The Marquette women’s volleyball team had to fight their way to a 3-2 (23-25, 16-25, 27-25, 25-22, 15-11) victory over DePaul on Saturday night, but the win provided a confidence boost as well as some separation in the BIG EAST standings.
The Golden Eagles dropped the first two sets, but Marquette was able to squeak out of the third set 27-25 and then a decisive fourth set victory gave them momentum to secure the fifth set and the match. This season Marquette is 4-0 in five set matches.
Marquette is now on a five game winning streak that has helped cement their status as second in the conference behind Creighton, who Marquette will play next weekend.
“Satisfying is I guess a good word. It creates separation between us and the field,” Marquette head coach Ryan Theis said. “To be down 0-2 on the road and come back is huge. We talked about in the locker room that if we wanted to have a great season it’s got to start now and I thought they responded pretty well to that. They played with a lot of urgency in the third fourth and fifth.”
Taylor Louis, Jenna Rosenthal and Allie Barber each had double-digit kills for Marquette. Sara Blasier also recorded a double-double with 44 assists and 10 digs.
DePaul and Marquette had closely contested first set. The frame was tied 14 times, but the Blue Demons would come out on top 25-23.
The Blue Demons kept the momentum going in the second set by jumping out to a 6-2 lead. Marquette tied the score at 7-7, but DePaul was once again able to take the set 25-16.
Finally in the third set, Marquette jumped out to a 6-2 lead. Marquette would get set point with the score 24-20, but DePaul would fight back and score four unanswered points to tie the score at 24-24. After tying the score again at 25 all, Marquette was able to take the frame off of a Blasier ace.
“Ultimately, it comes down to when you talk about games being close it is stringing together consecutive plays and we just did that a little bit better than them,” Theis said.
In the fourth set, Barber hit back-to-back kills to lead Marquette to a 16-9 lead. DePaul would climb back to make the score 24-20, but the Golden Eagles ended up taking the set 25-22.
“We had two or three situations where bad breaks go against us, whether it be a call or whatever, so the fact that we battled through it and were still winning that set I think was pretty big,” Theis said. “I do think we were at that point playing extremely well and as long as we could maintain that level I thought we could win the match.”
The Blue Demons took an 8-7 lead in the fifth set, but Marquette came back to make the score 9-8. A kill from Louis and a block from Meghan Niemann helped propel the Golden Eagles to a 11-8 led. From there Marquette would take the set and match by the score of 15-11.
Marquette will have two matches against Providence and Creighton next weekend at the Al McGuire Center.