The more things change, the more they stay the same.
In March, there couldn’t have been more questions surrounding Marquette volleyball after its most accomplished head coach in program history left for Florida.
In August, not much was known about about a group that featured a first-year head coach, 10 new faces and just five returning players from the Sweet 16 run a year ago.
In October, doubts from the outside began to creep in about the blue & gold’s ability to even put together a resume worthy of an at-large NCAA tournament bid after losing two straight games in Big East play for the first time since 2015.
But in December, on a chilly Friday night in Louisville, Kentucky, the Golden Eagles illustrated that despite everything that’s transpired over the past eight months, they are right where they have found themselves the past four seasons: winning matches in the Big Dance.
Marquette swept No. 7 seed Western Kentucky (25-22, 25-21, 25-16) in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Friday, beating the Hilltoppers for the second time this season.
“I’m just very happy for and grateful for the opportunity — again, [it’s my] first year at Marquette — I’m grateful for the players that we have up here with us [Natalie Ring and Hattie Bray] and the ones that are down in the locker room,” Marquette head coach Tom Mendoza said.
“The opportunity to coach at Marquette is a great opportunity, so I’m glad to be here and get to work with [Ring and Bray], especially with the transition and everything that happened last spring of changing coaches and all of that.”
The Golden Eagles top two kill leaders from the regular season got going early. Senior outside hitter Natalie Ring and graduate middle blocker Hattie Bray killed three points each within the first 21 points of the match to give MU an 11-9 advantage.
Several points later, Bray dialed up the Golden Eagles’ third ace of the set to make it 23-18 Marquette. The Golden Eagles were able to gain an edge at the service line in the first frame, winning the ace battle 3-0 and committing one less error.
First-year outside hitter Emma Parks killed the blue & gold’s final two points as they came out on top of the first set, 25-22. Parks (5), Ring (5) and Bray (4) combined for 14 kills in the set as Marquette swung .467 as a team.
After trailing 4-2 early in set two, Marquette fired back with a 5-0 run to take a 7-4 lead. Western Kentucky then responded with a 4-1 run to even things at eight. This back-and-forth continued until the scoreboard read 18-18. Something had to give, and it gave in favor of the Golden Eagles once again.
Marquette finished the frame on a 7-2 run after a Western Kentucky service error and Ring’s 11th kill of the afternoon. The blue & gold continued its uber-efficient offense, with a .411 hitting percentage after the first two frames.
Marquette went on a 6-1 run to open up a 14-10 lead in set three. Four points later, the Golden Eagles led 16-12 after Parks became the third player to post double-digit kills. Marquette head coach Tom Mendoza took a seat on the bench, looking stoic as ever. Why? Because everything was going his team’s way.
The Golden Eagles completely dominated the back half of the final set on Friday, finishing the frame and match on an 8-3 run to win it 25-16.
“One of our things all week was stay aggressive, even if we don’t get kills, we need to stay aggressive,” Mendoza said. “It is easy to talk about, but again credit to our players for sticking to that and having the courage to go take those swings as the match went on, especially in some really important situations.”
Marquette hit .375 for the match, its third best mark this season. Behind the service line, the Golden Eagles had six aces to four errors, while the Hilltoppers had eight errors and zero aces.
Ring led the way with 16 kills, and was followed by Parks’ career-high 12 and Bray’s 11. First-year setter Isabela Haggard had a double-double with 34 assists and 11 digs.
“I was really proud of how [Parks and Haggard] played,” Ring told ESPN broadcasters after the match. “Emma really stepped up tonight and was taking those big swings that we were asking her to take all season and she put it all on her back.
“And Bela did a great job leading the offense. I knew she trusted me and trusted our team and we got the job done.”
The Golden Eagles will play the winner of No. 2 seed Louisville and Loyola Chicago Saturday at 5 p.m. CST.
This story was written by Matthew Baltz. He can be reached at matthew.baltz@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @MatthewBaltzMU.