One point, won. The next point, won. A third, won, and so on.
Marquette volleyball (4-2) was able to notch runs left and right in their three-set victory (25-21, 25-16, 25-22) Saturday night against James Madison (3-5).
In the first set, they had a 5-0 run, the second: three 3-0s and one 4-0 run. In the third: two 4-0s and a 3-0.
But something from the JMU side of the net would continue to pause their momentum.
Most of the time, it was because of the swings coming from junior outside hitter Kennedy Louisell.
“I thought there were times that our set up defensively and block was good against her [Louisell], and when it wasn’t, she made us pay,” head coach Tom Mendoza said. “They did a good job running their middles, especially out of the middle of the court, so yeah, good teams are going to be able to score against us.”
After coming off a 3-2 loss against Ball State Friday night, the Golden Eagles knew what it felt like to be scored against.
So what was different? The success of first-year setter Isabela Haggard, who finished with 37 assists against the Dukes.
“I thought Bela did a much better job of putting our hitters in good situations and letting them go be aggressive,” Mendoza said.
And leading the team with 16 kills on the night, fueling that aggression, was senior outside hitter Natalie Ring.
Ring, who is now playing in a full six rotations, has been playing at her personal best so far this season. Beginning with personal-bests in both kills (27) and total attacks (80) in Marquette’s five-set win over Hawai’i, and now being Marquette’s leading scorer with 122 points.
But when it came to her success against JMU, Ring said it was because of a certain mentality.
“Just going out and having fun, and enjoying competing with each other,” Ring said. “That was a big focus for me.”
The third set caused for little breathing room, as the Dukes attempted to make a comeback. With every swing that landed inches in front of the back row defenders, and each ball that fell close to out-of-bounds, you could see Marquette get squirmish.
But it came back to a 3-0 run and a kill from graduate student middle blocker Hattie Bray that sealed the deal and allowed the Golden Eagles to exhale.
Sunday, Ring’s mindset will have to continue, as the Golden Eagles return to the Al McGuire Center to face cross-town rival UW-Milwaukee at 3 p.m. CST.
This story was written by Raquel Ruiz. She can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @RaquelRuizMU.
