No. 23 Marquette kicked off its 10-game homestand with a four set win (25-19, 25-14, 27-29 and 25-19) over Loyola University Chicago Tuesday night in front of a nearly packed Al McGuire Center.
“Great student section tonight, awesome job from our marketing team, thanks to the students for coming out. I saw some athletes and it looked like a lot of first-years enjoying a free piece of pizza,” Marquette head coach Ryan Theis said. “I thought our serving looked the best it had and that had something to do with being at home.”
Neither side allowed each other much breathing room in the first set, keeping the score tied 16-16 midway through the frame.
Then after Theis successfully won his challenge, which overturned a Ramblers point, the Golden Eagles went on a 8-4 run to finish the set to take it 25-19.
Marquette collected four service aces and five blocks in the stanza, as it held Loyola Chicago to a .045 hitting percentage.
“I think serving it well got them out of system and got us some points,” Theis said.
The second set was all Marquette, as the Golden Eagles cruised to a 25-15 victory.
Marquette kept it close in the third frame. There were 14 ties in the set, but the Golden Eagles’ comeback — which included having the frame at set match point twice — fell short as the Ramblers took it 29-27.
Much like the third set, the fourth was highly contested as both sides traded blows early on.
After facing another late set deficit at 16-18, Marquette went on 7-3 run to come from behind and take the final frame for the match victory.
“To hang that long after dropping a set and to be even at 15s or at 16s (to) then surge I thought it was pretty impactful,” Theis said. “I didn’t think we let up from the service line and we stayed and sustained pressure even when the match pressure grew, so I liked that.”
After recording four kills in her first four matches, first-year outside hitter Ella Holmstrom exploded for a career high 17 kills, to go along with four blocks and two assists.
“I’m just really happy with how I performed, really proud of myself,” Holmstrom said. “It can be kind of nerve racking espically with your first home opener as a first-year, we had a really big crowd, so, I’m really happy with how I played and just with how our team played in general.”
Sophomore setter Yadira Anchante earned her third double-double in a Marquette uniform as she dropped 36 assists and 17 digs.
The Golden Eagles set a new season high in total blocks with 12, while only committing three block errors.
Meanwhile for Loyola Chicago, it was led by junior outside hitter Emily Bannit, who had a match high 18 kills while hitting .361.
Marquette (4-1) will have a few days off before a weekend double header starting with Louisiana State University on Saturday at 4 p.m. CST.
“I don’t know a ton, (they have a) new coach, we haven’t played them in four or five years so I don’t they have any players that we know, not a lot of kids I know from recuriting, they’re all probably from Texas, so we’ll get to work on them as soon as today,” Theis said. “I’m going to watch this one (the Loyola-Chicago game) and then LSU.”
This story was written by Jackson Gross. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @JacksonGrossMU.
