After finishing 2-0 last weekend, Marquette volleyball continued its road stretch with a three-set win over the Butler Bulldogs (25-19, 25-15 , 25-21) Friday night.
In the first frame, the Golden Eagles jumped ahead to a quick 16-10 lead. Marquette held onto that advantage to eventually win the opening set 25-19. Butler had its worst hitting percentage of the match during this set at -0.061.
The Golden Eagles dominated the second set as well, getting an early 12-5 lead and later holding a 22-10 lead. Marquette won the set, 25-15. The Bulldogs capitalized on 5 of 34 attempts with five errors, which gave them a hitting percentage of 0.000.
In the final set, Marquette took a commanding lead at 13-8 and didn’t look back, finishing off the match 25-21. Both teams hit their best in the third, as Butler hit 0.225 and Marquette hit 0.293.
Junior Allie Barber led the Golden Eagles with 20 of the team’s 44 kills, hitting at a 0.394 clip with a kill percentage of 0.606. Barber had as many kills as all four of the Bulldogs’ best hitters combined. Senior Anna Haak notched seven kills, two aces and a team-high 22 digs. Junior Lauren Speckman added 10 digs and a match-high 22 assists.
Junior Brooke Gregory and senior Bri Lily led the Bulldogs with six kills apiece. The whole Butler team had 22 kills. Redshirt junior Maddie Freiwald had a team-high 14 assists. Butler had a 10-3 advantage in blocks.
Marquette (23-5, 13-2 BIG EAST) travels to Cincinnati, Ohio, for its final road conference match against the Xavier Musketeers at 11:30 a.m. Central time Sunday.
