Morgan Daugherty finally got a chance. A real chance.

When Hattie Bray went down with an ankle injury early in the second set of Marquette’s 3-1 win over DePaul, Daugherty’s name was called. It was an opportunity for all 6-feet-3 of her to step up and help the Golden Eagles recover after losing their 2-time All-Big East middle blocker.

Not easy to do on its own, but upon considering Daugherty’s circumstances, her career performance of five kills, two digs and one block on .625 hitting becomes even more impressive.

There is the fact that the redshirt sophomore middle blocker has battled both shin splints and a stress fracture this year, which has greatly limited her practice time to 1/4 the normal amount.

“I haven’t really been practicing much, and I’ve been suiting up for games, just in case [an injury] were to happen to one of our middles,” she said. “It’s just about managing. I’m okay to play.

“It hurts, but if it gets worse, I get a stress fracture, I can’t play for about five months. So it’s just about managing the pain and managing the situation.”

Then when you factor in the fact that Daugherty, now in her third year at Marquette, has yet to find a consistent spot in the rotation — which makes sense considering the Golden Eagles start powerhouse duo Carsen Murray and Bray at middle blocker — and therefore has a very small amount of playing time.

Daugherty redshirted her first season, saw the court in just five of a possible X sets last year and, while she has played a career-high amount of time this year (24 frames), it’s paled in comparison to Murray’s (101) and Bray’s (99) numbers.

In pain, on limited practice time, even further limited playing time, called up on a whim, having lost the first set, down by four points in the second, pressure on. Not the most ideal situation, but that didn’t stop her.

“It’s just like one of those moments where you can never be ready for it,” Daugherty said. “You just know that your team needs you.

“And I’m a junior, I have practiced a lot. I practice with all these girls, like it’s not something new, going out there and playing with them. It’s just the moment is when I needed to step up.”

So up she stepped, off the bench and onto the court in a match for the first time in nine days, and in multiple frames for the first time in 14 and only the eighth time this year.

Without hesitation, Daugherty put together a career performance, helping the Golden Eagles storm back to tie the match 1-1 and go on to take the third and fourth.

“I told her after the match, that was one of the best off-the-bench performances I’ve seen in 25 years of coaching, and she laughed and said, ‘I’ve never been less prepared,’” head coach Ryan Theis said.

“And this is kind of those, ‘Can you get out there?’ And so she went out and crushed it. It was fun.”

Bray’s availability right now is unknown, so Daugherty could very well see herself doing what she did Sunday, again.

Sunday’s win a ‘confidence’ boost ahead of postseason

Marquette ended the regular season 22-7 and 16-2 in Big East play. Its only two losses came against 5th ranked Creighton, both in four sets.

For a team that is situated a clear rung below the Bluejays, but a clear rung (or two) above everybody else, being able to go into the Big East tournament with a hard-earned, depth-proving win was valuable.

“It was good to end on a win once again,” Daugherty said. “But yeah, going into the conference tournament and hopefully ending up playing Creighton (in the final), that’s going to be a huge match. So we need all the confidence we can get.”

The Golden Eagles officially became the No. 2 seed in the tournament, meaning they won’t face the top-seeded Bluejays until the championship — assuming both make it that far.

Marquette’s 2nd place finish earned it bye in the quarterfinals, and will face the winner of 3-seeded UConn and 6-seeded Villanova.

#muvb will await the winner of UConn/Villanova on Friday in the semifinals of the Big East Tournament. pic.twitter.com/HfIdfhw34t

— Matthew Baltz (@MatthewBaltzMU) November 25, 2024

The Golden Eagles posted sweeps against both of those teams in all three matchups, playing the Huskies only once (at home) on account of a new scheduling format for the Big East.

This article was written by Jack Albright. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @JackAlbrightMU.