In an identical manner to Friday, brooms and dustpans lined the floor of the Al McGuire Center after a quick three-set sweep.
But this time Marquette volleyball was on the wrong end of it.
Just two days after his first signature win as the head coach of the Golden Eagles, head coach Tom Mendoza and company welcomed in the 12th ranked Minnesota Gophers for a nationally-televised showdown.
After squandering an early chance to win the first set, the Golden Eagles either led or got close in each of the next two sets, but were ultimately unable to pull any of them out, getting swept (28-26, 25-21, 25-21).
“This is us needing to learn how to beat good teams in sets,” Mendoza said. “There’s times we’ve done it really well this year. Again, the scoreboard says 3-0, but if you look at each of those sets, I thought there were points where we could’ve closed out any of them.”
Anyone who was wondering if the Golden Eagles would have any type of a hangover from their big win Friday night quickly got their answer in the first set.
The blue & gold came out of the gates red hot, leading 12-7 after 19 points thanks to five kills from graduate middle blocker Hattie Bray and a .250 hitting percentage as a team. Minnesota head coach Keegan Cook called timeout as his team trailed 19-15. Through 34 points it still had looked as if Golden Eagles hadn’t missed a beat since Friday night as they were six points away from a fourth consecutive win against a top-15 team.
But the Gophers had other plans.
Marquette had three set point opportunities in the first set but was unable to win any of them. After Minnesota won back-to-back points earn a 27-26 advantage, first-year middle blocker Jordan Taylor and redshirt sophomore outside hitter Alex Acevedo teamed up to block Bray’s attack to give the Gophers a 28-26 set one victory.
“Maybe if we had won that we’d still be playing right now,” Mendoza said.
Bray (7) and Natalie Ring (6) were the only Golden Eagles with more than one kill in the set.
“That’s the challenge right, in any sport, if you’ve got a hitter or got someone that’s rolling, do you keep riding them? Ideally there’s a balance in between,” Mendoza said. “We obviously trust Hattie and Natalie and we want them getting a lot of swings. We also hope to be able to use them to open up and get our other hitters in rhythm.”
In the second frame of action, graduate outside hitter Elena Radeff and first-year outside hitter Emma Parks started to provide Ring and Bray with some secondary offensive support. The duo both scored a pair of kills early in the set to help Marquette go point-for-point with Minnesota.
Things were all knotted up at 14 before the Gophers really got going with 3-0 run to make it 17-14. From there, the Golden Eagles wouldn’t get any closer than within two points before Ring’s attack error and senior outside hitter Julia Hanson’s kill helped Minnesota escape set two victorious, 25-21.
“After 15 or 20 [points], they were a little bit more composed than we were, so credit to them,” Mendoza said. “We’ll learn from that, but I didn’t feel like there was anything glaring.”
The third set mirrored the first through 36 points as Marquette led 15-11.
Despite being down two sets in which they battled, the Golden Eagles continued to battle. It was to no avail though, as a 11-1 Minnesota run helped give the Gophers enough cushion to comfortably put the match away, their 10th win in a row.
Ring and Bray were the only two Marquette players to reach double-digit kills, killing 18 and 12 respectively. Hanson and Acevedo led the way for Minnesota, combining for 26 of the team’s 51 kills.
Marquette now turns its sights to the Big East portion of its schedule — which starts Friday night against Providence at the Al at 7 p.m. CST.
“I think we played good ball overall,” Mendoza said about the nonconference play. “We can compete with anybody, but we need to make sure we’re taking care of little things, or else, it’ll cost us.
“…I think we’re in a good spot heading into Big East.”
This story was written by Matthew Baltz. He can be reached at matthew.baltz@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @MatthewBaltzMU.