When Marquette volleyball and UConn met for the first time this season in Storrs, the match ended in a 3-1 victory for the Golden Eagles.

In the rematch Saturday night, Marquette was able to secure the 3-0 sweep (25-19, 25-16, 25-19) over UConn at the Al McGuire Center.

“It’s a fun team win,” junior outside hitter Jenna Reitsma said. “We love getting to play these teams again in conference and just being able to put three sets away right away is a good feeling.”

Statistical leaders

Marquette’s primary setter Yadhira Anchante sat out her fourth game in a row due to injury. But junior right side/setter Ella Foti stepped up again for the Golden Eagles, putting up 32 assists, most of which connected with Reitsma, who finished with a game-high 13 kills.

“It feels great connecting with Foti and the other passers,” Reitsma said. “I think its just a good team win when were getting big digs. Foti has the floor to set, and she was giving me some great balls tonight.”

Senior middle blocker Anastasija Svetnik finished with a season-high seven kills and graduate student libero Sarah Kushner earned a match-high 20 kills.

For UConn, sophomore outside hitter Emma Werkmeister scored a team-high eight kills.

Blocking out the competition

In its last meeting with UConn, Marquette lost the first set. This time, the Golden Eagles came out with momentum and never lost it, in part because of the defensive performance.

“The big thing was defense,” Marquette head coach Ryan Theis said. “We held them to negative or zero through the first and part of the second I thought we were doing a really good job getting stops. Really good defensive effort.”

The Golden Eagles held the Huskies to hit .067 in the opening frame and .094 in the match. No UConn player earned double-digit kills and only two Huskies hit above .200.

Sealing the 10th sweep

After two strong sets, Marquette had a slower start to the third and struggled to take a strong lead, until a 4-0 run opened up the gap and forced a UConn timeout.

“We were just kind of waiting on a point run,” Theis said. “We couldn’t get it early, we just missed a couple of serves.”

After the timeout, the Golden Eagles kept their scoring going and took a 20-15 lead, catalyzed by three kills from Reitsma.

Marquette then scored five of the last nine points and Reitsma ended the game her 13th kill to win the set 25-19 and secure the 3-0 sweep.

Up next

Marquette will travel to Chicago to face the DePaul Blue Demons (13-10, 6-6 Big East) Wednesday night at McGrath-Phillips Arena. The game is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. CST.