Marquette volleyball went into the last weekend of the regular season knowing that they needed help to end up as the #3 seed in the Big East tournament. They didn’t get that help, but that didn’t slow
the Golden Eagles down from stacking two more wins in their final two contests. On Saturday, Marquette ripped through Butler in a 3-0 sweep (25-16, 25-20, 25-14), and they followed that up with a 3-1 win (25-20, 25-18, 19-25, 25-13) over a Xavier team that has been earning AVCA top 25 votes the past two weeks.
The end result of all of this is that Marquette finishes the regular season with a record of 17-9 and a mark of 11-5 in the Big East. Officially, that ties MU with Villanova for third place behind 14-2 Xavier, but the Wildcats knocked off the Golden Eagles in Jake Nevin Fieldhouse earlier this season in the only regular season match between the two teams. That means VU gets the tiebreaker, and Marquette is the #4 seed in the conference tournament.
It took Marquette a moment to get going against Butler on Saturday, as a kill from BU’s Elise Ward had the home team up 11-10. MU answered with four straight to grab a lead that they would never surrender in the first set, and the Golden Eagles ended the frame with six straight capped by a solo block from Hatie Bray. That late push makes it feel like it was maybe kinda close, but the hitting percentages — .429 for Marquette, .059 for Butler — kind of go the other way on that.
In the second set, Butler was able to hold an advantage a lot longer. They were up 14-11 and scored to tie the match at 15 and 16. Marquette got five straight after that, helped by two misfires from Butler attackers. That made it 21-16, and the Bulldogs were in trouble based on how much time was left to go. BU did manage to fend off two set points, but Natalie Ring got one of her 11 kills to wrap it up.
The third set looks like Butler’s worst performance of the day, and yep, it was out of control early with MU up 7-1. A 6-1 burst later on had Marquette up 22-11 after one of Hattie Bray’s team high 11 kills, and a solo block from Keira Schmidt goes in the books as the match winner.
How about some highlights, courtesy of GoMarquette.com and ESPN+?
Marquette had Xavier chasing the match from the get go on Sunday, scoring the first four points of the day. The Musketeers would eventually catch up and even take a two point lead at 11-9. MU’s response to that? Seven straight points with Adriana Studer serving and even helping herself out with an ace. That’s 16-11 Marquette, and Xavier never got closer than three points the rest of the way before Hattie Bray closed it out on a kill.
The Golden Eagles had an early 4-1 advantage in the second set, and three straight got them up 11-6 a little later on. Xavier would score back-to-back points just one time for the rest of the match with Emma Parks handing the Musketeers a point on an attack error for the second one, and so all the Golden Eagles had to to was trade points with them. MU scored five of the final seven points of the set, and that was that after Isabela Haggard dumped a kill over on XU.
By the time this match started, Xavier probably knew that their chances at a Big East regular season title were over as Creighton wrapped up their regular season on Saturday. Did that maybe help Marquette out in taking a 2-0 lead on the road here? Maybe, but that didn’t stop the Musketeers from fighting back. It was 17-16 Xavier in the middle of the third set, and a 6-1 run moved the score to 23-17. Not much left for Marquette to do but regroup and avoid this match going to a fifth set just like the match in Milwaukee earlier in the season.
A 4-1 nudge turned into a 12-2 run for Marquette, and that’s how they got up 18-9 in the fourth on Xavier. It was kind of all done except for the high fiving, and Emma Parks got the job done for the 3-1 victory.
How about some highlights, courtesy of GoMarquette.com and ESPN+?
Up Next: Marquette is the host for the 2025 Big East conference tournament! They’re the #4 seed, so they’ll be playing #1 Creighton at Noon Central time on Saturday, November 22nd. That match will be broadcast on ESPN+, as will the #2/#3 match between Xavier and Villanova, which is set for 2:30pm Central. The winners of the semifinals will advance to Sunday’s championship match, which will start at 2pm Central and air on teevee on ESPN2.
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