Look, we don’t have to pretend that it’s good news that Marquette volleyball lost to #12 Creighton in a match that was exclusively televised on Nebraska Public Television on Saturday night.
But there are two things about that match that stand out to me, at least they stood out as I kept an eye on the live stats as the night went on.
The first is that Marquette took two sets — #2 and #3 — from the Bluejays. By definition, they had a top 15 ranked opponent on the ropes in their home gym. That’s good
news. Yeah, Creighton ended up taking the fourth set to force it to a fifth frame…. but also that final set was 10-9 Creighton. Once again: Marquette was right there at the moments when plays mattered in a match like this.
The second is that if you were watching the live stats during set #1, then you are SHOCKED that Marquette refused to go quietly into that good night. After a kill from Natalie Ring made it 5-4 Bluejays, things went wildly out of control for the Golden Eagles. Creighton scored the next four points to go up five and then MU didn’t push themselves across the next five points to get to 10 until it was 23-10 off a kill by Isabela Haggard. It was REAL BAD as Marquette hit -0.065 versus a .407 from Creighton in that opening frame. To a certain extent, you could understand if there was a little bit of “yeah, well, we’re not supposed to beat #12 on the road,” and Marquette just closed up shop after that. NOPE, the Golden Eagles threw out two straight sets of .400 hitting of their own in order to take that 2-1 lead.
The loss drops Marquette to 7-5 in Big East action and 13-9 overall this season. Relative to the NCAA tournament, it’s probably in MU’s interest to not lose again between now and Selection Sunday unless they see “Creighton” on jerseys on the other side of the net in the Big East tournament. However, speaking of the Big East tournament that Marquette is hosting this season, this was a good weekend for the Golden Eagles. Georgetown lost at Butler and at Xavier, while UConn took on their sixth loss of league play in a Friday match at St. John’s. Marquette sits one game behind third place Villanova and one game in front of the Huskies and the Hoyas with four regular season matches left to go.
Up Next: Marquette will wrap up the home portion of the regular season next weekend with a pair of matches. They will host St. John’s on Friday, November 7th, at 7pm Central before returning to action against Seton Hall at Noon Central on Sunday. Both matches will be televised on ESPN+. Seton Hall dropped to 0-12 in the league over the weekend, but the Red Storm will go into Friday at 4-8, three games back of MU in the standings and fighting for that last available Big East tournament berth.
