And just like that, everyone in the Big East has one loss after four matches of conference play.
Sunday’s Marquette/Creighton match was the last contest in the cycle to get everyone to four matches played. Going into Saturday’s contests, we were down to Creighton and Butler with a zero in the loss column, and St. John’s took care of business there, 3-1, leaving the Bluejays as the last unbeaten in the league as of Sunday morning.
And for a second there, probably several seconds there in Omaha, it looked
like Creighton was going to be able to say that on Monday morning, too. The Bluejays took the first set from Marquette, 25-16, holding the Golden Eagles to just .114 hitting and rolling past them at a .343 clip. It was 5-0 Bluejays before anyone blinked, and MU couldn’t get closer than three points. Another 5-0 run made it 20-12, and thus academic.
Creighton broke open some four point leads in the second set but Marquette was able to overcome those this time. It was tightly contested, all the way up to a misfire from Carson Tyler bringing the Jays within one, 23-22, but Caydence Doolan got the call and put down the final two points to even the match at one set each.
The Jays got out to a little lead early in the third, but this time Marquette wasn’t quite as successful at powering through. The lead hit five, then six, then seven at 20-13, and yep, trouble town. The Golden Eagles scrapped together a few more points, but Ashlyn Paymal recorded a kill to make it 25-17, and that’s two kind of lopsided Creighton wins against a hard fought Marquette win. That’s a bad sign for a MU team that now needed to win the fourth in order to just get to a fifth set to try to beat the Jays. That’s a bad sign for a Marquette team that hasn’t done well when things have gone past three sets this season.
This time it was Marquette with the 4-0 lead out of the gate. That sounds encouraging, but Eloise Brandewie knotted the set at seven and an error by Tyler gave the Bluejays the lead. Tied at 10, then Marquette snapped off a 6-0 run. That was just enough space for Marquette to get to 25 before Creighton caught up with them, and an attack error by Ayden Ames gave the Golden Eagles the chance they needed.
2-0 Creighton.
5-3 Marquette.
Tied at 5, tied at 7, tied at 8, tied at 10, 11, 12, and 13. Remember, fifth set. First to 15, win by two. The last two ties, it was Creighton going up one and Marquette wiping it out on the next point.
Same thing again, tied at 14, extra points now required to win.
Same thing again, tied at 15.
Same again, tied at 16.
Same AGAIN, tied at 17. Four match points fended off by Marquette here.
Block by Luanna Markus and Julia Stanev… Marquette up 18-17?
And then.
After a wild recovery free return from Creighton because of a Marquette rejection, Avery Helms camped underneath, sent it up to Markus for a swing from Tyler. She sent it hard into the Creighton block, which is not necessarily a good thing, but in this case, her shot went off the block, out of bounds on MU’s side, Match Point Marquette, and the Golden Eagles have won a regularly timed regular season match at Creighton for the first time since 2011. It is just the eighth win in program history against Creighton, and it snaps a seven match winning streak in the series by the Bluejays.
And honestly? Marquette wasn’t very good here. For the match, they hit just .160 against .286 from Creighton. All three of Marquette’s hitters with more than 20 swings in the match hit under .160. Shouts to Molly Welge, who had eight kills and no errors on 19 attempts for a .421 day. Marquette couldn’t do a thing to slow down Ashlyn Paymal or Eloise Brandewie, both of whom had 15+ kills and hit over .370. But they did close down Ayden Ames, who ended up hitting just .186 while tying with Abbey Hayes for the most swings from the Bluejays. Of note along the way here: Remember in the preview when I said that Trinity Shadd-Ceres was averaging a team high 3.05 kills and leading the team in total attacks, but she wasn’t quite at that level last weekend?
Four swings while playing in all five sets. Hey, Creighton: Whatcha doin’?
How about some highlights, courtesy of GoMarquette.com and ESPN+?
Up Next: It’s time for Marquette to play some home matches for the first time since September 20th. Next weekend’s encounters will be against Georgetown at 7pm Central time on Friday and against Villanova at 5pm Central on Saturday, with ESPN+ taking the broadcast on both. Saturday’s the big one, as it’s the official ceremony for Tat Shiely and Allie Barber as the first two volleyball banners up in the McGuire Center.
The Hoyas are 10-5 on the year but 2-2 in the Big East after beating UConn and Providence at home this weekend, while the Wildcats are just 9-6 after starting the year earning AVCA top 25 votes, and they did exactly what Georgetown did to get to 2-2 in conference play.
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