Four matches to go. This weekend’s opponents will not be helping Marquette’s RPI all that much, especially because they’re home contests. Things may be getting dicey for MU’s inclusion in the NCAA tournament,
but they will absolutely get very bad if the Golden Eagles let either of these two matches slip away from them.
To make my point: NCAA.com’s Michella Chester did a bracket prediction after the NCAA did a top 16 seed reveal. This was back on October 22nd, and at the time, Marquette had an RPI rank of #37. She had the Golden Eagles in the field of 64, but not as one of the top eight seeded teams in each region. That’s fine, I’ve got no quarrel with that.
And then Marquette lost to Georgetown and Villanova.
Going into this weekend? #44, which is better than the #48 a week ago in the wake of the GU & VU losses, even with the five set loss to Creighton. Beating Seton Hall and St. John’s on the road had no impact on MU’s RPI at the time. Those were road games, which do have an inherent “slightly harder” bias in the system. Now, Marquette brings RPI #186 and RPI #283 to the McGuire Center. I think it’s actually in MU’s best interest to disperse with both teams as quickly as possible, although I don’t know how much efficiency really plays into the RPI at all.
That’s the NCAA tournament picture. We have Big East tournament related issues to work with here as well.
Marquette currently has full control of the fourth and final berth in the Big East tournament at 7-5 in the league. Villanova is now a game and a half in front of Marquette in third place at 9-4 thanks to a Wednesday night home victory over Georgetown. That does Marquette a favor, as it drops the Hoyas a game and a half behind the Golden Eagles. Both VU and GU hold a tiebreaker over Marquette as the two teams will only place once this season, and MU’s bad weekend on the road against them may work against the women in blue and gold. In between MU and Georgetown is UConn at 6-6, one game back and still clearly in contention for a tournament spot, but Marquette holds the tiebreaker against the Huskies.
GOOD NEWS, THOUGH: The fact that they played each other on Wednesday means that Villanova and Georgetown take turns playing Creighton in Omaha this weekend. Ahem: Go Bluejays. In other good news, UConn has Xavier on Saturday, and the Musketeers should be locked in on taking a shot at the NCAA tournament and take care of their business.
In short: There’s a lot going on here, but a lot of things get solved if what appear to be on paper favorites — including Marquette! — all just go out and do what they need to do here.
Big East Match #13: vs St. John’s Red Storm (8-17, 4-8 Big East)
Date: Friday, November 7, 2025
Time: 7pm Central
Location: Al McGuire Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Streaming: ESPN+? In theory? That’s what the MU website says but there’s no link as of Wednesday morning.
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteVB
Bluesky Updates: @AnonymousEagle
Marquette is 28-9 all time against St. John’s with every match in the series coming since October of 2005. With that said, the 3-1 win in Queens earlier this season moved the mark to 9-2 in the last 11 and was a nice bounce back to the historical trend after a 1-2 mark in 2023 including a loss in the Big East tournament.
Officially, St. John’s isn’t eliminated from the Big East tournament yet. At 4-8 in the league, they are three games behind Marquette with four to play. They could, in theory, pull this off starting with a win right here. They’re in that position because the Red Storm snapped a three game skid and ended a run of six losses in seven matches by beating UConn and Providence at home last weekend. It’s been a rough year for head coach Joanne Persico and her charges, but they’ve got something to fight for down the stretch.
Don’t bring up that November 14th home date with Creighton quite yet, though.
As expected, Erin Jones continues to do a hell of a lot for St. John’s. She’s their leading attacker at 3.02/kills per set, and she’s hitting .250, which is just fine given that she’s leading the squad in total attacks, too. She’s also splitting time at sitter with Martina Capponcelli, with Jones averaging 4.20 assists per set and Capponcelli at 5.36/set. With that said, Capponcelli didn’t play in the UConn match at all and only had three assists in two sets of action in a five set win over Providence. Jones had to carry the weight at setter there, finishing with 34 and 55 assists in the two contests, but only combining for 16 kills in nine sets.
The offense tilts towards Martina Ghezzi with Jones focusing on setting, or at least it did last weekend. She led the team in attacks both times, finishing with a team high 19 kills against PC and a team high 15 kills against UConn. This won’t be much of a change for Marquette, as Ella Parker had an edge on Ghezzi in attacks in the MU/STJ match in Queens, and the two of them both cleared double digits in kills in four sets. Jones was limited to just 19 swings in the match while compiling 21 assists and she actually finished the match with a negative hitting percentage thanks to five errors.
Big East Match #14: vs Seton Hall Pirates (6-17, 0-12)
Date: Sunday, November 9, 2025
Time: Noon Central
Location: Al McGuire Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Streaming: ESPN+
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteVB
Marquette is 27-5 all time against Seton Hall. Marquette hasn’t lost to the Pirates since 2014, when Seton Hall beat MU in Walsh Gym in the regular season and then again in five sets in the Big East semifinals in Milwaukee. It’s been 18 straight wins for the Golden Eagles now, and four of the last seven meetings have been sweeps.
No Bluesky updates from this game, y’all. I’ll be at the United Center for Marquette men’s basketball taking on Indiana. Choices were made, sorry/not sorry.
Seton Hall has won 10 sets in 12 Big East matches. Yes, one of those was against Marquette when the Golden Eagles visited South Orange back on October 10th. They squeezed out a 25-23 third set victory after tallying 29 points total in the first two frames. They have won just two sets in their last five matches, taking sets #2 and #4 in a five set loss to Providence last Friday.
Sadie Reich was Seton Hall’s top attacker against Marquette in the first meeting this season, getting 16 kills and hitting .227. That four set match was a better than average day for her, as she averages 3.45 kills per set and is hitting just .199 overall this year. Things have been worse for Reich in Big East action, where she averages just 3.19 kills and hits .151. Goal #1 for Marquette: Make her look like that for 90 minutes in Milwaukee.
Sophomore setter Gwen Adler is back in the lineup after missing a month. She’s played in Seton Hall’s last four matches, although she only got back into the setting rotation last weekend with 37 helpers in eight sets. Adler was the leader in both matches, although the Pirates had three women get at least 12 assists in the five set loss to Providence.
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