With Marquette already taking five set losses to San Diego and Ball State in their first seven matches of the season, we have to temper our expectations for what is waiting for the Golden Eagles over the next three games. It’s three top 15 opponents as of Monday’s brand new top 25 poll. If Marquette was 6-1 on the year, I’d say “hey, maybe they sneak one out here.”
But they’re not, they’re 5-2 after losing to Ball State by letting the Cardinals score the final eight points of the fifth set. That’s
a bad sign for what might happen in these three contests, because I’m pretty sure Ball State and their 4-5 record right this second is a worse team than Wisconsin, Florida, or Minnesota.
In short: If Marquette does pull out a W in one of these three, it’s a gigantic achievement in Tom Mendoza’s first season in charge. If not, if it’s three straight losses? Well, that’s just how this season has been going. I don’t have deeper insight to any of this other than it’s probably going to take a near-perfect match for this year’s version of the Golden Eagles to beat a top 15 team.
Unless Ryan Theis wants his Gators to take a dive on Friday. I’m not gonna complain if he does Marquette a favor, y’know?
Match #8: vs #7 UW-Madison Badgers (5-1)
Date: Wednesday, September 17, 2025
Time: 8pm Central
Location: Fiserv Forum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Television: Big Ten Network
Streaming: FoxSports.com/live
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteVB
Bluesky Updates: @AnonymousEagle
Marquette is 2-24 all time against Wisconsin and 1-18 since Marquette made the move to Division 1 volleyball. The Marquette win came in 2019 with both teams ranked in the top 15.
Wisconsin’s loss this season? At home in straight sets against then-#5 and currently #2 Texas. Yeah, that’s fine, especially with wins over then-#14 Kansas and then-#21 Georgia Tech with the latter coming on the road down in Atlanta. UW was #8 in the country in the preseason AVCA top 25 poll, so I’ve got no objections to their current ranking given the full picture of their season right now.
Mimi Colyer is the Badgers’ top attacker right now, coming dang close to doubling everyone else up in total attacks and averaging 5.21 kills/set. When your most likely attacker is hitting .349, just keep feeding her the ball, I see no problem with this game plan by head coach Kelly Sheffield. Grace Egan is second at 3.19 kills/set, and she’s #2 in total swings even though she missed four sets along the way for whatever reason. She played in all three frames against Georgia Tech, so there shouldn’t be any concern about her availability. Charlie Fuerbringer is the setter for Wisconsin, and she’s running wild this season at 11.28 assists/set.
Here’s a wild one: Fuerbringer is #2 on the roster in digs per set. That’s not what you expect to see from a setter that’s averaging over 11 assists per set purely because it’s hard to get 11 assists when the set ends when someone gets to 25 points. When you’re recording a dig, you’re pretty much by definition not getting an assist, so 3.33 per set from her is really great. Kristen Simon beats her out for the team lead at 3.76/set, while Carter Booth and Alica Andrew are both averaging more than a block per frame right now.
Match #9: vs #15 Florida Gators (5-2)
Date: Friday, September 19, 2025
Time: 6pm Central
Location: McGuire Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Television: FS1
Streaming: FoxSports.com/live
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteVB
Bluesky Updates: @AnonymousEagle
Marquette is 1-3 all time against Florida. The first meeting was in 1999, and Marquette’s win in the series came in Gainesville back in 2014 during — believe it or not — Ryan Theis’ first season as head coach, and that was MU’s first ever victory against a top 10 ranked opponent. The 1999 contest is the only previous meeting where Florida wasn’t ranked in the top 10.
We’re doing this preview all the way back on Tuesday, so it’s worth noting that Florida won’t play again between now and when they walk out onto the McGuire Center floor. That means they’ve won five of six since losing their season opener against then-#6 Stanford, and the Gators have made up for that defeat since. They immediately followed that four set loss with a five set win over then-#3 Pitt as their second match in the AVCA First Serve event and they’re coming off a Sunday afternoon home win over then-#20 Baylor. Florida did take a road loss to #25 North Carolina last Tuesday, which is apparently why they dipped down a few spots in the AVCA poll, but weirdly, the win didn’t help the Tar Heels move up at all.
