Marquette volleyball opened up the Rainbow Wahine Classic with five-set victory (25-12, 26-28, 25-21, 15-25, 15-13) Friday over Texas A&M.
The Golden Eagles are now 8-0 all-time under head coach Ryan Theis in season openers.
The fifth set was a back and forth battle between both team. After the Golden Eagles led 8-5, the Aggies called a timeout. Following the timeout, Texas A&M went on a 6-3 run to bring the deficit to 11-10.
Behind the poise of MU and firepower of graduate student Taylor Wolf, MU rattled out the 15-13 set win and pick up the overall win.
Marquette took set one of the season in dominant fashion winning 25-12 off a kill by Wolf. Redshirt seniors Hope Werch and Savannah Rennie lead the way in the set, each collecting four kills to support the effort.
The Golden Eagles had zero attack errors on 23 attempts in the first frame, hitting .550 for the set as a whole. Meanwhile for the Aggies, they had three service errors and only had eight kills for the set.
Both the second and third set consisted of back and forth battles amongst both teams.
Marquette had three set points down the stretch but a block from fifth-year setter Camille Conner and kill from senior Mallory Talbert gave the Aggies the 28-26 win in set two.
Texas A&M fought their way back into set three after MU jumped out to an early 3-0 lead off a kill from junior Destiny Cox and a service ace from fifth year libero Macy Carrabine.
Marquette would then push back and go on a 4-0 run before the Aggies found a way back in and tied the match at 12 with a kill from Cox. It was then was Wolf who had another winning kill, coming off a feed from redshirt junior Katie Schoessow, to give MU the set win.
Texas A&M finally capitalized on the Golden Eagles’ mistakes early in the fourth set before MU brought the deficit within one. Then the Aggies put an 8-3 run, capped off by junior Lauren Davis’s 11th kill of the match, to win the set and force the full distance.
Wolf posted a match-high 15 kills, while finishing with 24 assists, eight digs and eight blocks. Rennie added 12 kills and six blocks on the evening.
The Golden Eagles finished with a 15-6 advantage in blocks, six of which came from redshirt first-year middle Carsen Murray. It was Murray’s career start at MU.
Marquette will take on the University of Hawaii Sunday at 12 a.m. CST. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.
This story was written by Jackson Gross. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @JacksonGrossMU.
