The Marquette Golden Eagles (9-3, 4-2 BIG EAST) took down the Butler Bulldogs (4-6, 1-3 BIG EAST) on the road in dominant fashion, collecting their seventh straight set victory of the year, winning by scores of 25-17, 25-22 and 25-13.
Marquette had a strong start, leading by as much as eight points. There were several long volleys between the two teams in the first set, with the longest one going to the Bulldogs as senior Kaitlyn Lines hit it out of bounds. Senior Taylor Wolf was able to finish off the set and helped Marquette get the 25-17 win. Wolf finished the match with her career-high in kills as a Golden Eagle with 15 to lead all players.
Set two was a bit closer, with Butler taking a 16-15 lead thanks to a 4-0 run. Marquette responded with a 4-0 run of their own to gain a three-point lead. The Bulldogs got it back to within one thanks to an attack error from the Golden Eagles and a kill from sophomore Megan Sheridan. It would end up being Sheridan’s only kill of the match.
MU found a way to pull away from the Bulldogs, winning 25-22 off a kill from sophomore Hannah Vanden Berg. Vanden Berg would finish second behind Wolf in kills with 13 on the day. It was her third game in a row with 12 or more kills.
The last set was complete domination by the Golden Eagles, who led by as much as 15 at one point. After some early back-and-forth, Marquette went on a 10-0 run. Butler struggled to score points and, even after grabbing a few points to fight back, they let the Golden Eagles go on a 6-1 run to extend the lead to 14.
The Bulldogs made the final score look a bit better, but still lost the set by 12 points. While MU only hit .167 for the set, Butler hit -.214 and had nine attack errors and only three kills.
Sophomore Marisa Guisti led the Bulldogs in kills with eight, followed by redshirt sophomore Brittany Robinson with seven.
Marquette hit .287 compared to Butler’s .038. The Golden Eagles dominated in total kills with 49 compared to BU’s 24.
Marquette will have a week to get ready to go on the road again as the team finishes out the regular season in Ohio against Xavier March 13 and 14.
This story was written by Jackson Gross. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @JacksonGross6.
