RV Marquette Goes 2-0 On Final Road Trip Of The Regular Season

Marquette volleyball moved to 14-2 in the Big East over the weekend as they picked up a 3-0 (25-17, 25-15, 25-19) win over Georgetown on Friday night followed by a 3-1 (19-25, 25-23, 25-17, 25-16) win over Villanova on Saturday. That locked up a top three finish in the league for the Golden Eagles with just two matches left to play.

I’m not going to lie to you and tell you things about the Georgetown match. I didn’t watch it for two reasons. First, I left the house right about when the first set ended to go downtown to Fiserv for the men’s basketball game against Rider. The second reason is because Georgetown was allowed to tuck the match behind their HoyaVision paywall instead of putting it up on FloSports like a normal member of the Big East. So, yeah, I wasn’t paying for a 24 hour pass to HoyaVision when I knew I wasn’t going to be able to watch more than one set.

Marquette hit progressively worse in each set, but they had 11 aces to help prop up the offense and held the Hoyas to .138 hitting across the entire match. Seven of those aces came from Jenna Reitsma alone, and she also led the Golden Eagles in kills with nine while hitting .353 for the night. Aubrey Hamilton never got it going with a .107 hitting percentage on the night, but the rest of the squad picked her up, so that’s fine.

Moving on to Saturday, a game I did get to watch after getting home from the women’s basketball win over #23 Illinois. The Golden Eagles got off to a shaky start, hitting just .171 in the opening frame after falling behind 13-8 early. They never really got it 100% together for the rest of the frame, and that’s how VU closed it out on a 4-1 run.

The second set was something of a game of runs, but as it got close to the winning moments, the score was neck and neck. Two service errors — something of the opposite of what MU was doing just 24 hours earlier — let Nova tie the thing up at 20 and then 21. Kills from Ella Foti and Jenna Reitsma nudged it to 23, but Villanova tied it up again. Finally, Yadhira Anchante made a play to get a kill, and Aubrey Hamilton evened the show up at one set each.

Marquette never made a notable run in the third set, but you can do some pretty serious damage by scoring at least two straight points on the regular and stopping your foe from doing the same. That’s how Marquette found themselves up 22-15 late, and a big ol’ swat from Carsen Murray made it 2-1 Marquette and headed to the fourth frame.

That’s the one that Marquette grabbed control of early on. A 4-4 tie became 12-5 Marquette with a quickness, and a 6-0 MU run capped by a kill from Jenna Reitsma put MU up 10. I’d imagine that head coach Ryan Theis will have some slightly sarcastic comments regarding the four straight match points that Villanova prevented, but that only pulled them within eight before Murray finished off the night.

Reitsma had a big night, going for a match high 18 kills and hitting .432 against the Wildcast. Aubrey Hamilton chipped in 15 kills while Carsen Murray dropped in 12. Yadhira Anchante finished with a double-double on 41 assists and 13 digs, while Reitsma did it with her kills and her 11 digs.

Up Next: Marquette will wrap up the regular season next weekend with two home matches. On Friday, MU will look for revenge for one of their losses in league play when St. John’s comes to town for a 7pm start. 23 hours later, Seton Hall will be at the McGuire Center for Senior Night and the regular season finale. Two wins will, at the very least, guarantee Marquette a share of a third straight Big East title. If they want an outright title, they’re going to have to get help from either Xavier or Butler as the Golden Eagles will need Creighton to lose a game.