No. 18 Marquette had no trouble beating the Seton Hall Pirates in straight sets (25-16, 25-18, 25-16) Saturday afternoon at Walsh Gymnasium.
“I thought we did a really nice job from the service line tonight,” Marquette head coach Ryan Theis said in a statement. “(Marquette assistant coach Ryan Walthall) ‘Walt’ had a nice plan and servers executed it well. It seemed like any time Seton Hall made a push we had a different player step up with a kill and a different server go back and run some points.”
It is the fourth straight sweep and the 13th victory of the season for the Golden Eagles.
The first set started out competitively between both sides, as a Seton Hall sophomore outside hitter Jenna Walsh tied the score at six early with a kill. The Golden Eagles would then break things open using a 10-2 extended run to take a commanding 16-8 advantage.
Marquette wouldn’t relinquish its lead as it took the opening set 25-16 behind a .333 hitting percentage. The Golden Eagles held the Pirates to a .032 attacking percentage in the set.
Sophomore Hattie Bray and junior Aubrey Hamilton led Marquette in the first stanza as they each collected eight of the 17 kills the Golden Eagles in the frame alone.
Similarly to the opening set, the second set had more back-and-forth action. Neither side could find much of an advantage early on, as Marquette led 13-12 at the midway point.
After the Golden Eagles took a commanding 19-12 advantage, the Pirates closed to within 22-17 late. However, it would not be enough as Marquette edged out Seton Hall 25-18 to take the set.
Marquette quickly took a 14-4 lead in the final frame before winning the set 25-16.
Sophomore outside hitter Jenna Reitsma had a solid performance both attacking and from the service line as she racked up 11 kills and three service aces in the match. The Lowell, Michigan native also tallied 12 digs for her fourth double-double this season and fifth in her career.
Senior defensive specialist Carly Skrabak picked up 17 on the afternoon while also recording her third kill of the season in the second set.
Despite having nine attack errors, Walsh led the Pirates with nine kills.
As a team, Marquette limited Seton Hall to 25 kills on .063 hitting percentage, while the Golden Eagles racked up 47 kills on .301%.
With the win, the Golden Eagles move to 6-0 in Big East play. It is the second-best start to a conference campaign under Theis.
Marquette (15-1, 6-0 Big East) will remain on the road traveling to Omaha, Nebraska for a showdown against No. 21 Creighton Friday at 6:30 p.m. CST.
This story was written by Jackson Gross. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @JacksonGrossMU.
