put the home team out in front. Attack errors picked a bad time to bite Marquette in the butt, and kills from Allie Garland and Taylor Pannell closed things out 25-22.
Not a good start for Marquette after whatever Wednesday was, and not the best way to handle a UConn team coming off the program’s first ever win over a ranked program, either.
SOMEHOW THINGS GOT WORSE, as an ace from Karly Berkland put Connecticut up 14-8 in the second. A kill by Taylor Wolf eventally knotted it up at 17 to cap a 6-1 run by the Golden Eagles, but UConn broke that run. MU turned the volume up right away, though, and the Golden Eagles scored eight of the next 10 points, capped by a set winning solo block by Savannah Rennie to even the match up at one each.
Set #3 was the “easy” one for Marquette, and UConn helped out with six errors, blocks or otherwise, in MU’s first 15 points. That had the Golden Eagles up 15-9 on their way to 20-12. The Huskies didn’t get much closer than that, and a kill by Hannah Vanden Berg put MU up 2-1.
Set #4 was a bit of “your turn, my turn” as both teams kept putting up bursts to take a lead and then give it back again. This went on all the way to the end as kills by Kennadie Jake-Turner and Jasmine Davis pulled the Huskies even at 23 to finish wiping out a five point Marquette lead, but HVB came up big at the end. She partnered with Carsen Murray for a block on Caylee Parker for point #24, and got the match winning kill on the next point.
Rennie was the team leader in kills on the day and she finished with a team high 15.5 points thanks to two service aces, two solo blocks, and an assisted stuff. Vanden Berg was right behind at 10 kills as the only other Golden Eagle in double digits. Wolf and Claire Mosher were neck-and-neck in assists with 19 and 20 respectively, while Hope Werch topped the digs chart with a match high 14.
How about some highlights, thanks to FloSports and GoMarquette.com?
Up Next: With eight matches left in the Big East regular season, Marquette can not clinch the regular season title on Friday night in Milwaukee, but damn if they won’t be able to see it from there if they win. Creighton comes to town on Friday for the return bout on MU’s 3-1 loss to the Bluejays in Omaha on October 10th. First serve is scheduled for 7pm Central, and it is easily the biggest home match of the conference slate. The Jays are coming in a three-match winning streak since falling to UConn on October 16th.