Marquette women’s volleyball wrapped up the Marquette Invitational with two more victories on Saturday. First they beat Wisconsin-Milwaukee 3-0 (25-21,25-19,25-21) and then Missouri State 3-1 (21-25, 25-18, 25-13, 25-23). The Golden Eagles are now on a six-match winning streak.
“I think once last year we got to six wins in a row, so now to knock that out in the beginning of the season is huge,” head coach Ryan Theis said. “Obviously, we want to keep going. The conference doesn’t start easy with Creighton at the first match, maybe we can get to seven.”
Outside hitter Taylor Louis was once again offensively dominant and for the second weekend in a row was named tournament MVP. Against UWM, Louis recorded 10 kills with an impressive .333 hitting percentage and then versus Missouri State she posted an astonishing 28 kills.
“Again, teamwork. Just putting a really big emphasis on doing things together, putting the ball in play, trying to keep them out of the system. That is really what worked for all of us,” Louis said.
For the second week in a row Lauren Houg and Meghan Niemann were also named to the all-tournament team.
In the afternoon, Marquette was clicking offensively against UWM. As a team, they posted a .327 hitting percentage and nine kills. Niemann recorded nine kills of her own to go along with an amazing .750 hitting percentage.
The Golden Eagles seemed to be in trouble early against Missouri State. The Bears opened the frame on a 4-1 run and then proceeded to jump out to a 20-10 lead. Marquette came back to make the score 23-20, but Missouri State would ultimately take the set 25-21.
“To Missouri State’s credit I thought they came out terrific. I thought they played flawless,” said Theis.
Marquette once again fell behind early in the second set 5-1, but this time they were able to come back and take the set 25-18.
In the third set, Marquette hit .350, while holding Missouri State to just a .024 hitting percentage. The Golden Eagles would go on to win 25-13.
“I just thought we made them pretty uncomfortable. I thought their passers, who are very good, become uncomfortable,”said Theis. “I thought their attackers became uncomfortable and so then you are at a huge advantage.”
After being down 8-7, Missouri State rattled off six unanswered points to make the score 12-8. Marquette, however, refused to go away and used 11 kills from Louis to take the set 25-23.
Defensively, Sara Blasier (10), Lauren Houg (24), Ellen Hays (13) and Manon Geoffroy (11) all collected double digit digs.
Marquette will open BIG EAST play next weekend with a match Friday night at Creighton.