TWENTY-FOUR SERVICE ERRORS.
How did Marquette get to a fifth set against #2 Texas on Monday night at Fiserv Forum? The Longhorns handed Marquette 24 of their 93 points — 25.8%! — in the match by way of just completely whiffing on a serve, either long or into the net. Over and over and over and over again. Four in the first, eight in the second, four in the third, six in the fourth, including the point that tipped the match to a fifth set, and then two more in the final frame as well.
Honestly, it’s
amazing that the eight errors in the second didn’t bite them in the butt worse, as UT won that frame 25-19, nearly entirely because of a 7-0 run late in the frame. Turns out Marquette hitting -0.167 in the set with six errors against five kills was very bad for the Golden Eagles’ chances of winning this match!
Here’s what happened as Texas slipped past the Golden Eagles in the final match of the AVCA First Serve event:
First, Marquette got a 25-22 first set victory, largely because they turned 14-all into 19-14 and then held on from there.
Second, Marquette was up 18-17 in the second set and then gave up a 7-0 run to the Longhorns. Kill, ace, block, attack error, kill, block, attack error. MU contributed to their death there with the errors from Julia Stanev and Molly Welge, but you can’t give up 7-0 runs to the #2 team in the country and win.
Third, Texas pushed past Marquette, going from up 14-12 to up 18-12 and then 22-14. That’s pretty standard #2 team in the country, just pressing an advantage and keeping right on going.
Fourth, Marquette got a 9-4 lead early on a kill from Keira Schmidt, and Texas just couldn’t do anything about it. The Longhorns got it within one, closing to 22-21, and then 24-23. Molly Welge came up big in the first case, blocking Torrey Stafford with some help from setter Luanna Markus, and then dropping a kill off a pass from Markus to get MU to set point. Texas fended it off for a second, including a misfire by Welge, but Stafford sent a serve very long and out of bounds for point #25 to tie the match at two sets each.
Finally, the killing stroke from the Longhorns was a 6-0 run to open the fifth set. When you’re only playing to 15 points in the final frame, a six point lead may as well be the distance between here and the moon. Three kills from Cari Spears got Texas started, then a block from Spears, and then a kill from Stafford, too. The good news is that Marquette made Texas close the door on them. The Horns didn’t just walk away with this, a partner block from Welge and Markus got MU within three at 9-6, and a service error by Stafford and a kill by Schmidt had the Golden Eagles within four late. Too late to really figure it out, seeing as they would have had to outscore Texas 7-1 to win and avoid playing extra points, but just enough to make Texas say “hey, we’d better be on our best behavior to avoid a second straight loss to start the season.”
It’s hard to say that anyone on the Marquette roster had a bad night when they were within inches of beating the #2 team in the country. However, we have to say that we’re going to need to see better hitting than .191 from Carson Tyler, .071 from Tani Juric, and .000 from Emma Parks, all with at least 22 swings, as the season goes along. It was nearly enough tonight, but you’re not going to get 24 giftwrapped points every other night of the year. I’m not going to worry too much about Luanna Markus only having 35 assists here because 1) Marquette hit just .104 for the match and also 2) 24 service error points. Can’t get assists on service errors!
13 digs from Emi Juric leads the Golden Eagles there, while Markus added 11 to get a double-double in her collegiate debut. Markus had six assisted blocks to lead Marquette here, narrowly beating out five total blocks each from Molly Welge and Julia Stanev.
How about some highlights, courtesy of GoMarquette.com and Fox Sports?
Up Next: Marquette is going to have to be on top of their game when they reconvene. It might be a little bit easier in terms of not playing the preseason #2 team in the country, but Dayton and their handful of votes in the preseason AVCA top 25 polling aren’t going to go quietly into the night. That match is set to start at 6pm Central time on Friday, August 28th, and ESPN+ will have the broadcast. MU will have a second match next weekend just 24 hours after that, facing Wright State just up the road at 6pm Central on August 29th.
Follow Anonymous Eagle on social media
Facebook: AnonymousEagle
Instagram: AnonymousEagleSBN
Bluesky: AnonymousEagle
