The Marquette women's volleyball team came one win from claiming first place in this weekend's Marquette Kick-Off Tournament. After defeating Miami University on Friday and Oakland University on Saturday, the Golden Eagles lost 3-0 to the University of Texas-Arlington.
Senior middle hitter Jenn Brown led the Golden Eagles in kills with 14, and senior setter Katie Weidner notched 41 assists against the Mavericks.
After the match, head coach Patti Rolf reasoned with the loss.
"We had a game plan and a few players followed that plan and a few players didn't, and that's what hurt us," Rolf said.
Although Marquette was unable to earn the championship Saturday night, there was no doubt that UTA deserved to win.
"I love competition, and I love this UTA team," Rolf said. "The beauty of this particular loss is that we were beat by a team that played really well and did a great job, and that's something that needs to be learned from."
The Golden Eagles defeated Miami University in five games. Senior middle hitter Kimberly Todd led the charge for the Golden Eagles, notching 27 kills and 10 digs for her second consecutive double-double.
"She does a lot, but that can be a problem, because she tried to do it all last weekend and it didn't work," Rolf said.
Against Miami, Todd had 64 attempts on her way to a total of 134 for the weekend. The next closest player was Ashley Fisher with 83. However, it is no mistake that Todd gets the majority of sets for the Golden Eagles.
"That's part of our offense, no matter who gets the second ball on a broken play we always try to set it up to the middle of the court so Kim can come in with a big strong back row attack," senior setter Katie Weidner said.
Marquette claimed a 3-0 victory against Oakland on Saturday afternoon as freshman Rabbecka Gonyo led the team with 16 kills and a .429 hitting percentage.
Gonyo was one of three players who earned all-tournament team honors along with Weidner and Todd. Todd was also named the tournament's Most Valuable Player.
"The award means I have good teammates and that we were working hard together," Todd said. "This weekend I got a lot of balls put up and I think we need to continue to work hard to distribute the ball more."
Todd notched 55 kills on the weekend, the majority of which were assisted by Weidner, who averaged 12.9 assists per game in the tournament.
Gonyo, Todd and Weidner were joined on the all-tournament team by UTA's Emily Nedderman (setter) and Torie Dacus (outside hitter), as well as Miami's Cassie Loessberg (libero).
The Golden Eagle's 2-1 finish was an improvement over last year's 1-2 showing, and the team still knows there is room for improvement.
"Once our block becomes more solid I think the defenders will have a much better time digging those hard driven spikes," Todd said.
Despite any deficiencies that were exposed against UTA, coach Rolf said she was pleased with the effort and improvement her team showed.
"I'm very proud of them, they just really are starting to get used to playing together and trusting certain things," Rolf said.