Marquette volleyball picked up its third straight win of the weekend Saturday night with a three-set sweep of the University of Northern Iowa (25-18,25-14,25-15) in the finale of the Marquette Invitational.
“Today and even throughout the weekend I just thought we did a good job of putting service pressure on people and playing a little bit more efficiently,” Marquette head coach Ryan Theis said. “We weren’t giving a lot of points away and that makes us tough to beat.”
The Golden Eagles began the first set with a 3-0 run before the Panthers tightened it up. After a late 15-13 deficit in the frame, Marquette put together a 10-3 run to end the frame to take the set 25-18.
“We just started controlling the first ball a little bit better, when it was tight,” Theis said. “Hats off to Northern Iowa, they gave like no points early.”
Hannah Vanden Berg totaled four kills in the first set while Jenna Reitsma, Hope Werch and Savannah Rennie would add three a piece.
The second set was all Golden Eagles from start to finish, not trailing the entire time leading as big as 12 at one point. A service ace from Claire Mosher capped off the set for Marquette, taking it 25-14.
Northern Iowa nearly took the third set and made it an even match, but the Golden Eagles responded with a run of their own following a Panther run forcing a UNI timeout.
Following the timeout, redshirt first year Carsen Murray recorded a solo block to bring Marquette’s lead to 10-7.
“I thought that was a big momentum play,” Theis said.
Murray’s block began a 3-0 run for the Golden Eagles and they did not look back from there. Redshirt first-year Anastasija Svetnik secured Marquette the 25-15 set win with her lone kill of the night.
Marquette hit .370 on the match with 44 kills compared to Northern Iowa hitting .077 and having 26 kills.
“I like my hitters, they’re always open, always ready,” Mosher said. “I love the feedback I get from them each set, I always make sure it’s in the right location, right spot and if it’s not we talk about it and make sure I get the next one to them.”
Graduate student outside hitter Hope Werch led Marquette with 12 kills while Rennie added nine kills and a team-high six blocks. Redshirt sophomore and first-year outside hitters Hannah Vanden Berg and Jenna Reitsma added seven and six of their own respectively.
Mosher and Rennie were named to the Marquette Invitational All-Tournament Team. Rennie would also pick up MVP honors for the weekend.
Marquette (9-2) will now head on the road to open up conference play at Villanova Friday. The match is set to start at 6 p.m. CST and can be streamed on FloSports.
“I’m just excited to start a full BIG-EAST play again,” Mosher said. “Going to Georgetown and Villanova, we didn’t get to do that last spring in the season, so I’m just really looking forward to new conference teams again and getting back to BIG-EAST play.”
This story was written by Ben Schultz. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @benschultz52.
