Marquette volleyball clinched a berth last weekend in the Big East Volleyball Championship with wins over Butler and Xavier.
The fourth-seeded Golden Eagles (17-9, 11-5 Big East) will square off with top-seeded Creighton (23-5, 16-0 Big East) on Saturday at noon CST inside the Al McGuire Center.
The Bluejays have won 10 of the last 11 Big East Championships, while the Golden Eagles haven’t won the tournament since 2013, the lone-time they did under former head coach Bond Shymansky.
Here are some notes heading into the tournament:
How has Marquette fared against Creighton this season?
The Golden Eagles hadn’t lost five or more conference games in the regular season since 2016. Marquette’s first and last Big East losses came to the Bluejays this fall, with stumbles to No. 2 seed Xavier, Georgetown and No. 3 seed Villanova coming in between.
Marquette was unable to eclipse the 20-point mark in a set in its home loss to Creighton on Oct. 2. Bluejays’ senior outside hitter Ava Martin stole the show, swinging .514 on 37 attempts en route to a 20-kill performance in the sweep of the Golden Eagles.
Marquette’s offense struggled in the loss, hitting just .200 to Creighton’s .410.
The blue & gold nearly shocked the volleyball world in their return trip to Creighton on Nov. 1. After getting clocked 25-11 in the first frame, Marquette rattled off consecutive set wins to take a 2-1 lead. However, the Bluejays locked in and won the final two frames to fend off the Golden Eagles’ upset bid.
Marquette’s offense — as it has been so many times this season — was led by the efforts of Natalie Ring. The senior outside hitter finished with 23 kills on a .224 hitting percentage. The Golden Eagles once again struggled to provide much resistance against Martin though, allowing the Big East player of the year candidate to hit .464 with 30 kills.
Marquette committed 14 service errors in eight sets against Creighton this season.
Creighton finished its second-straight undefeated season and locked up its 12th straight Big East regular season championship last weekend, hitting a school-record .551 against Seton Hall.
Can Marquette sneak in the NCAA Tournament with an at-large bid?
It was an up and down season for the Golden Eagles under first-year head coach Tom Mendoza.
There were moments of epic triumph, like when Marquette handed out sweeps to quality opponents Western Kentucky and Florida. But, there were also moments of disappointment, such as dropping a five-setter at home to Ball State, or losing to a Georgetown team that currently sits No. 129 in the NCAA’s RPI rankings.
Marquette dealt with its fair share of growing pains this season, not being able to close out matches during the first month and going to five sets in four of its first five games.
Then, came the serve line inconsistencies — both while serving and in serve-receive.
The Golden Eagles suffered their three worst serve-receive games of the season in Big East play, giving up 15 and nine aces respectively to Villanova and Georgetown on back-to-back nights, and then another nine to Xavier on Sunday. And when Marquette was behind the line, it posted 10 or more service errors nine times in the regular season. In comparison, last year’s Sweet 16 team only did that six times in 34 games.
The Golden Eagles also went quiet at the net for portions of the season, having four or less total blocks as a team in seven contests.
Despite all the regular season deficiencies, Marquette still finds itself with a chance to make its 14th consecutive NCAA Tournament. ESPN women’s volleyball bracketologist Charlie Creme has Marquette in the ‘last four in’ portion of his latest bracketology prediction.
Marquette sits at No. 33 in the latest NCAA RPI rankings.
The winner of Marquette-Creighton will play the winner of Xavier-Villanova on Sunday at 2:00 p.m. CST in the championship game. All matches will be played at the Al McGuire Center.
This story was written by Matthew Baltz. He can be reached at matthew.baltz@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @MatthewBaltzMU.