So here’s a fun fact that I learned from the seventh paragraph of the official Marquette preview for this weekend: The Golden Eagles have already clinched a spot in the four team Big East tournament next
week.
Three teams (Creighton, Xavier, Marquette) have qualified for the tournament, while Villanova and UConn battle for the fourth spot.
See, I thought that because Marquette and Villanova were both tied for third place at 9-5 and UConn was exactly two games back at 7-7, everything was still up in the air as to who was going to get the third and fourth place spots in the conference this year. However, the Villanova preview for this weekend is helpful as far as an explainer:
Three other teams have all clinched berths in the league postseason as Creighton and Xavier are locked into some combination of the first two spots while Marquette’s going to come out on top of UConn in any tiebreakers for a seed regardless of final weekend results. Regardless, Villanova controls its own destiny to keep the season going, and that’s all that they can ask for.
If Marquette beats Butler on Saturday, UConn can’t catch them. If Marquette loses both matches this weekend and UConn wins both, Marquette gets in because they beat the Huskies in their lone meeting this season. If Marquette AND Villanova both lose both their matches this weekend — and the catch here is that VU is hosting UConn, that’s really why the door is open for the Wildcats to drop out — and UConn wins both, then they are all 9-7 with Villanova going 2-1, Marquette going 1-1, and UConn going 1-2. That situation leaves Marquette in as the #4 even if everything goes as bad as it possibly could go.
So that’s good news.
That does mean that Marquette is very much in line for the #3 seed if they can get two wins here or even if Villanova stumbles and loses both matches. Finishing in third is potentially useful because that could/should help the Golden Eagles avoid a semifinal matchup with Creighton, as the Bluejays are one win away from securing the #1 seed themselves. Actually, you know what? UConn/Villanova is on Friday, so by the time Marquette gets going on Saturday, we’re going to have a lot of clarity to exactly what’s on the line for the Golden Eagles.
Oh, and! There’s also the NCAA tournament implications of the final weekend of the regular season. Marquette’s going into their last two regular season matches with an RPI of #46. Beating St. John’s and Seton Hall last weekend, even in sweeps, actually knocked their ranking backwards two spots. Butler’s better than both of those two teams, and Xavier has drifted up into the top 25. Add in the value of going on the road, and in theory, two wins should push MU in a much better direction for an at-large berth in Tom Mendoza’s first season in charge. If you’re inclined to trust ESPN’s Charlie Creme doing volleyball bracketology, he’s got Marquette as the second to last team in the field as of Wednesday afternoon.
Big East Match #15: at Butler Bulldogs (12-15, 5-9 Big East)
Date: Saturday, November 15, 2025
Time: Noon Central
Location: Hinkle Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, Indiana
Streaming: ESPN+
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteVB
Marquette is 23-9 all time against Butler. The Golden Eagles head into this road trip riding an eight match winning streak against the Bulldogs, including a pair of sweeps last season and one in the Milwaukee match earlier this season.
Well, this is going to be it for a third straight losing season for Kyle Shondell as the Butler head coach. Okay, technically Sunday against DePaul is last, but the Bulldogs are going to finish with a losing record no matter what happens. This is going to make seven seasons in the last eight without a winning record for Butler, and the one winning record in there was 16-15 in Sharon Clark’s last year in charge in 2022. That 23-8 record in 2017 is a long way in the rear view mirror now.
The bummer of it is that Butler was 12-12 after beating Georgetown back on Halloween. This could have gone differently for them after they had won three straight following their 3-0 loss to MU. Instead, they lost their next three, at home to Villanova and then at both UConn and Providence last weekend, and here they are, playing out the string and trying to play spoiler with the Golden Eagles.
Alaleh Tolliver is Butler’s best attacker this season with 3.74 kills per set. She’s hitting just .200 on the year, but she’s got more than 120 more swings than anyone else on the roster. The 5’10” Tolliver was Butler’s leading attacker in the first match against Marquette this season with eight kills…. but she hit -0.034 in that match due to the Golden Eagles inducing nine errors from her….. on top of her service error and her blocking error, too. That was emblematic of that entire match for Butler, as they hit -0.032 as a team.
Kaylee Finnegan and Sarah Kempf have been much closer to a setting pair during Big East play, but Kempf has only played in 37 of 50 sets even though she’s appeared in all 14 matches. Finnegan is averaging 5.86 assists per set in league play, which means her average has taken a massive hit since she’s at 7.95/set for the entire season. Finnegan hasn’t had 27 assists in a match — that’s 9 per frame in a three set sweep — since putting up 34 against Providence on October 10th. Meanwhile, Kempf has had at least 21 helpers in four of the last five matches, so it seems like the primary role is tilting towards her a little bit lately.
Big East Match #16: at RV Xavier Musketeers (24-2, 13-1 Big East)
Date: Sunday, November 16, 2025
Time: 11:30am Central
Location: Cintas Center, Cincinnati, Ohio
Streaming: ESPN+
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteVB
Marquette is 22-10 all time against Xavier. The series went 2-2 before MU was officially a part of Division 1 in 1986, so that’s 20-8 since then. The Golden Eagles had a 12 match winning streak in this series snapped in a five set loss to the Musketeers in Milwaukee earlier this year. Marquette hasn’t lost to Xavier in Cincinnati since November 2016.
I haven’t been paying close attention to the AVCA top 25 since Marquette let their votes slip away a few weeks back. As such, I didn’t realize that Xavier had popped into the Receiving Votes area last week, and they’ve gone from three points in their first appearance to five points this week. You’re not misreading that win-loss record, either. They have two losses this season: at Creighton on September 26 and across town against Cincinnati on September 9. That’s it! That’s how they’re #24 in the RPI right now and barring a complete and total miscarriage of justice, they’ll be in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2007 and just the third time in program history. What a great turnaround for them after going 10-18 a year ago!
The Musketeers are coming into Saturday’s match against DePaul with a hope of tying Creighton for the Big East regular season title or, if they catch a break, slipping past the Bluejays to win the thing outright. That’s still on the table with XU coming in with just one loss in the league. By the time MU’s match against Xavier starts on Sunday, Xavier will know if they can still tie Creighton, as the Bluejays play St. John’s on Friday and Seton Hall on Saturday, both on the road.
Anna Taylor was the only Musketeer to get to 10 kills in the five set first match this season against Marquette, and she got there right on the number. Taylor is actually Xavier’s #2 attacker, as MU held top attacker Emma Grace to nine kills and nine errors in Milwaukee even though she led the team in swings with 49. Grace is averaging 3.34 kills per set and is hitting .233 this season, while Taylor is at 2.70/set and hitting a very great .323. Honestly, this raises questions as to why Taylor is #3 on the team in total attacks. why are we letting Charlotte Moriarty and her .186 hitting percentage take more swings than Anna Taylor? And not by a little, not by a number explained by a six set differential between the two women! They’ve both played in all 26 matches! The people demand to know, head coach Christy Pfeffenberger!
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