The Gators are led by a Florida native that left Texas after not playing for the Longhorns for two years. Redshirt sophomore Jordyn Bird is tearing things up for Florida, averaging just over four kills per set and hitting .258. Aniya Madkin is #2 on the squad in kills at 2.78/set even though it took her a few matches to get out of the gate for the Gators. She played just one set against both Stanford and Pitt, but she’s been a regular part of the rotation pretty much since then. Alexis Stucky is Florida’s primary setter, averaging 8.52 assists per set, but Taylor Parks has played in all seven matches and 21 of 27 sets to get to 2.76 assists per set. This might be misleading though. Parks has just one match this season with double digit assists, and that was the Ohio State contest where she put up 35 in three sets while starting in place of Stucky.
Florida is using a bit of a defense by committee situation, as Lily Hayes leads all players with just 3.30 digs per set this season. She’s played in all 27 sets, so that’s not holding her numbers down. Given that we’re talking about a team coached by former Marquette head coach Ryan Theis, I don’t think we can be too surprised as to that kind of emphasis on team defense from UF. Alec Rothe and Jaela Auguste are an imposing combination at the net, with both women averaging more than a block per set. The lineup of Bird, Madkin, Stucky, Rothe, and Auguste all stand at 6’2” or taller, so dealing with Florida’s blocking situation in general is going to be an issue purely on starting points for their leaps.
Match #10: vs #12 Minnesota Golden Gophers (8-1)
Date: Sunday, September 21, 2025
Time: 5pm Central
Location: McGuire Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Television: FS1
Streaming: FoxSports.com/live
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteVB
Bluesky Updates: @AnonymousEagle
Marquette is 2-8 all time against Minnesota. The first ever meeting according to MU’s record book was back in 1979, and the two sides played four times that year…. and split the meetings. Yep, that’s both of Marquette’s wins. The first meeting after the “joined Division 1” note on the history logs came in 2001, and MU has won just two sets in the five meetings since then. Both of those sets came in a 3-2 loss in 2011, and the most recent meeting was a 3-0 Gophers sweep in the 2015 NCAA tournament.
Minnesota is going to fit one more match in between now and Sunday evening, so they’re probably be 9-1 at first serve at the Al. All due respect to Loyola Chicago, it’s just that the Gophers are #12 in the country for a reason and the Ramblers are 3-6. As for the rest of Minnesota’s schedule, their one trip up this season was in the opener when they fell in four sets to then-#9 Texas A&M at the Pentagon in South Dakota. That’s also their only match against a ranked opponent to this point of the year, but they did get a home sweep against a Dayton squad that was in the preseason top 25 before dropping out. I’m not saying they’re a paper tiger or anything — no one hitting .300 as a team is doing anything poorly, to be honest — they just don’t have the same level of testing that Wisconsin and Florida have seen already.
Julia Hanson has been largely speaking completely unfair so far this year. It’s not that the 6’1 senior is averaging over four kills per set, it’s that she’s hitting .341 to do it. Just terrifying to think about, even if there’s a strength of schedule component to think about. Alex Acevedo isn’t too bad as a #2 option at 2.68 kills/set and .263 hitting. The passes will come from Stella Swenson, and you are not surprised to find out that she’s from Minnesota. Swenson averages 10.32 assists per set, which is impressive because she’s a redshirt freshman.
Zeynep Palabiyik was Minnesota’s libero to start the year and averaged 3.73 digs/set through their match against St. Thomas, but she hasn’t played in their last five contests. Feels like she’s doubtful at best for Sunday. McKenna Garr leads the team in total digs at 93, and since UM has been without Palabyik, Garr is averaging 3.55/set. Lourdes Myers averages a ridiculous 1.36 blocks per set this year, and Carissa Minatee is no joke either at 1.04 per frame.
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