Marquette’s chances at upsetting #12 Creighton and pulling the 4/1 seed upset in the 2025 Big East volleyball semifinals probably fell apart at one of two junctures on Saturday at the McGuire Center.
The
first is when a kill from Hattie Bray got Marquette within one, 16-15, in the first set. Creighton had been up 11-7 and 13-9, so whittling the lead back down was a good step for the Golden Eagles. Giving up five of the next six points was not, so it was 21-16 Creighton, and MU’s only point in that stretch was a service error by CU’s Abbey Hayes. Marquette fended off set point twice, but that was to get themselves to 19, and a block from Jaya Johnson and Kiara Reinhardt on MU’s Natalie Ring had the top seeded Bluejays up 1-0.
But hey, Marquette shook off an even worse first set down in Omaha this season against this same Creighton team and took a 2-1 lead before losing in five sets. Maybe something similar could happen again? The Bluejays went up 12-8 early on to make you think that might not be the case, but MU got back in the picture. A kill from Ring put the Golden Eagles out in front, 17-16, and later, three straight points had Ring serving for set point, 24-23.
This is the second juncture.
Kill from Ava Martin, MU goes back up one.
Kill from Ava Martin, Marquette goes back up one.
26-25, but the Bluejays have fended off set point twice. On the third try, yep, you guessed it, Ava Martin. She scored again to make it 27-26, and a misfire by Ring sent the second set to Creighton 28-26.
Marquette had the Bluejays at set point three times but could not close the door to get to a 1-1 tie.
The third set was tied at 15, but then Creighton scored the next five. The moment was already past Marquette though. Yes, the Golden Eagles managed to pull into a 23-all tie late. They pushed back, but that was all they had. Creighton got a kill from Abbey Hayes and a block from Nora Wurtz and Annalea Maeder, and that’s all she wrote here.
Marquette couldn’t slow down Ava Martin (24 kills, .432 hitting) or Kiara Reinhardt (nine kills, .500 hitting) or Jaya Johnson (eight kills, .467 hitting) and that’s a 3-0 sweep.
How about some highlights, such as they are, courtesy of GoMarquette.com and ESPN+?
Up Next: Creighton goes on to Sunday’s Big East championship match at the McGuire Center on Sunday, where they will tangle with #2 seed Xavier after the Musketeers got a 3-0 sweep over #3 seeded Villanova. That starts at 2pm Central time in Milwaukee if you’re so inclined.
As for Marquette, they will now sit idle for over a week until Selection Sunday to see if they have done enough to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.
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