The Marquette women’s volleyball team won both of its Saturday matches against Green Bay and Texas-San Antonio in four sets and finished 3-1 in the Marquette Invitational.
Saturday started slowly for the Golden Eagles, as they lost a tight opening set to Green Bay, 28-26. The signs of a quality effort were still there though, as senior right side hitter Lindsey Gosh had a set-high eight kills and Marquette outhit the Phoenix .182-.123.
The second set was the turning point in the match, as the Golden Eagles raced past their opponents in a lopsided 25-14 frame. Marquette hit .308 as a team and Green Bay posted 10 kills and 10 errors.
Marquette kept rolling in the third set, hitting .366 and winning 25-17. Sophomore outside hitter Autumn Bailey and redshirt junior middle hitter Courtney Kintzel each had five kills, and the team combined for 19.
Green Bay made things interesting in the final frame with a late point run, but Marquette closed out the match 25-22. Gosh and sophomore outside hitter Nele Barber led the match with 15 kills each. Bailey had an impressive double-double, with 13 kills and 16 digs, and redshirt sophomore libero Mary Nilles had 32 assists.
The momentum from the Green Bay win carried over into the next match, as Marquette jumped out to an early 9-1 lead against UTSA. The Golden Eagles hit a stellar .333 and held the Roadrunners below zero (-.040).
Neither side could find itself a considerable lead in the second set, but a 4-0 UTSA run out of a timeout gave the Roadrunners pole position at 19-17. But trailing 22-19, the Golden Eagles ripped off six straight points to claim the second set 25-22. Marquette overcame hitting just .100 in the frame thanks to four aces, two apiece from Bailey and Barber.
UTSA came out of the intermission motivated and road a late point run to a 25-18 victory. The Roadrunners hit an absurd .548 in the third, with eight kills from Dajana Boskovic leading the way.
Marquette closed out the match in a gutty, 26-24 frame in which it trailed 20-15. Bailey kicked in seven final set kills and the Golden Eagles outhit the Roadrunners .292 to .125. For the match, Bailey led Marquette with 16 kills and 11 digs and Barber added 15. Boskovic finished with a game-high 22 kills.
