Two weekends to go.
We’re into November, so it’s officially a safe time to go peek at some NCAA tournament bracketology to assuage my nerves. Turns out? Marquette’s apparently doing great, as long as all you’re worried about is whether or not the Golden Eagles keep their NCAA tournament streak intact. I was honestly not expecting that.
ESPN’s Charlie Creme did a bracketology on Wednesday morning this week, and he has Marquette in the field. They’re outside the seeding, as the NCAA only seeds the regions
1 through 8 for volleyball, but they’re also not in the last four in, and that’s fine by me. USA Today’s John Leuzzi updated his volleyball bracketology to version 2.0 on Thursday morning, and he has the Golden Eagles as a #8 seed. Presumably the final #8 seed, as the order is UCLA, Missouri, Colorado State, and then Marquette and that’s obviously not alphabetical order, but that’s right where they were on his 1.0 version. There’s even a volleyball bracketology Instagram account that’s actually building out a bracket and projecting placement for teams. They have Marquette as a #8 seed as of November 2nd, and that means a first round match against Toledo in a pod hosted by #1 seed Pitt.
Because of the placement of automatic bids in the lower spots in the bracket, Marquette as a #8 seed would have the Golden Eagles at least eight spots clear of the cut line, maybe 12 if all of the “11 seeds” (there aren’t actually 11s the way the NCAA deals with volleyball, you get the idea here” are all at-large bids. That means the Golden Eagles are pretty safe when it comes to getting into the tournament, as long as they don’t smash into any speed bumps along the way as we end the regular season.
There is kind of a big gap between being a #8 seed and being unseeded in the field, for the record. Being seeded, even at #8, means the NCAA selection committee is going to send you to a pod hosted by a #1 seed and you’ll get to play an unseeded team in the first round. Being an unseeded team means you get sent to the closest possible hosting site, which is one of the 1 through 4 seeds in each region, and you play either the host team or the other seeded team. In Marquette’s case, that would probably mean getting sent to Madison and probably playing #7 Missouri and not #2 Wisconsin. Still, your fate is up in the air completely on the NCAA making travel as simple as possible, and that’s why finishing strong with four wins would be beneficial for the Golden Eagles.
Oh, right: Marquette is also in a duel down the stretch with Creighton for the regular season title in the Big East. Both teams are tied right now at 10-2, and if nothing about that loss column changes for either side, then they share the regular season title. I believe that Creighton would be the #1 seed in the conference tournament if that happens because MU lost to DePaul and Creighton did not, but that also requires the Blue Demons to stay in third place.
Big East Match #13: at Villanova Wildcats (12-11, 5-7 Big East)
Date: Friday, November 6, 2026
Time: 4pm Central
Location: Jake Nevin Field House, Villanova, Pennsylvania
Streaming: ESPN+
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast
Marquette is 28-5 all time against Villanova. The Wildcats snapped a long Marquette winning streak in the series last season, 13 in a row. It had started back in 2o17 and that included a sweep in the 2019 Big East semifinals. MU won in Milwaukee earlier this season to attempt to return nature to its normal state.
I just want to remind you that Villanova started this season earning votes in the preseason AVCA top 25 poll. This is the context for the fact that the Wildcats have lost five of their last eight matches, including going out 3-1 to both UConn and Providence last weekend. The other three losses were explainable: at DePaul, at Marquette, home vs Creighton. That’s two teams going to the NCAA tournament barring an explosion and a third that can steer their way into a bid if they play their cards right. Losing to Providence looks a little less bad now that it happened because the Friars are .500 and one game back of finding a way into the conference tournament. UConn? They’re 3-9 now and 10-15 on the year, and that’s why Villanova is probably not even getting to the Big East tournament, much less the NCAA field like that preseason poll said that they should.
I don’t want to say that this was Villanova’s entire problem last weekend, but the fact of the matter is that Abby Harrell was out. When you’re missing the Big East preseason player of the year, you’re not operating at your best. That was Harrell’s eighth and ninth match missed of the season, and clearly the Wildcats are a different team with her than without her. Harrell missed the encounter in Milwaukee as well as she’s been in and out of the lineup all year, so I guess we’ll have to wait and see if Villanova has her available or not on Friday.
If not, the offense is going to run through Campbell McKinnon, who is averaging 3.98 kills on .207 hitting in Big East play. She had 15 kills in four sets against Marquette in the first meeting, and the Wildcats leaned on her hard. McKinnon took 56 swings when no one else took even 25, and so she only hit .107. If Marquette can get the same kind of outing from her again here, especially when the other hitters are totally fine — three women between 23 and 17 swings, all north of .260 hitting in Milwaukee — then that’s going to be a nice pathway to a win for the Golden Eagles.
Big East Match #14: at Georgetown Hoyas (12-11, 4-8 Big East)
Date: Saturday, November 7, 2026
Time: 5pm Central
Location: McDonough Arena, Washington, D.C.
Streaming: ESPN+
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast
Marquette is 26-5 all time against Georgetown. The Hoyas snapped a 22 match Marquette winning streak that started in 2011 with a 3-2 victory in D.C. last season, and yes, that match was back-to-back with the loss to Villanova. That was also the first time Georgetown had taken a set from Marquette since 2019 and it matched their set win total from the entire 22 match streak. Like Villanova, Marquette won in Milwaukee earlier this year to hold the current edge in the series.
Georgetown is 0-4 since beating Creighton for the first time in program history. They have to host DePaul on Friday night, so there’s a real chance that they’ll be 0-5 if the Blue Demons go into McDonough Arena locked in to get to the NCAA tournament. That’s a bummer, as this means it’s looking like the Hoyas aren’t going to come close to bettering last year’s 7-9 Big East mark.
Marquette snowplowed through Georgetown in the first meeting this season, hitting .407 to GU’s .056 and never letting the Hoyas get to 18 points in any of the three sets. The more impressive part of what Marquette did in that game is cutting off Kamryn Lee-Caracci’s activity. She’s hitting .377 this season and a mostly fine .265 in Big East matches. Against the Golden Eagles? Just .176, which just amplified the difficulties that top attacker Dionna Mitchell was at making an impact.
Still, the fact of the matter is that Georgetown won in Omaha this season and beat Marquette in D.C. last season. At this point of the year, the Golden Eagles can’t afford to take the Hoyas lightly just because they’re on a skid and things went smooth in Milwaukee in early October.
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