Marquette volleyball moved to 7-5 on the season over the weekend, but more importantly, they started off Big East play 2-0! They did that by way of a pair of sweeps, first downing UConn in straight sets (25-22, 25-17, 25-15) on Friday evening, and then they went over to Rhode Island and did the same to Providence (25-14, 25-19, 25-23) for a 3-0 win. As of this writing, Marquette is alone in first place in the conference at 2-0, but the five 1-0 teams are either already in action or starting up later
on Saturday. We will lose one of them for sure in the last game of the day, as both Creighton and St. John’s are 1-0.
The story of the day on Friday in Storrs was Marquette figuring things out and decimating UConn from there. The first set was tightly contested all the way through to UConn taking a 21-20 lead late off a kill by Audrey Jensen. Marquette scored five of the final six points in the set to avoid any drama, getting them through their own actions for the most part: Kill by Carson Tyler, kill by Caydence Doolan, UConn attack error, Tyler ace, and Tyler kill. At a glance, it would look like the first team to figure out how to stop the other side’s offense — Marquette hit .483, UConn hit .382 — would end up holding a notable advantage in the match.
Reality bit big for both teams in the second as neither side could clear even .190. UConn even had the early advantage, going up 8-3 on a Doolan attack error, and they would be up 11-6 on a Jordyn Hughes kill a moment later. But Marquette got three in a row, then four in a row, then six out of seven, then another three in a row, and OOPS, it was 23-16. A UConn attack error closed out the set, and the Golden Eagles were up 2-0.
Marquette found their way back to hitting success in the third, connecting for 18 kills to get to 25 points and committing just three errors for .536 hitting in the frame. An 8-1 Marquette run turned a 6-6 early tie into a 14-6 lead, and that was kind of it for the Huskies. They did score five straight to get within five, 18-13, but Marquette got the next four, two kills each from Tyler and Molly Welge, and eventually Doolan finished it off.
Carson Tyler’s 13 kills led all attackers here as UConn didn’t have anyone get to double digits, and Caydence Doolan added 10 on a .444 hitting day. Not quite the well rounded day that we’ve seen in the past from Tyler with just four digs, but she added two aces to help the Golden Eagles out. Tani Juric was precise at .471 on her 17 swings, and a .267 hitting performance from Molly Welge was just enough to keep things moving along. Luanna Markus improved her assists average with 36 in three sets, and Emi Juric added 12 digs.
How about some highlights, courtesy of GoMarquette.com and ESPN+?
It looked like Marquette was picking up where they left off on Saturday afternoon, speeding through Providence 25-14 in the first set. Maybe not exactly where they left off with PC going up 8-5 on a Carson Tyler serving error, but MU scored eight of the next nine and then hung a 7-0 run on the Friars late, capped by an Avery Helms ace for 24-13. After a misfire from Tyler, the Ball State transfer got the closing kill on the next point.
Providence had the early edge in set two as well, taking a 5-0 lead out of the gate. MU tied it up at six and kept on going until a Providence error had the Golden Eagles up 9-6. The Friars didn’t go away with a kill from Lyla Buser tying the set at 12, and Lyric Berry pulled the home team even at 15, too. Their good play couldn’t last, and a service error from PC kicked off a run of four errors by the Friars in a 6-1 Marquette run to close out the second frame. Only one of those errors was by way of a Marquette block, so that’s just Providence assigning themselves a problem.
As you can see from the set scores, there may be a question of Marquette fading a little bit in their sixth set in less than 24 hours, but the same could be said for the Friars. For a while, MU couldn’t get further away than four points, and a Sarah Musial ace had PC within two, 15-13. A kill by Molly Welge trigged a 5-0 burst to get Marquette to 20, but Providence answered with a 5-1 run to get within three, 21-18. Welge and Caydence Doolan both had errors in that stretch, and the Friars stuffed Doolan for another point, too. Still, with a three point margin, MU could afford to trade points, and they did up to 24-20 on a kill by Tyler. The Friars fended off match point three times before Tyler put down the set and match point.
Carson Tyler was outstanding here, putting up 18 kills on .400 hitting and adding 11 digs to go with two aces as well. Even got an assist along the way, too. It was a rough go of it elsewhere on the stat sheet as Tani Juric got to .250 hitting amongst the other three women with at least 10 swings, but no one else got to .150. That’s where Providence hitting just .087 as a team with 22 attack errors along with six service errors, two blocking errors, and four receiving errors really did Marquette a favor in this one.
Up Next: First a little midweek road trip to see DePaul on Wednesday, then a big showdown with Creighton next Sunday. First serve against the Blue Demons is scheduled for 7pm Central on ESPN+, while the match in Omaha is set for 1pm, also on ESPN+. As I type this, both of those teams are 1-0 in Big East play pending their results on Saturday night.
