Marquette players casually chatted with each other during timeouts. Ryan Theis sat several seats apart from his team in the middle of a mostly vacant row of chairs; observant, yet nonchalant. Northwestern’s bench did much the same on the other end of the sideline, smiling all the while.
That was the prevalent attitude in the Al McGuire Center for the Golden Eagles’ opening spring exhibition match against the Northwestern Wildcats on Saturday afternoon. Marquette took the first two sets from Northwestern, 25-11 and 25-16, before dropping the last one 23-25.
OBSERVATIONS
-This was the first time that redshirt freshman Amanda Green saw the court in college. She was quiet on offense, and it is apparent that she does not have the same velocity on her shots that star outside hitter Taylor Louis does. Of course, one exhibition game is too little to base any career predictions on. Still, Theis has said that Green’s arm is not as “terminal” as Louis’ is.
“Whereas Taylor would sometimes, if she’s making a mistake, maybe err out of bounds, Amanda would err in terms of getting dug,” Theis explained.
-One area where Green did excel is at the net on defense. No official stats were kept for this game, but Green had several block assists and one excellent solo block. She also seemed comfortable in serve-receive, digging out most of the balls that were hit her way. Marquette lacked a true six-rotation player this season, but it is possible that Green could fill that void next year.“She didn’t play tentative, she didn’t play possum, I was really impressed, actually, for her first day,” Theis said.
-The battle at the net was firmly in Marquette’s pocket for most of the match. It seemed as if two minutes could not pass without a Northwestern attack being neutralized, if not swatted down entirely. One particular block that stands out is Louis’ solo annihilation of a Northwestern slide attack.
“We’re a big, physical group and I think we’ve made some improvements in blocking,” Theis said. “Players are seeing hitters a little bit better.”
-Next weekend will bring a much bigger challenge for Marquette. The Golden Eagles will be taking a short road trip west to Madison to square off with the Wisconsin Badgers, who were ranked among the top 10 teams in the country for much of the regular season. Scoring rules for that match are still unknown.
