Seven banners greeted fans at the front door. Seven posters hung on the baseline mats. Seven display stands with seven pictures of seven jerseys sat on the taraflex pregame. Ryan Theis hugged, gave flowers to and took pictures with seven different players and their families.
It was Marquette volleyball senior day, and the seven-strong senior class that led the Golden Eagles to three-straight Big East regular season titles and their second-ever Sweet 16 in 2022 was honored before Friday’s match against Georgetown.
After the festivities, Marquette (19-7, 13-2 Big East) racked four straight points off the rip and kept scoring all the way to its 10th sweep of conference play (25-17, 25-15, 25-17).
“When you come out of photos and family on the court, you never know how that’s gonna start,” Theis said. “And we jumped out to early lead, which was great.”
If the two boxes for dominant volleyball are attacking efficiency and diversity, the Golden Eagles had both checked off in sharpie.
Everyone filled the box score with glittery hitting percentages, which stayed above .300 for five people and dipped below for only three as the Golden Eagles hit .380 as a team.
Five players also posted at least five kills with Hattie Bray leading the way with 11. Behind her came birthday girl Aubrey Hamilton and Carsen Murray, both of whom had nine.
“[Setter Yadhira Anchante] and I just trust each other a lot,” Bray said. “She was flinging me stuff from wherever, so it was really cool. We don’t get to do that too often. So it was great that the passes were there.”
Marquette started the process of spreading the ball out immediately when Murray, Ella Foti and Bray all got kills before Georgetown put a point on the board.
The Hamilton got involved, and she was followed by Natalie Ring, who was followed by Anchante and one her trademark dump-overs. And the Golden Eagles were firing on all cylinders from the jump, coasting away on a road paved smooth by the litany of kills.
“Tonight, everyone stepped up and was just trying to go for those really fun kills, where they’re huge, and it made it more fun,” Bray said.
While the second set started more competitive, Marquette scored six of seven points to take a 13-8 lead and force Georgetown to call timeout. The Hoyas used their final of the frame when the Golden Eagles’ advantage ballooned to 18-11 before ending with a 25-15 win.
Unlike the two sets prior, third was much less straight-forward.
Marquette led 9-1 off a 6-0 run before Georgetown brought it back to within two, 15-13, with a run of its own before the Golden Eagles scored four straight.
But exactly like the two sets prior, Marquette took the win handily.
This article was written by Jack Albright. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @JackAlbrightMU.
