RV Marquette Volleyball Zips Through DePaul

For about 30 points of volleyball on Wednesday morning in front of a raucous crowd of local grade school kids, I thought to myself, “Y’know, this DePaul team looks like they might have something here this season.”

And then Marquette decided to prove that thought was wrong.

The Golden Eagles outscored the Blue Demons 58-26 from there on out and by the end of three sets, not only did Marquette have the 3-0 sweep, but they had held DePaul to sub-zero hitting in the match. 22 kills against 23 errors on 106 swings means the Blue Demons hit -.009 across all three sets, and it was a bad day to do that, as Marquette never hit below .263 in a set on their way to a .317 mark in the match.

It had started to look like Marquette was kicking it into gear early in the first as they took a 12-8 lead on DePaul, but three kills from preseason all-conference honoree Jill Pressly helped the Blue Demons keep pace. Back-to-back attacking errors by the Golden Eagles made it 17-16 favoring MU, but just barely.

This is the aforementioned inflection point of the match. MU closed the set with an 8-0 run, and just two of those points were scored by way of DePaul misfiring on an attack. Two kills from Hattie Bray plus a partner block from Bray and setter Yadhira Anchante powered the run, with that block going as the set winner.

Marquette had an early advantage in the second set but really blew it open with a 7-0 run in the middle. 10-6 MU turned into 17-6 largely because DePaul couldn’t keep the ball in bounds, as four of the points came from hitting errors. Just to make sure it was clear, MU wrapped up the set with a 4-0 run to win it 25-11, and yes, this was the set that really tripped up DePaul’s hitting for the day as they finished underwater at -.152.

The Blue Demons had early signs of life in the third, going up 3-1 out of the gate, but blink and you missed it, Marquette was up 13-5. Errors by DePaul were a big help here again, with three attacking mishaps and a ball handling error helping MU to a 9-0 run, but Carsen Murray did her part as well with a kill and two solo blocks. From there, it was mostly academic as the closest that the Blue Demons were able to get was just six points.

Aubrey Hamilton continued her run of quality outings, going for 11 kills and hitting .346, and she just missed a double-double with nine digs. Yadhira Anchante did not miss the double-double on 30 assists and 10 digs, and she added four kills on five attacking attempts to help the Golden Eagles to their sparkling hitting percentage number on the day.

How about some highlights, courtesy of FloSports and GoMarquette.com?

Up Next: I’ll be honest with you, I’m not folding recaps from two matches in three days into one article because the next match up is a pretty big one for Marquette and I want to let that recap sit on its own. At 7pm Central on Friday, Marquette will be hosting #15 Creighton at the McGuire Center. Marquette sits at 5-0 in first place right now, while the Bluejays are 3-1 after falling on the road to Xavier in the first week of league action. Between the Golden Eagles going oh-fer-seven against ranked teams in non-conference play and the chance to get a two game lead in the standings on the biggest rival in the league, there’s a lot on the line at 770 North 12th Street on Friday night.