Okay, look. I thought about staying up to watch Marquette volleyball open their season against Hawaii on Friday night. And then it got to about 10pm, two hours before first serve was scheduled, and my brain was making it very clear that I was NOT going to make it til 1:30am to watch the whole match IF it went only three sets.
And then I woke up to find out several things.
- Marquette and Hawaii started an hour late because San Diego and Utah State went to five sets and Hawaii had only scheduled 2 hours and 15 minutes between matches, so lol that 1am start wasn’t happening for me, thank goodness I went to bed 2 hours before the scheduled start
- Marquette and Hawaii went to FIVE SETS themselves, which is why the team posted about the 3-2 win at 4:25 in the morning Central time.
Y’know what, I’m kind of glad that I didn’t stay
up to watch the match. You know why?
BECAUSE MARQUETTE FENDED OFF SIX MATCH POINTS IN THE THIRD SET TO WIN 34-32 AND FORCE A FOURTH SET.
25-24: Kill by Isabella Haggard
28-27: Kill by Keira Schmidt
29-28: Kill by Elena Radeff
30-29: Kill by Natalie Ring
31-30: Kill by Natalie Ring
32-31: Kill by Natalie Ring
No cheapie extensions there from service or attacking errors by Hawaii. Marquette had to receive a serve, get it back in the air, and keep the point going to get to the point where they could cleanly and clearly record a kill to keep themselves alive and fighting. Bravo all around, especially to Natalie Ring for the last three there.
I know how my body reacts when I am in person watching the score inch towards 30 in extra points. I would never have slept again. So this all worked out for the best.
No, I’m not watching the match — although you can, it’s on ESPN+, so there’s an archive version available for the time being — but there are some things in the box score that we can talk about from Marquette’s first match of the season. In no particular order:
- Freshman Isabella Haggard got the start at setter. For the time being, she has beaten out Allie Korba, the Central Michigan transfer that won MAC Setter of the Year last season. Maybe that’s only because Haggard enrolled at the start of the spring semester so new head coach Tom Mendoza has been working with her all along while Korba only came in at the start of fall camp. We’ll see what happens, I guess. Haggard had 49 assists here, so just barely under 10 per set, and considering that the fifth set ended at 15 points, not 25, that’s not the worst thing. She also had 16 digs, which put a little bit of a lid on her ability to get assists.
- The rest of the starters alongside the expected pair of Natalie Ring and Hattie Bray: Elena Radeff and Mari King at hitter, Kiera Schmidt at middle blocker, and Adriana Studer at libero. There were way too many questions about the roster coming into the season, so nothing about this raises any flags for me, especially not when Avery Helms and Ella Holmstrom also got in the game at some point in each set.
- You gotta go with what works when you’re in a fight to keep the match going so I’m not going to take too much away from the fact that Natalie Ring took 80 of Marquette’s 197 swings in this five set contest. No one else had more than 36. She only hit .213, which is really not great, but: Ella Holmstrom finished underwater at -.083, Elena Radeff was at .207, and Hattie Bray had absolutely nothing for Hawaii, putting up eight kills and five errors on 21 attempts for a .143 hitting percentage. It’s Opening Night for everyone, and it’s gonna take a little bit for the Golden Eagles to really get everything chugging in the same direction. Being able to scrap together this win when getting that close to getting swept is great, so let’s not ask too many questions about how they did it.
- Marquette had 12 blocks in the match, with Keira Schmidt going up to get two solo stuffs along the way. Sometimes blocks are about an ability to time jumps with your teammates, and with so many new teammates working together on this roster, averaging over two rejections for a point per set as a team is pretty good.
- MU also scored points by way of aces to the tune of seven against Hawaii. That’s right about on pace with what the Golden Eagles did last year when highly technical serving was a priority for Ryan Theis, so I like what that portends for the 2025 season under Tom Mendoza.
- Adriana Studer finished with a team high 20 digs in the match, for a 5-set limited 4.0 per set. That’s a pretty good way to get things going, especially for Studer who has not really been asked to hold that spot down night after night in the past.
- It’s Just One Match, BUT you have to be impressed with Keira Schmidt’s collegiate debut here. Nine kills on 13 swings, .692 hitting, two solo blocks, five assisted blocks, third on the team behind Ring and Radeff for the night in total points at 13.5. Who knows how the rest of the season goes for her, but doing that on the road in a pressurized match against a team earning preseason top 25 votes and picked to win the Big West this year? Prrrrrrretty, pretty good.
UP NEXT: Marquette returns to action on Saturday night when they tangle with San Diego. First serve is scheduled for 9:45pm Central time, and it is the first of the two matches in the building tonight — Hawaii vs Utah State is second — so it should start on time. There’s probably not going to be video of it though, but keep an eye on Marquette’s social media juuuuuuuust in case. San Diego was picked to win the WCC this season, but they had to bounce back from losing sets 1 and 4 to Utah State on Friday night before winning in five.
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