Marquette volleyball beat the St. John’s Red Storm in five sets (25-23, 19-25, 26-28, 25-22, 18-16) Friday night, earning its third straight victory and the season sweep.
After multiple lead changes and ties in the first set, Marquette went on a 3-0 run to take a late 22-19 lead. St. John’s wouldn’t give up their fight as they tied it at 22 a piece.
“It was a gutsy effort this afternoon and I’m really proud of us going for it late,” Marquette head coach Ryan Theis said in a statement. “We didn’t get tentative, we took our chances, and it paid off.”
The Golden Eagles would then take the set 25-23 four kills from both graduate student Hope Werch and redshirt sophomore Hannah Vanden Berg. In the frame, Marquette hit .357 while St. John’s hit .308.
St. John’s opened set two with a 8-3 lead forcing Marquette head coach Ryan Theis to call a timeout. Then coming out of the timeout, the Golden Eagles tied the set at 15 just before St. John’s would respond to take a 19-16 lead forcing another Marquette timeout.
The Red Storm outscored the Golden Eagles six to three at the end of the frame to win the set 25-19.
Set three would start out close, with the score at 10-9 when St. John’s called a timeout following an ace from redshirt junior Katie Schoessow. The set would remain close until Marquette went on a 3-0 run and then a 4-0 run to take a 19-14 lead.
Marquette would hold a lead as big as six with the score at 22-16 but the Johnnie’s took 12 of the last 16 points to win the set 28-26.
In the fourth set, the Golden Eagles would respond taking the 25-22 after ending it with a 3-0 run that included two kills from Vanden Berg.
St. John’s opened the fifth and final set with a 7-4 lead forcing Marquette to call a timeout. Coming out of their timeout, Marquette tied the set at 13 forcing St. John’s to burn a timeout of their own.
The fifth and final set would start with St. John’s getting out to a 7-4 lead forcing Marquette to call timeout. Marquette would tie the set at 13 to force a St. John’s timeout. A .417 hitting percentage in the frame led the Golden Eagles to pull away the 18-16 set victory.
For the Golden Eagles, Werch led the way with 17 kills, five aces and nine digs. Graduate student Taylor Wolf added 13 kills, 33 assists, three aces, four blocks and seven digs to a well rounded match.
Marquette (21-4, 12-2 BIG EAST) will continue their four-game road trip Nov. 13 with a trip to Cincinnati, Ohio to face Xavier at 3 p.m. CST.
This article was written by Ben Schultz. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @benschultz52.
