Marquette volleyball will always have the first set on which to look back.
When Creighton (23-2, 14-0 Big East) almost assuredly hoists the Big East regular season trophy in less than a month as its sole winner, the Golden Eagles (18-7, 12-2) can remember the opening frame of their Nov. 10 match against the 5th ranked Bluejays.
They can think about how they put the finishing touches on a barnburner to win 25-21 and grab an early match lead. How they hit .293 and held the team from Omaha to .184. How they spread the ball and got five different players multiple kills. How they silenced anybody not named Norah Sis, the best player in the conference.
There won’t be much else to think about from Sunday’s 3-1 loss (25-21, 12-25, 18-25, 13-25), though. At least not in a positive light.
Because, you see, after those first 46 points, Marquette had a first class, one-way ticket on a long train ride down the hill to the until-now-unfamiliar Land of Second Place Dwellers.
“I don’t perceive Creighton dropping many along the way. It would be great if that happens and we get in contention,” head coach Ryan Theis said about the regular season title race.
“But we understood what happened today.”
The Bluejays all but packed the Golden Eagles’ bags for them.
First in the second set for Creighton was a quick 9-3 lead. Second was a 6-0 run (20-10), third was a 4-0 run (24-11) and fourth and last was another kill from Sis to win the frame handily, 25-12.
The Bluejays, specifically their offense, had woken up and hit .696 while the Golden Eagles hit .097.
“Set two started off, they got two stuffed blocks and an ace right out of the sheet, and then you’re behind, and it’s really tough to run points and catch those guys,” Theis said. “So when you drop down four or five, and even if you pull within three, it gets back to five pretty quick.”
Then the third rolled around, and Marquette needed to respond before the train glided unencumbered into Runner-up Station.
While the Golden Eagles slowed the Bluejays down, they kept chugging along en route to a 25-18 win and 2-1 match lead.
Creighton led 10-6 when Ryan Theis first pulled the timeout trigger. Then it was 15-12 and Kirsten Bernthal-Booth called one of her own. Then it was 18-13 when Theis used his last and then it ended with a service error from Ella Foti to mark the seven-point Bluejays’ victory.
It was do-or-die for the Golden Eagles, with their best and last chance at beating the Bluejays inside the Al McGuire Center for the third year in a row fogged by a powder blue sulfur cloud.
At the end of the fourth set, which Creighton took 25-13, the train wheeled to a smooth stop at Next-Best O’clock — Marquette now with a virtually locked-up second place finish in conference play.
The Golden Eagles were led in kills by Aubrey Hamilton (13) and Hattie Bray (12). Yadhira Anchante had a double-double of 39 assists and 13 digs.
Outside hitters Sis and Ava Martin led the Bluejays with 23 and 16 kills respectively, Martin also earning a double-double with 11 digs.
“For her sake, I hope she’s a first team All-American,” Theis said about Sis. “She’s just a terrific player. So many different aspects of the volleyball in between passing and hitting on the back row, the front, the block. So she’s a handful.”
Now Marquette will move on to its last four regular season matches — the next against Georgetown Friday at 7 p.m. CST at the Al McGuire Center — fighting for more than the Big East.
“We can decide now that our season’s over and pout, or we can show up at practice tomorrow morning, engaged and playing for something,” Theis said. “We’ve got seven seniors who would love to make an NCAA tournament run or a Big East tournament championship.
“We have a lot that we can still have go right. And so it’s up to them now to decide, are you showing up tomorrow morning engaged? If not, then don’t show up.”
This article was written by Jack Albright. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @JackAlbrightMU.
