Marquette women’s volleyball swept DePaul in three sets on Saturday, 25-15, 25-19, 25-16, and increased its road winning streak to seven. The Golden Eagles (14-4, 5-1) haven’t lost away from home since Aug. 31 at Colorado State and have only lost five sets total during that time.
Sophomore Autumn Bailey was all over the floor, leading Marquette in kills with 16, adding seven service aces, four blocks and a .375 striking percentage. Sophomore Nele Barber and redshirt sophomore Meghan Niemann also put up seven kills to Marquette’s total of 41. For DePaul, junior Callie Huebener had 10 of the Blue Demons’ 30 kills. Marquette coach Ryan Theis was thrilled about his team’s performance, specifically regarding Bailey’s big day.
“Autumn served great,” Theis told GoMarquette.com. “It was fun to watch. She had a couple of big runs and we had a good serve/block night.”
One of Bailey’s seven aces came in the first set, which Marquette won 25-15. Also serving well for the team was Barber, who scorched back-to-back aces to give the Golden Eagles a 20-11 lead late in the set. The game went back and forth early on until a 9-3 run put Marquette at comfortable lead at 17-9. The Golden Eagles then built on that lead and won by 10. Redshirt sophomore Mary Nilles had 10 of her 31 assists in the first game and finished as the only player with a double-double, adding 12 digs.
In the second, it was more of the same. Marquette started slow and was down three points, the team’s largest deficit of the match, at 6-9. But from there on it was all Golden Eagles. Marquette rallied to get four straight points and never trailed again, winning 25-19. Marquette got four aces in the set, three from Bailey and one from sophomore Lauren Houg. Bailey also had five kills in the set and Barber tacked on four more. Marquette’s success was due to the team’s defensive play, as sophomore Teal Schnurr lead all players with a career high nine blocks.
Marquette closed out the match with a dominant third set performance, 25-16. The Golden Eagles led from start to finish and went on an 8-0 run to establish an insurmountable 18-7 lead. Over the course of that streak, Marquette was assisted by four DePaul errors and two aces from Bailey. Bailey would fittingly end the set and match with her seventh kill of the set alone. Marquette finished the game with a .304 hitting percentage to DePaul’s .111.
The Golden Eagles look to continue their hot streak on the road against Butler for an unusual afternoon game Oct. 15 at the Health and Recreation Complex in Indianapolis.
